High jump

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the athletic event, High Jump. For the film directed by Mani Ratnam which was tentatively titled High Jump, see Lajjo.

The high jump is an athletics (track and field) event in which competitors must jump over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without aid of any devices. It has been contested since the Olympic Games of ancient Greece. Over the centuries since, competitors have introduced increasingly more effective techniques to arrive at the current form. Javier Sotomayor is both the indoor and outdoor world record holder in this event with jumps of 2.43m (7 feet 11½ inches) and 2.45m (8 feet ½ inch), respectively.

trtyru7u8

1 Procedures and rules
2 Current status
3 Top performers
4 See also
5 References

[edit] Procedures and rules

In a competition, the bar is initially set at a relatively low height, and is moved upward in set increments (usually 3 or 5 centimetres, approximately 2 inches, but can be as little as 1 cm for record attempts). Each competitor has the option of choosing at which height they wish to start, as long as the height is greater than the designated starting height for that competition. The starting height is usually determined by the games committee for the competition.

Once a competitor has elected to begin, they receive three attempts at each height and once they clear a height, they are cleared until the next height. Competitors can choose whether or not to attempt subsequent heights. A competitor may choose to pass at a given height or, after failing to clear the bar at a given height, may "pass" on subsequent attempts at that height. Any competitor who records three consecutive misses is out of the competition. The competitor who clears the highest jump is declared the winner. If two or more competitors clear the same maximum height, the competitor with the least number of failed attempts at the best height cleared wins. If these are equal, the winner is the person who has had the least number of failures overall during the competition. If that fails to break a tie for first place, a jump off is conducted.

In a jump off, competitors are given 1 additional attempt at the last height attempted. If one of the competitors clears the height, they are considered the winner. If both competitors clear the height, the bar is moved up by 1 inch and the process is completed. If both competitors fail the height the bar is move back down 1 inch. This process is repeated until one competitor clears a height and the other fails. If the final height of the jump off is less than the highest height cleared during regular competition, the highest height cleared during the competition will be recorded for the results. Heights obtained in such a jump off are eligible for records.

Image:Mens high jump world record progression.jpg

The modern high jump bar is made of glass-reinforced plastic or aluminum. Other materials are allowed, but there are weight and sag restrictions. The bar is approximately 4 metres in length (IAAF rules control length for record purposes), with a round, triangular, or square cross-section for most of its length, and two square resting points at each end. It is placed at a measured height on two uprights, or standards, which allow the bar to rest on its ends at a measured height. Cleared heights are reported by measuring from the take-off point to the top edge of the lowest part of the bar. Directly behind the bar is a soft foam mat that allows for a safe landing. Competitors must jump off one foot to clear the bar. Although they may touch the bar in their clearance, the jump is ruled unsuccessful if the bar falls. There are rare instances when competitors have been allowed to retry an attempt where the bar has fallen. This can only happen if the official declares that the bar fell due to other external circumstances, such as wind.

[edit] Current status

At all but novice levels of competition, or where built-up landing areas are not available, the Fosbury Flop is now almost universally used, although Guernsey athlete Dale Garland used the straddle when placing fifth in the decathlon at the 2006 Commonwealth Games. The current men's world record of 2.45 m (8'0-1/2") was set in 1993 by Cuba's Javier Sotomayor, while the women's world record holder is Stefka Kostadinova of Bulgaria. In the 2004 Olympics, Sweden's Stefan Holm won the men's gold medal at 2.36 meters, and Russia's Yelena Slesarenko outjumped two-time world champion Hestrie Cloete to win the women's title. Holm, at 1.81 m tall, equaled Franklin Jacobs' height-over-head record of 59 cm when he cleared 2.40 m (7'10-1/2") to win the European Indoor championships in March 2005.http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=High_jump&action=edit&section=3#

[edit] Top performers

as of 20 July 2006

[edit] Men (outdoor)

