Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's long jump

Men's long jump at the Games of the XXX Olympiad
250px Podium
Venue	Olympic Stadium
Date	3–4 August
Competitors	42 from 35 nations
Winning distance	8.31
Medalists
Greg Rutherford  Great Britain Mitchell Watt  Australia Will Claye  United States

Official Video Highlights

Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Track events
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
400 m		men		women
800 m		men		women
1500 m		men		women
5000 m		men		women
10,000 m		men		women
100 m hurdles				women
110 m hurdles		men
400 m hurdles		men		women
3000 m steeplechase		men		women
4×100 m relay		men		women
4×400 m relay		men		women
Road events
Marathon		men		women
20 km walk		men		women
50 km walk		men
Field events
Long jump		men		women
Triple jump		men		women
High jump		men		women
Pole vault		men		women
Shot put		men		women
Discus throw		men		women
Javelin throw		men		women
Hammer throw		men		women
Combined events
Heptathlon				women
Decathlon		men

The men's long jump competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom was held at the Olympic Stadium on 3–4 August.

Only two athletes achieved automatic qualifying marks, both of those by Marquise Goodwin and Mauro Vinicius da Silva just one centimeter over the minimum at 8.11. The tight field was spread over less than 20 cm. It took a better second jump at 7.92 to make the final, leaving Russian junior and co-world leader Sergey Morgunov on the outside. Defending champion Irving Saladino was unable to get a legal jump in, failing to advance.

In the final, none of the top 3 qualifiers were to play a factor. Christopher Tomlinson took the lead in the first round with an 8.06 with Will Claye in second. In the second round, Greg Rutherford took the lead with an 8.21, while Claye jumped a centimeter better than Tomlinson, to hold on to second. Claye's mark was equaled by Michel Tornéus in the third round. The fourth round was when all but two of the finalists hit their best mark, Claye with 8.12 and Rutherford extending his lead to 8.31. Languishing in seventh to that point, Mitchell Watt did Claye one centimeter better in the fifth round, then improving another three centimeters on his final jump to solidify his hold on the silver medal.

Rutherford's gold medal was the second of three gold medals in one evening for the host country, their most successful day in Olympic history. Rutherford's winning jump of 8.31 was the shortest jump to win the Olympics men's long jump competition since the 1972 Summer Olympics.

Competition format

The competition consisted of two rounds, qualification and final. In qualification, each athlete jumped three times (stopping early if they made the qualifying distance). At least the top twelve athletes moved on to the final; if more than twelve reached the qualifying distance, all who did so advanced. Distances were reset for the final round. Finalists jumped three times, after which the eight best jumped three more times (with the best distance of the six jumps counted).

Schedule

All times are British Summer Time (UTC+1)

Date	Time	Round
Friday, 3 August 2012	19:50	Qualifications
Saturday, 4 August 2012	19:55	Finals

Records

Prior to the competition, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Mike Powell (USA)	8.95 m	Tokyo, Japan	30 August 1991
Olympic record	Bob Beamon (USA)	8.90 m	Mexico City, Mexico	18 October 1968
2012 World leading	Greg Rutherford (GBR)	8.35 m	Chula Vista, United States	3 May 2012
	Sergey Morgunov (RUS)		Cheboksary, Russia	20 June 2012

Results

Qualifying Round

Qual. rule: qualification standard 8.10m (Q) or at least best 12 qualified (q).

