The men's triple jump event at the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...

Seoul, South Korea Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 o ...

had an entry list of 45 competitors, with 43 athletes from 31 nations starting in two qualifying groups (43 jumpers) before the final (12) took place on Saturday September 24, 1988. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by

Khristo Markov Khristo Ganchev Markov ( bg, Христо Ганчев Мaрков; born 27 January 1965, in Dimitrovgrad) is a former triple jumper from Bulgaria, best known for becoming Olympic champion in 1988. He also won the European and world championships ...

of Bulgaria, the nation's first medal and victory in the men's triple jump. Igor Lapshin and Aleksandr Kovalenko of the Soviet Union took silver and bronze in an event that the Soviets had reached the podium eight consecutive Games before the 1984 boycott.

Background

This was the 21st appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. The returning finalists from the 1984 Games were sixth-place finisher Willie Banks of the United States, ninth-place finisher

Joseph Taiwo Joseph Taiwo (born 24 August 1959) is a retired Nigerian athlete who competed in the triple jump. His personal best was 17.22 metres, achieved in June 1988 in Bauchi. This ranks him second among Nigerian triple jumpers, behind Ajayi Agbebaku, a ...

of Nigeria, and tenth-place finisher John Herbert of Great Britain. Banks had broken the world record in 1985, but "was no longer at his best in 1988." The favorite was

of Bulgaria, the 1987 World and 1986 European champion. The Soviet team, which had dominated the event before the 1984 boycott, also had three strong contenders. Algeria, Angola, Belize, Bermuda, Cyprus, Ecuador, Kuwait, Libya, Mozambique, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines each made their first appearance in the event; the Republic of China made its first appearance as Chinese Taipei. The United States competed for the 20th 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 16.90 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.Official Report, vol. 2, p. 243.

Records

Prior to the competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows. Aleksandr Kovalenko broke the Olympic record with his first jump in the final round, at 17.42 metres. This lasted only until

's first jump (Kovalenko jumped sixth, Markov jumped tenth) of 17.61 metres, which held up as the gold medal winning jump and new Olympic record. Kovalenko's second jump (17.40 metres) and Igor Lapshin's sixth jump (17.52 metres) also surpassed the old Olympic record.

Schedule

All times are Korea Standard Time adjusted for daylight savings (

UTC+10 UTC+10:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +10:00. This time is used in: As standard time (year-round) ''Principal cities: Brisbane, Gold Coast, Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, Port Moresby, Dededo, Saipan'' North Asia *Russia – ...

)

Results

Qualifying

Final

References

External links

*
Official Report
{{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics at the 1988 Summer Olympics - Men's triple jump T Triple jump at the Olympics Men's events at the 1988 Summer Olympics