Mark	Athlete	Nationality	Venue	Date
2.45	Javier Sotomayor	Image:Flag of Cuba.svg Cuba	Salamanca	July 27, 1993
2.42	Patrik Sjöberg	Image:Flag of Sweden.svg Sweden	Stockholm	June 30, 1987
2.41	Igor Paklin	Image:Flag of the Soviet Union.svg USSR / Image:Flag of Kyrgyzstan.svg Kyrgyzstan	Kobe	September 4, 1985
2.40	Rudolf Povarnitsyn	Image:Flag of the Soviet Union.svg USSR / Image:Flag of Ukraine.svg Ukraine	Donetsk	August 11, 1985
2.40	Sorin Matei	Romania	Bratislava	June 20, 1990
2.40	Charles Austin	Image:Flag of the United States.svg United States	Zurich	August 7, 1991
2.40	Vyacheslav Voronin	Image:Flag of Russia (bordered).svg Russia	London	August 5, 2000
2.39	Jianhua Zhu	Image:Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg China	Eberstadt	June 10, 1984
2.39	Hollis Conway	Image:Flag of the United States.svg United States	Norman	July 30, 1989
2.38	Seven athletes (Avdeyenko, Malchenko, Topic, Kemp, Partyka, Freitag, Sokolovskyy)	-	-	-

[edit] Women (outdoor)

Mark	Athlete	Nationality	Venue	Date
2.09	Stefka Kostadinova	Image:Flag of Bulgaria (bordered).svg Bulgaria	Rome	August 30, 1987
2.07	Lyudmila Andonova	Image:Flag of Bulgaria (bordered).svg Bulgaria	Berlin	July 20, 1984
2.06	Kajsa Bergqvist	Image:Flag of Sweden.svg Sweden	Eberstadt	July 26, 2003
2.06	Hestrie Cloete	Image:Flag of South Africa.svg South Africa	Paris	August 31, 2003
2.06	Yelena Slesarenko	Image:Flag of Russia (bordered).svg Russia	Athens	August 28, 2004
2.05	Tamara Bykova	Image:Flag of the Soviet Union.svg USSR / Image:Flag of Russia (bordered).svg Russia	Kiev	June 22, 1984
2.05	Heike Henkel	Image:Flag of Germany.svg Germany	Tokyo	August 31, 1991
2.05	Inha Babakova	Image:Flag of the Soviet Union.svg USSR / Image:Flag of Ukraine.svg Ukraine	Tokyo	September 15, 1995
2.04	Silvia Costa	Image:Flag of Cuba.svg Cuba	Barcelona	September 9, 1989
2.04	Venelina Veneva	Image:Flag of Bulgaria (bordered).svg Bulgaria	Kalamata	June 2, 2001

[edit] Men (indoor)

Mark	Athlete	Nationality	Venue	Date
2.43	Javier Sotomayor	Image:Flag of Cuba.svg Cuba	Budapest	4 March 1989
2.42	Carlo Thränhardt	Image:Flag of Germany.svg West Germany	Berlin	26 February 1988
2.41	Patrik Sjöberg	Image:Flag of Sweden.svg Sweden	Piraeus	1 February 1987
2.40	Hollis Conway	Image:Flag of the United States.svg United States	Seville	10 March 1991
2.40	Stefan Holm	Image:Flag of Sweden.svg Sweden	Madrid	6 March 2005
2.39	Dietmar Mögenburg	Image:Flag of Germany.svg West Germany	Cologne	24 February 1985
2.39	Ralf Sonn	Image:Flag of Germany.svg Germany	Berlin	1 March 1991
2.38	Seven athletes (Paklin, Avdeyenko, Smith, Beyer, Matei, Hemingway, Rybakov)	-	-	-

[edit] Women (indoor)

Mark	Athlete	Nationality	Venue	Date
2.08	Kajsa Bergqvist	Image:Flag of Sweden.svg Sweden	Arnstadt	4 February 2006
2.07	Heike Henkel	Image:Flag of Germany.svg Germany	Karlsruhe	8 February 1992
2.06	Stefka Kostadinova	Image:Flag of Bulgaria (bordered).svg Bulgaria	Piraeus	20 February 1988
2.05	Blanka Vlašić	Image:Flag of Croatia.svg Croatia	Banská Bystrica	14 February 2006
2.04	Alina Astafei	Image:Flag of Germany.svg Germany	Berlin	3 March 1995
2.04	Anna Chicherova	Image:Flag of Russia (bordered).svg Russia	Yekaterinburg	7 February 2003
2.04	Yelena Slesarenko	Image:Flag of Russia (bordered).svg Russia	Budapest	7 March 2004
2.03	Tamara Bykova	Image:Flag of the Soviet Union.svg USSR	Budapest	6 March 1983
2.03	Monica Iagar	Romania	Bucharest	23 January 1999
2.03	Marina Kuptsova	Image:Flag of Russia (bordered).svg Russia	Vienna	2 March 2002