Carl Lewis inspired my record leap, says Powell
KOLKATA: It isn’t easy to move on if you have jumped the farthest in history. So, over 26 years after mankind’s biggest leap, Mike Powell seems to have accepted that the past would meld into his future. An interaction punctuated by full-throated laughter seemed to confirm that.
“It is hard to find something that brings as much joy. And as much as you want to leave it behind, people won’t let you. It’s good because you get to share a great moment in sports history but bad because it makes it very hard to move on,” Powell, 54, said here on Thursday evening.
Powell, international brand ambassador for Sunday’s Tata Steel Kolkata 25k run, then slipped back in time with ease. “The confidence and focus I showed that night (in Tokyo in 1991) is the moment I am most proud of,” he said, referring to the 8.95m leap that broke Bob Beamon’s 23-year-old world record (8.90m) and hasn’t been bettered since.
Carl Lewis had just gone 8.91m; not a world record because it was wind-aided, Powell pointed out.
“That was the farthest jump in history but not for a millisecond did I doubt that I would pass that in my next jump. Because that night, I knew I was gonna go far if I got my run together. I had thought my second was some 8.25 but they said it was 8.54. Then Carl got 8.91m and he helped me focus. He was like the rabbit (pace-setter) in a middledistance race. That night, Carl was my rabbit. Have never been so focused in my life.”
In a sport with a high difficulty quotient, one of the reasons why the record stands is, “because it is far.” “And also because Carl inspired top athletes, who could have long jumpers, to become sprinters. I just thought of jumping the farthest.”
His rivalry with Lewis is the kind athletics is missing now. “It pushed the envelope. You rarely have that, two athletes at the highest level in the same sport on a special event like the world championships. Can’t write a story better. It is like a movie, should be a movie,” he said.
That comment took the conversation to Usain Bolt’s domination and to Justin Gatlin being booed for denying him that final hurrah.
“I think Gatlin deserved better. He is a nice guy who followed the rules. It is another matter that I think a dope cheat should be banned for life. I am proud of what Gatlin did. That he failed a dope test would have bothered me if I was competing but I would have used that as motivation,” said Powell.
It was consistent with the zero-tolerance stand on doping that Powell said banning Russia was a good thing. “They seemed to have had a system set up across sport. Athletics made a statement (by banning them).”