Athletics at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Men's long jump

The men's long jump event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place between 31 July and 2 August 2021 at the Japan National Stadium. Approximately 35 athletes were expected to compete; the exact number was dependent on how many nations use universality places to enter athletes in addition to the 32 qualifying through time or ranking (1 universality place was used in 2016). 31 athletes from 20 nations competed. Miltiadis Tentoglou won the gold medal, Greece's first medal in the men's long jump. Cuban athletes Juan Miguel Echevarría and Maykel Massó earned silver and bronze, respectively, the nation's first medals in the event since 2008.

Men's long jump at the Games of the XXXII Olympiad
Olympic Athletics
Venue	Japan National Stadium
Dates	31 July 2021 (qualifying) 2 August 2021 (final)
Competitors	31 from 20 nations
Winning distance	8.41
Medalists
Miltiadis Tentoglou  Greece Juan Miguel Echevarría  Cuba Maykel Massó  Cuba

For the first time in the men's Olympic long jump, the silver medallist achieved the exact same distance as the winner so the result was decided on countback, similar to the procedures for the high jump and pole vault.

Summary

Injuries were to play a big role in the finals of this event. World leader Tajay Gayle showed up with his left knee taped, struggled down the runway to foul his first two attempts, finally getting a legal but non-qualifying jump on his third attempt. Maykel Massó took the lead as last jumper of the first round with an 8.21 metres, on his second attempt he seemed to tweak his left hamstring. He would not take another attempt. In the third round, Juan Miguel Echevarría put one together taking a big lead with 8.41 metres. A day after competing in the high jump final, JuVaughn Harrison struggled to qualify for the final three jumps in eighth. As the final jumper in the fourth round, Echevarría aborted his jump, coming out of the pit limping. He passed his fifth attempt. Leading off the fifth round, Harrison jumped 8.15 metres to move into bronze medal position. Later in the round, Thobias Montler jumped what looked like mid 8.30's, but it was a foul. Then Miltiadis Tentoglou matched Harrison with an 8.15 metres. Because Tentoglou had a previous jump of 8.11 metres as a tiebreaker, he took over bronze position. The final round proved the difference. Early on, Montler jumped well past the video estimated leading mark, but the jump again was a foul. Then Eusebio Cáceres came through with an 8.18 metres to take bronze position away from Tentoglou. Tentoglou answered being knocked off the podium by jumping 8.41 metres, matching Echevarría exactly. Again with the superior second best jump, Tentoglou took over the lead. It was time for the Cubans to answer, but Massó couldn't go, passing his final attempt, settling for bronze. Echevarría gave it a go, but as he ran down the runway it was clear he couldn't run. He stopped at the board, leaned down and pounded the foul marking plasticine in frustration.

Background

This was the 29th appearance of the event, which was one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics.

No nations made their men's long jump debut in 2020. The United States appeared for the 28th time, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Qualification

Main article: Athletics at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Qualification

A National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter up to 3 qualified athletes in the men's long jump event if all athletes meet the entry standard or qualify by ranking during the qualifying period. (The limit of 3 has been in place since the 1930 Olympic Congress.) The qualifying standard was 8.22 metres. This standard was "set for the sole purpose of qualifying athletes with exceptional performances unable to qualify through the IAAF World Rankings pathway." The world rankings, based on the average of the best five results for the athlete over the qualifying period and weighted by the importance of the meet, will then be used to qualify athletes until the cap of 32 is reached.

The qualifying period was originally from 1 May 2019 to 29 June 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the period was suspended from 6 April 2020 to 30 November 2020, with the end date extended to 29 June 2021. The world rankings period start date was also changed from 1 May 2019 to 30 June 2020; athletes who had met the qualifying standard during that time were still qualified, but those using world rankings would not be able to count performances during that time. The qualifying time standards could be obtained in various meets during the given period that have the approval of the IAAF. Both outdoor and indoor meets are eligible. The most recent Area Championships may be counted in the ranking, even if not during the qualifying period.

NOCs could also use their universality place—each NOC can enter one male athlete regardless of time if they had no male athletes meeting the entry standard for an athletics event—in the long jump.

Entry number: 32.

Qualification standard	No. of athletes	NOC	Nominated athletes
Entry standard – 8.22	3	China	Gao Xinglong Huang Changzhou Zhang Yaoguang
	3	Cuba	Juan Miguel Echevarría Lester Lescay Maykel Massó
	3	Japan	Yuki Hashioka Shotaro Shiroyama Hibiki Tsuha
	3	United States	Marquis Dendy JuVaughn Harrison Steffin McCarter
	2	Jamaica	Tajay Gayle Carey McLeod
	2	South Africa	Cheswill Johnson Luvo Manyonga Ruswahl Samaai
	1	Brazil	Samory Fraga
	1	Canada	Damian Warner
	1	Finland	Kristian Pulli
	1	Greece	Miltiadis Tentoglou
	1	India	M. Sreeshankar
	1	Sweden	Thobias Montler
	1	Trinidad and Tobago	Andwuelle Wright
World ranking	1	Australia	Henry Frayne
	1	Brazil	Alexsandro Melo
	1	France	Augustin Bey
	1	Italy	Filippo Randazzo
	1	Spain	Eusebio Cáceres
	1	Ukraine	Vladyslav Mazur
	1	Germany	Fabian Heinle
Universality Places	1	Albania	Izmir Smajlaj
	1	Uruguay	Emiliano Lasa
Total	32

Competition format

The 2020 competition continued to use the two-round format with divided final introduced in 1952. The qualifying round gave each competitor three jumps to achieve the qualifying distance of 8.15 metres; if fewer than 12 men did so, the top 12 (including all those tied) advanced. 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 are not considered for the final).

