When it comes to long jumping, speed is critical. You do need to master the other aspects of the jump. However, if you want to give yourself the best chance of jumping far, you need to reach your top speed by the time you get to the board.
To give you an idea about how fast you need to be, we have shared some of the details in the table below with long jumpers best 100m times and their furthest distance.
Skip to section.
Mike Powell
100m – 10.45 seconds
Long Jump – 8.95m (world record). Also 8.99m wind assisted.
Carl Lewis
100m – 9.86 seconds
Long Jump – 8.87m (8.91 wind assisted)
Bob Beamon
100m – No official record.
Long Jump – 8.90m
Ivan Pedroso
100m – Unavailable
Long Jump – 8.71m (official) 8.96m (Unofficial with a 1.6m reading)
Dwight Phillips
100m – 10.06 seconds
Long Jump – 8.74m
60m – 6.47 seconds
200m – 20.68 seconds
50m – 5.70 seconds
Greg Rutherford
100m – 10.26 seconds
Long Jump – 8.51m
60m – 6.68 seconds
You can use these as benchmarks for the type of speed that you need to have and the jumping distance that you want to achieve.
Choose your long jump weakness!
What are your long jumping goals?
- I want to be the best long jumper at school?
- I want to be the best long jumper in my state?
- I want to be the best long jumper in my country!
What do you struggle with when doing triple jump?
Don’t have enough energy to train or compete?
What long jump spikes should you buy?