Dwight Phillips of the United States completed a hat-trick of global long jump titles when he crushed the field with his opening leap in tonight’s final to win Olympic gold.
The 2003 world champion set the standard with his first jump of 8.59 metres. It was one centimetre off his best and 28 cm better than anyone else in the world has produced for four years.
He registered only one more jump, 8.35 in the final round, by which time the gold medal was already his.
John Moffitt made it an American one-two when he improved his personal best by 18 cm with a fifth-round leap of 8.47 while Spain’s Joan Lino Martinez got bronze with 8.32, also a personal best.
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Britain’s Chris Tomlinson had to settle for fifth place despite his second longest jump ever.
Last of the 12 finalists to jump in the opening round, Tomlinson soared out to 8.25m, just two centimetres short of his own British record.
That put him in silver medal position but the 22-year-old from Middlesbrough was pushed down to fourth by Spain’s Joan Lino Martinez and American John Moffitt in the second round, where he could only manage 8.04m.
Tomlinson knew after the third round he would have to break his own British record to get into the medals, and his task became tougher still when Jamaica’s James Beckford jumped 8.31m in the fourth round.
That pushed him down to fifth place although that was still the best performance by a Briton since Lynn Davies won gold in Tokyo in 1964.
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The British team has reportedly lodged a protest about Martinez’s second round jump of 8.32m, which looked to have earned him the bronze.