Rank	Group	Name	Nationality	#1	#2	#3	Result	Notes
1	B	Mauro Vinicius da Silva	Brazil	8.07	8.11	-	8.11	Q
2	A	Marquise Goodwin	United States	8.11	-	-	8.11	Q
3	A	Aleksandr Menkov	Russia	7.87	x	8.09	8.09	q
4	A	Greg Rutherford	Great Britain	8.08	8.06	-	8.08	q
5	B	Christopher Tomlinson	Great Britain	7.62	8.06	-	8.06	q
6	A	Michel Tornéus	Sweden	8.03	7.49	-	8.03	q
7	A	Godfrey Khotso Mokoena	South Africa	x	7.81	8.02	8.02	q
8	A	Will Claye	United States	7.99	x	7.86	7.99	q
9	B	Mitchell Watt	Australia	x	7.99	-	7.99	q
10	A	Tyrone Smith	Bermuda	7.73	7.75	7.97	7.97	q, SB
11	A	Henry Frayne	Australia	7.82	x	7.95	7.95	q
12	B	Sebastian Bayer	Germany	7.92	7.88	3.96	7.92	q
13	A	Christian Reif	Germany	7.81	x	7.92	7.92
14	A	Eusebio Cáceres	Spain	7.25	7.92	6.95	7.92
15	B	Aleksandr Petrov	Russia	7.67	7.57	7.89	7.89
16	B	Sergey Morgunov	Russia	x	7.87	x	7.87
17	A	Mohammad Arzandeh	Iran	7.77	7.75	7.84	7.84
18	B	Ignisious Gaisah	Ghana	7.72	7.79	7.50	7.79
19	A	Damar Forbes	Jamaica	7.79	x	7.48	7.79
20	B	Li Jinzhe	China	7.59	7.67	7.77	7.77
21	B	Raymond Higgs	Bahamas	x	7.76	x	7.76
22	A	Alyn Camara	Germany	7.72	x	7.69	7.72
23	A	Salim Sdiri	France	7.71	7.58	5.75	7.71
24	B	Ndiss Kaba Badji	Senegal	7.66	x	7.64	7.66
25	B	Arsen Sargsyan	Armenia	7.38	7.62	7.60	7.62
26	B	Povilas Mykolaitis	Lithuania	x	x	7.61	7.61
27	B	Stanley Gbagbeke	Nigeria	x	5.71	7.59	7.59
28	B	Marcos Chuva	Portugal	x	7.55	7.06	7.55
29	A	Loúis Tsátoumas	Greece	7.53	7.48	x	7.53
30	A	Štepán Wagner	Czech Republic	7.39	7.50	7.47	7.50
31	B	Viktor Kuznyetsov	Ukraine	7.43	x	7.50	7.50
32	B	Luis Rivera	Mexico	7.42	x	7.29	7.42
33	A	Lin Ching-Hsuan	Chinese Taipei	7.38	7.35	x	7.38
34	A	Supanara Sukhasvasti	Thailand	7.38	x	7.35	7.38
35	A	Boleslav Skhirtladze	Georgia	7.26	6.95	6.90	7.26
36	A	Zhang Xiaoyi	China	7.25	x	x	7.25
37	B	Mohamed Fathalla Difallah	Egypt	x	7.08	x	7.08
38	B	Roman Novotný	Czech Republic	x	6.96	x	6.96
39	B	George Kitchens	United States	x	x	6.84	6.84
40	A	Vardan Pahlevanyan	Armenia	x	6.55	x	6.55
N/A	B	Luis Felipe Méliz	Spain	x			NM
N/A	B	Irving Saladino	Panama	x	x	x	NM

Final

File:Greg Rutherford's distance after his gold-medal-winning jump (crop).jpg

250px

Rank	Athlete	Nationality	1	2	3	4	5	6	Result	Notes
	Greg Rutherford	Great Britain	6.28	8.21	8.14	8.31	x	6.33	8.31
	Mitchell Watt	Australia	x	7.97	x	x	8.13	8.16	8.16
	Will Claye	United States	7.98	8.07	7.93	8.12	7.96	x	8.12
4	Michel Tornéus	Sweden	7.63	7.80	8.07	8.11	8.07	7.98	8.11
5	Sebastian Bayer	Germany	7.87	x	7.96	8.10	7.96	7.98	8.10
6	Christopher Tomlinson	Great Britain	8.06	7.87	7.83	8.07	7.74	7.76	8.07
7	Mauro Vinicius da Silva	Brazil	x	x	7.96	8.01	x	x	8.01
8	Godfrey Khotso Mokoena	South Africa	7.93	x	7.62	x	x	x	7.93
9	Henry Frayne	Australia	7.85	x	7.63				7.85
10	Marquise Goodwin	United States	x	7.80	7.76				7.80
11	Aleksandr Menkov	Russia	x	x	7.78				7.78
12	Tyrone Smith	Bermuda	7.70	x	x				7.70