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing global and area records are as follows.

World record	Mike Powell (USA)	8.95	Tokyo, Japan	30 August 1991
Olympic record	Bob Beamon (USA)	8.90	Mexico City, Mexico	18 October 1968
World Leading	Miltiadis Tentoglou (GRE)	8.60	Athens, Greece	26 May 2021

Area	Distance (m)	Wind	Athlete	Nation
Africa (records)	8.65	+1.3	Luvo Manyonga	South Africa
Asia (records)	8.48	+0.6	Mohamed Salman Al-Khuwalidi	Saudi Arabia
Europe (records)	8.86	+1.9	Robert Emmiyan	Soviet Union
North, Central America and Caribbean (records)	8.95 WR	+0.3	Mike Powell	United States
Oceania (records)	8.54	+1.7	Mitchell Watt	Australia
South America (records)	8.73	+1.2	Irving Saladino	Panama

Schedule

All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)

The men's long jump took place over two separate days.

Date	Time	Round
Saturday, 31 July 2021	19:00	Qualifying
Monday, 2 August 2021	9:00	Final

Results

Qualifying

Qualification Rules: Qualifying performance 8.15 (Q) or at least 12 best performers (q) advance to the Final.

Rank	Group	Athlete	Nation	1	2	3	Result	Notes
1	B	Juan Miguel Echevarría	Cuba	8.50			8.50	Q, SB
2	B	Miltiadis Tentoglou	Greece	8.22			8.22	Q
3	A	Yuki Hashioka	Japan	8.17			8.17	Q
4	B	Tajay Gayle	Jamaica	x	6.72	8.14	8.14	q
5	A	JuVaughn Harrison	United States	8.13	8.02	—	8.13	q
6	A	Filippo Randazzo	Italy	8.10	x	—	8.10	q, SB
7	A	Maykel Massó	Cuba	8.07	8.00	7.92	8.07	q
8	B	Thobias Montler	Sweden	7.82	x	8.01	8.01	q
9	B	Eusebio Cáceres	Spain	7.98	7.75	—	7.98	q
10	B	Huang Changzhou	China	7.75	7.59	7.96	7.96	q
	B	Fabian Heinle	Germany	7.80	7.96	7.84	7.96	q, SB
	B	Kristian Pulli	Finland	7.71	7.96	x	7.96	q
13	A	Emiliano Lasa	Uruguay	7.85	7.95	7.78	7.95
14	A	Henry Frayne	Australia	7.82	7.82	7.93	7.93
15	A	Steffin McCarter	United States	7.69	7.81	7.92	7.92
16	A	Samory Fraga	Brazil	7.88	x	x	7.88
17	B	Gao Xinglong	China	x	7.86	7.86	7.86
	A	Izmir Smajlaj	Albania	7.81	7.86	x	7.86
19	B	Marquis Dendy	United States	x	7.78	7.85	7.85
20	A	Wang Jianan	China	7.59	7.81	7.64	7.81
21	A	Carey McLeod	Jamaica	x	7.75	7.36	7.75
22	B	Ruswahl Samaai	South Africa	7.70	7.74	x	7.74
23	A	Shoutarou Shiroyama	Japan	6.24	7.70	x	7.70
24	B	Murali Sreeshankar	India	7.69	7.51	7.43	7.69
	B	Lester Lescay	Cuba	7.69	x	7.63	7.69
26	B	Hibiki Tsuha	Japan	7.52	7.61	7.55	7.61
27	A	Vladyslav Mazur	Ukraine	7.60	7.54	7.58	7.60
28	A	Bachana Khorava	Georgia	7.41	7.35	7.17	7.41
29	B	Alexsandro Melo	Brazil	x	x	6.95	6.95
—	A	Augustin Bey	France	x	x	x	NM
	A	Cheswill Johnson	South Africa	x	x	x	NM
—	B	Andwuelle Wright	Trinidad and Tobago				DNS

Final

Rank	Athlete	Nation	1	2	3	4	5	6	Result	Notes
	Miltiadis Tentoglou	Greece	8.11	x	x	8.10	8.15	8.41	8.41	Won on countback over Echevarría with a better second-best jump.
	Juan Miguel Echevarría	Cuba	8.09	x	8.41	6.71	—	x	8.41	Pulled up on last attempt.
	Maykel Massó	Cuba	8.21	8.05	—	—	—	—	8.21	Unable to continue due to injury.
4	Eusebio Cáceres	Spain	7.96	8.09	x	x	8.12	8.18	8.18	SB
5	JuVaughn Harrison	United States	7.57	7.70	7.96	7.87	8.15	7.49	8.15
6	Yuki Hashioka	Japan	x	7.95	7.97	x	7.94	8.10	8.10
7	Thobias Montler	Sweden	8.08	7.93	x	8.05	x	x	8.08
8	Filippo Randazzo	Italy	x	7.99	x	x	7.88	x	7.99
9	Kristian Pulli	Finland	7.85	7.92	7.88	Did not advance			7.92
10	Huang Changzhou	China	x	7.50	7.72	Did not advance			7.72
11	Tajay Gayle	Jamaica	x	x	7.69	Did not advance			7.69
12	Fabian Heinle	Germany	5.18	7.57	7.62	Did not advance			7.62