Owens wins Broad Jump

The Broad Jump had been one of the events of Owens' three in this eleventh Olympics that he had been most certain of winning. Lutz Long, so unheralded in German sporting circles for he is neither a soldier nor a policeman, tied Owens at 7.87 meters with his two leaps remaining. He forced Owens to catapult out near his own new world record of 26' 8 ½" in order to emerge victorious at all yesterday.

So delighted was Chancellor Hitler by the gallant fight that Long had made that he congratulated him privately just before he himself left the stadium. In fact, his eagerness to receive the youthful German was so great that the Führer condescended to wait until his emissaries had pried Long loose from Owens, with whom he was affectionately walking along the track arm and arm in what could be called friendship. All Owens received was his gold medal which probably satisfied him just fine.

The broad jump was one of the most dramatic events of the entire day, surprising as that may sound. It started with the unusual flourish and ended the same way. In the morning the leapers had to beat 23' 5" to qualify.

Owens strolled over to the runway and, still in his pullovers, raced to the pit and tan right through, a customary warm-up gesture. But the red flag was raised greatly to the Buckeye Bullet's astonishment. That counted as one of three jumps. On his second try, which he made in earnest, Jesse hit the take-off board cleanly and sailed through the air. Again the red flag was waved for some mysterious reason.

The situation was getting to be alarming by this time. Owens had only one more jump left to stay in the competition. So, on his last attempt, he sprinted carefully, left the ground with a half foot clearance at the take-off and went past 25' safely.

In the afternoon, Owens had close call of that nature. The pressure came from Long. The German, carried along on the wings of superhuman endeavor - the hallmark of every Reich athlete in this meet - was bounding along right at Owens' heels. He was only an inch behind the American's 7.87 meters as they went for their last three jumps.

On his second in the final, Long hit the nail exactly on the head, doing the same distance as the Ohioan and tying him for the championship as the crowd went into frenzied ecstasy of applause. But the jubilation was short-lived.

Owens came thundering down the runway and drove into space a moment later. He had taken the play away at 7.94 meters and then drove beyond Long's reach with his final jump that cemented the distinction of his becoming the first 26-footer in Olympic history. Incidentally, the German in second place also surpassed the Olympic record.