Athletics at the 1996 Summer Olympics – Men's triple jump

Men's triple jump at the Games of the XXVI Olympiad
Pictogram for athletics
Venue	Centennial Olympic Stadium
Date	26 July 1996 (qualifications) 27 July 1996 (finals)
Competitors	43 from 32 nations
Winning distance	18.09 OR
Medalists
Kenny Harrison  United States Jonathan Edwards  Great Britain Yoelbi Quesada  Cuba

The final of the men's triple jump event at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia was held on July 27, 1996. There were 43 participating athletes from 32 nations, with two qualifying groups. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The top twelve and ties, and all those reaching 17.00 metres advanced to the final. The qualification round was held on July 26, 1996. The event was won by Kenny Harrison of the United States, the nation's second consecutive and sixth overall victory in the men's triple jump. Jonathan Edwards's silver was Great Britain's first medal in the event since 1984; Yoelbi Quesada's bronze was Cuba's first men's triple jump medal ever.

Summary

Coming into the competition, Jonathan Edwards was the only man to have jumped 18 metres, from his remarkable back to back world records at the world championships a year earlier and backing it up with another 18 metre jump in London a few weeks later. At age 30, he was the youngest of the major contenders; defending champion Mike Conley was already 33, and former world champion Kenny Harrison was 31 and coming back from a serious knee injury. Edwards did not look that good in qualifying, unable to make the automatic qualifying mark in two attempts, while Harrison, Conley, Yoelbi Quesada, Brian Wellman and Galin Georgiev did.

In the final, on his first attempt Edwards looked a lot better, his first attempt landing well past the 18 metre mark and approaching his world record. Exiting the pit, he saw the red flag. A few jumpers later, Harrison became the second best jumper in history with a 17.99, adding more than a foot to the Olympic record. On his second attempt, Edwards put another jump deep into the pit and again saw the red flag. Now Edwards was faced with the prospect of getting nothing if he could not land his next jump in the top eight. His next time down the runway was much more careful and controlled, making a far less secure 17.13, which at the moment put him in third place, but was well within the ability of most of the jumpers who followed him in the order. Again following Edwards, Harrison jumped 18.09 m (59 ft 4 in) to become the second man over 18 metres. More impressive, it was into a -0.4 mp/s wind, which remains the longest jump ever into a negative wind. Edwards survived in third behind Quesada. On his next jump he was able to let loose and hit 17.88, an outstanding jump for anybody else in any other competition, but that left him 21 cm behind in second place. In the same round Quesada improved to 17.44 and Conley to 17.40. On his fifth attempt, Edwards soared to within inches of the world record marker, but got another red flag. Having earned the last jump, Harrison passed to rest for one final attempt, if needed. On his final attempt Edwards boomed another one close to the world record, but the red flag ended his evening with Harrison taking the gold. Neither Quesada or Conley improved their position in their last jumps, also fouling both attempts, so Quesada held on to bronze.

Background

This was the 23rd appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. The returning finalists from the 1992 Games were gold medalist Mike Conley Sr. of the United States, bronze medalist Frank Rutherford of the Bahamas, fifth-place finisher Brian Wellman of Bermuda, sixth-place finisher Yoelbi Quesada of Cuba, eighth-place finisher Zou Sixin of China, ninth-place finisher Vasiliy Sokov of the Unified Team (now representing Russia), and tenth-place finisher Māris Bružiks of Latvia (who did not start in Atlanta). Jonathan Edwards of Great Britain was the world champion and world record holder, the only man yet to jump over 18 metres. Americans Conley and Kenny Harrison and Cubans Quesada and Aliecer Urrutia joined Edwards in the top tier of contenders.

Armenia, Azerbaijan, Dominica, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Russia, Tunisia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan each made their first appearance in the event. The United States competed for the 22nd time, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Competition format

The competition used the two-round format introduced in 1936. In the qualifying round, each jumper received three attempts to reach the qualifying distance of 17.00 metres; if fewer than 12 men did so, the top 12 (including all those tied) would advance. In the final round, each athlete had three jumps; the top eight received an additional three jumps, with the best of the six to count.

Records

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

World record	Jonathan Edwards (GBR)	18.29	Gothenburg, Sweden	7 August 1995
Olympic record	Mike Conley Sr. (USA)	17.63	Barcelona, Spain	3 August 1992

Kenny Harrison jumped 17.99 metres in the first round of the final, breaking the Olympic record. He extended his new record further with his fourth jump, reaching 18.09 metres. Jonathan Edwards also beat the old Olympic record, though his 17.88 metres came after Harrison's first effort.

Schedule

All times are Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-4)

Date	Time	Round
Friday, 26 July 1996	18:10	Qualifying
Saturday, 27 July 1996	19:00	Final

Results

Qualifying

Qualification Rules: Qualifying performance 17.00 (Q) or at least 12 best performers (q) advance to the Final.

