The men's

long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...

at the

2008 Olympic Games The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

took place on 16 and 18 August at the

Beijing Olympic Stadium The National Stadium (), also known as the Bird's Nest (), is an 80,000-capacity stadium in Beijing. The stadium was jointly designed by architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron from Basel-based architecture team Herzog & de Meuron, pr ...

. Thirty-eight athletes from 32 nations competed. The event was won by

Irving Saladino Irving Jahir Saladino Aranda (born January 23, 1983) is a Panamanian former long jumper. He was Olympic champion, having won at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and is Panama's first and only Olympic gold medalist. He was world champion in the long j ...

of Panama, the nation's first Olympic gold medal in any event and its first medal the men's long jump. South Africa also won its first men's long jump medal, with

Khotso Mokoena Godfrey Khotso Mokoena (born 6 March 1985 in Heidelberg, South Africa) is a South African athlete who specializes in the long jump and triple jump. Early life and family He started his school education at Shalimar Ridge Primary School in Heide ...

's silver. Ibrahim Camejo's bronze was Cuba's first medal in the event since 2000. This event marked the first time that an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

did not classify to the final phase in a non-boycotted Olympic competition.

Background

This was the 26th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. The returning finalists from the 2004 Games were fifth-place finisher

Chris Tomlinson Christopher George Tomlinson (born 15 September 1981) is a retired English long jumper. He is the former British long jump record holder and competed at the Olympics of 2004, 2008 and 2012. Career Born in Middlesbrough, Tomlinson began compet ...

of Great Britain and twelfth-place finisher

Salim Sdiri Salim Sdiri (born 26 October 1978) is a French long jumper of Tunisian descent. His personal best is 8.42 metres, achieved in June 2009 at Pierre-Bénite, which is the current French national record. He is also the French national record holder ...

of France.

Dwight Phillips Dwight Phillips (born October 1, 1977) is an American former track and field, athlete and a four-time IAAF World Championships in Athletics, world champion in the long jump. He was the 2004 Summer Olympics, 2004 Olympic champion in the event. Hi ...

, the reigning gold medalist who had won two world championships (2003, 2005) and would win two more later (2009, 2011) and finished third at the most recent championships, placed fourth in the U.S. Olympic trials and missed the team. The reigning world champion,

of Panama, was the favorite in Beijing. Bermuda made its first appearance in the event. The United States appeared for the 25th time, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Qualification

The qualifying standards were 8.20 m (26.9 ft) (A standard) and 8.05 m (26.41 ft) (B standard). Each

National Olympic Committee A National Olympic Committee (NOC) is a national constituent of the worldwide Olympic movement. Subject to the controls of the International Olympic Committee, NOCs are responsible for organizing their people's participation in the Olympic Games ...

(NOC) was able to enter up to three entrants providing they had met the A qualifying standard in the qualifying period (1 January 2007 to 23 July 2008). NOCs were also permitted to enter one athlete providing he had met the B standard in the same qualifying period. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress.

Competition format

The 2008 competition used the two-round format with divided final introduced in 1952. The qualifying round gave each competitor three jumps to achieve a distance of 8.15 metres; if fewer than 12 men did so, the top 12 (including all those tied) would advance. The final provided each jumper with three jumps; the top eight jumpers received an additional three jumps for a total of six, with the best to count (qualifying round jumps were not considered for the final).Official Report, Results Book for Athletics.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows. No new world or Olympic records were set for this event.

Schedule

All times are

China Standard Time The time in China follows a single standard time offset of UTC+08:00 (eight hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time), even though the country spans almost five geographical time zones. The official national standard time is called ''Beijing Tim ...

(

UTC+8 UTC+08:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +08:00. With an estimated population of 1.708 billion living within the time zone, roughly 24% of the world population, it is the most populous time zone in the world, as well as a ...

)

Results

Qualifying

Qualifying Performance 8.15 (Q) or at least 12 best performers (q) advance to the Final.

Final

The final was held on 18 August 2008. Martínez was disqualified.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics at the 2008 Summer Olympics - Men's long jump Athletics at the 2008 Summer Olympics Long jump at the Olympics Men's events at the 2008 Summer Olympics