Athletics at the 1968 Summer Olympics – Men's triple jump


The Men's triple jump competition at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, Mexico took place on October 16–17. With the best athletes jumping at high altitude in the Olympics, the world record was set multiple times. Prior to the event, Józef Szmidt had held the world record for eight years and also held the Olympic record since the previous Olympics.
The world and Olympic record were smashed in the qualifying round by Giuseppe Gentile, with a 17.10 on his second attempt.
The following day in the final, Gentile improved upon his record in the first round, jumping 17.22. In the third round, Viktor Saneyev improved upon the record by one centimeter. In the fifth round Nelson Prudêncio took the lead and the record. On his last attempt, Saneyev hit the winner and new record of.
The record lasted for three years until it was improved upon by Pedro Pérez. One year later, Saneyev brought the record with a 17.44 that lasted 3 years. In 1975 in this same stadium, João Carlos de Oliveira made a "beamonesque" improvement to the record that held for almost 10 years. The record was brought down to sea level by Willie Banks in 1985.
During the competition, five men exceeded the previous world record though Nikolay Dudkin's jumps were wind aided. Phil May and Szmidt jumped further than his Olympic record in sixth and seventh place respectively.

Competition format

The competition consisted of two rounds, qualification and final. In qualification, each athlete jumped three times. At least the top twelve athletes moved on to the final; if more than twelve reached the qualifying distance, all who did so advanced. Distances were reset for the final round. Finalists jumped three times, after which the eight best jumped three more times.

Records

Prior to the competition, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.
World record17.03 mOlsztyn, PolandAugust 5, 1960
Olympic record16.85 mTokyo, JapanOctober 16, 1964

The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.
DateEventAthleteTimeORWR
16 AugustQualifying'ORWR
17 AugustFinal'ORWR
17 AugustFinal'ORWR
17 AugustFinal'ORWR
17 AugustFinalORWR

Results

Qualifying round

Qual. rule: qualification standard 16.10m or at least best 12 qualified.
RankGroupNameNationality#1#2#3ResultNotes
1A17.10–17.10 WRQ
2B16.58––16.58Q
3B16.49––16.49Q
4B15.7916.46–16.46Q
5A16.32––16.32Q
6B15.2616.2416.24Q
7B16.22––16.22Q
8A15.9316.0716.2116.21Q
9B15.9416.20–16.20Q
10B15.7916.20–16.20Q
11A16.19–16.19Q
12B15.4416.16–16.16Q
13B15.8116.15–16.15Q
14B15.7916.04–16.04
15A15.6116.0215.8416.02
16A15.0715.9916.0116.01
17A13.4315.8415.8315.84
18B15.8415.7415.84
19A15.3715.8315.83
20A15.0615.7915.79
21A15.7515.75
22A15.4715.5215.7115.71
23B12.9315.7115.5015.71
24B15.6515.2815.6515.65
25B15.6515.4315.65
26B14.7215.6115.61
27B15.6114.4215.61
28A15.4013.8615.4615.46
29A15.4114.7215.41
30B15.2015.2915.1415.29
31AChen Ming-Chi15.2915.0414.7615.29
32A15.16–15.16
33B15.0915.0514.8915.09
34A15.04–15.04

Final