Rank	Group	Athlete	Nation	1	2	3	Distance	Notes
1	A	Kenny Harrison	United States	17.58	—	—	17.58	Q
2	B	Mike Conley Sr.	United States	17.20	—	—	17.20	Q
3	A	Yoelbi Quesada	Cuba	17.19	—	—	17.19	Q
4	A	Brian Wellman	Bermuda	17.10	—	—	17.10	Q
5	B	Galin Georgiev	Bulgaria	17.02	—	—	17.02	Q
6	B	Jonathan Edwards	Great Britain	16.93	16.96	—	16.96	q
7	A	Robert Howard	United States	16.83	16.76	16.92	16.92	q
8	B	Volodymyr Kravchenko	Ukraine	16.71	16.90	X	16.90	q
9	A	Viktor Sotnikov	Russia	16.86	X	16.19	16.86	q
10	A	Jérôme Romain	Dominica	16.80	X	X	16.80	q
11	B	Armen Martirosyan	Armenia	15.71	16.68	16.74	16.74	q
12	A	Frank Rutherford	Bahamas	X	16.38	16.73	16.73	q
13	A	Francis Agyepong	Great Britain	16.71	16.68	X	16.71
14	B	Charles Friedek	Germany	X	16.71	16.58	16.71
15	B	Aliecer Urrutia	Cuba	16.71	16.54	X	16.71
16	B	Vasiliy Sokov	Russia	X	16.68	X	16.68
17	B	Rogel Nachum	Israel	15.86	16.67	16.53	16.67
18	A	Anísio Silva	Brazil	16.38	16.67	16.08	16.67
19	A	Carlos Calado	Portugal	16.43	16.65	X	16.65
20	B	Yoel García	Cuba	15.94	X	16.62	16.62
21	B	Zou Sixin	China	16.13	16.44	16.53	16.53
22	B	Messias José Baptista	Brazil	16.02	16.45	16.13	16.45
23	B	Audrius Raizgys	Lithuania	16.38	X	16.06	16.38
24	B	Zsolt Czingler	Hungary	16.22	16.35	X	16.35
25	B	Salem Al-Ahmadi	Saudi Arabia	X	15.97	16.30	16.30
26	B	Francis Dodoo	Ghana	X	X	16.24	16.24
27	A	Vasif Asadov	Azerbaijan	X	X	16.21	16.21
28	A	Jacob Katonon	Kenya	16.08	16.17	X	16.17
29	A	Stoyko Tsonov	Bulgaria	16.00	16.15	X	16.15
30	B	Sigurd Njerve	Norway	15.22	X	16.15	16.15
31	B	Aleksey Fatyanov	Azerbaijan	16.14	X	16.13	16.14
32	B	Igor Sautkin	Russia	X	X	16.06	16.06
33	A	Tibor Ordina	Hungary	16.04	X	X	16.04
34	A	Andrew Murphy	Australia	15.97	X	16.00	16.00
35	A	Festus Igbinoghene	Nigeria	15.95	X	15.72	15.95
36	A	Sergey Arzamasov	Kazakhstan	15.91	X	—	15.91
37	A	Maksim Smetanin	Kyrgyzstan	15.83	15.90	X	15.90
38	B	Yevgeniy Petin	Uzbekistan	X	15.58	15.89	15.89
39	B	Paul Nioze	Seychelles	15.63	15.43	X	15.63
40	B	Kawan Lovelace	Belize	15.40	X	14.97	15.40
41	A	Hussain Jasim	Iraq	15.19	15.27	X	15.27
42	A	Ndabazinhle Mdhlongwa	Zimbabwe	14.47	X	X	14.47
43	A	Karim Sassi	Tunisia	X	X	14.25	14.25
—	A	Māris Bružiks	Latvia				DNS

Final

Rank	Athlete	Nation	1	2	3	4	5	6	Distance	Notes
	Kenny Harrison	United States	17.99 OR	X	—	18.09 OR	—	X	18.09	OR
	Jonathan Edwards	Great Britain	X	X	17.13	17.88	X	X	17.88
	Yoelbi Quesada	Cuba	17.04	17.29	X	17.44	X	X	17.44
4	Mike Conley Sr.	United States	17.08	X	16.17	17.40	X	X	17.40
5	Armen Martirosyan	Armenia	16.85	X	16.97	16.48	X	16.34	16.97
6	Brian Wellman	Bermuda	16.95	X	16.82	X	X	X	16.95
7	Galin Georgiev	Bulgaria	16.85	X	X	X	X	16.92	16.92
8	Robert Howard	United States	16.72	16.83	16.90	X	16.44	16.52	16.90
9	Viktor Sotnikov	Russia	16.84	16.53	16.56	Did not advance			16.84
10	Volodymyr Kravchenko	Ukraine	16.35	15.92	16.62	Did not advance			16.62
11	Frank Rutherford	Bahamas	16.38	X	16.36	Did not advance			16.38
—	Jérôme Romain	Dominica	X	—	—	Did not advance			No mark

See also

• 1995 World Championships Men's Triple Jump
• 1997 World Championships Men's Triple Jump

External links

• Official Report
• Results