Spring-Heeled John

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29246, 2 July 1960, Page 5

Spring-Heeled John

WOOPBRSON, a former neordbolder for the mile, MS yards ■ and Mt metre*.) IF a snap poll were taken right now for the worm’s No. 1 athlete of the year, the man rd tip to top the votes would be John L Thomas, an American Negro high jumper. Although only 19, he has been hitting dhe high spots in America with some fantastic seven-feet leaps. These have included a world indoor record of 7ft 2jin, and a world outdoor mark of 7ft liin, achieved during the Pennsylvania Relays* meeting. Such fabulous j umping has been all . the J more remark- I able because f this time, last J year, Thomas’s i career as a I world-class ath- J lete was thought 1 to be over after | he had badly J smashed a foot I

in a lift accident. The injury kept him out of competitions for almost twelve months. Yet here he is back in action again, leaping higher than ever, and I. clearly established as the man to beat for the Olympic Games title. Thomas gave his countrymen special delight in winning back that outdoor world record because it kept a vow made by U.S. athletic administrators some three summers ago. That was the occasion when Yury Stepanov, of Russia, cleared 7ft lin in Leningrad and ended a 50-yean United States monopoly of the world record. They then predicted: “We’ll get it back.” They weren’t thinking of Thomas as the man to answer their prayer: they just knew that they had the coaching skill to find the jumper to ’ carry on the great tradition of those imm6rtal names in high jumping—H. M.

Osborn, Cornelius Johnson, Dave Albritton, Lester Steers, Walt Davis, and Charles Dumas.

But I wonder for how long the Americans will be able to resist the challenge of the Russians? There ,is a continual research going on in Moscow into the science of high jumping. It was there they hit upon the idea of using the padded shoe to the advantage of the jumper. The International Federation promptly amended their rules to ban that one. I am pleased to report that Britain is not lagging hopelessly behind in all the high jumping development. In fact, thanks to some encouragI jng leadership from the “Whip and Carrot” Club, the high jumpers’ own specialist club—- “ Whip” to give the jumper height; “Carrot” to entice him over the bar— British high jumping has never hit such heights. The national champion, Crawford Fairbrother, a Scot, , , , has achieved the Olympic qualifying height of 6ft 8J in for the best-ever by a Briton, and recently a Londoner, Gordon Miller, got nearer this target with 6ft 7Jin, thus equalling the best-ever height jumped by an Englishman. Peter Wells, now living in New Zealand, is the only other English athlete to leap as high. It should not be long before Wales is also moving up to this class of jumping, judging by the 6ft sin clearance from 18-year-old “Sandy” Davies at Bedford.

I was interested to hear that Miller and Davies have been keen members of a high jumpers' ballet dancing class organised throughout the winter to help jumpers stt-engtheh their legs for the summer competitions.

The fabulous jumping feats of the United States negro, J. L. Thomas, have delighted American athletic officials, who now regard him as a certainty for a gold medal at the Olympic Games at Rome this year. Early this week, Thomas beat the world record for the high jump with a leap of 7ft 2in, breaking for the second time the recognised mark of 7ft lin, held by Y. Stepanov, of Russia. Thomas, who has a mark of 7ft IJin pending, is now clearly established as the man to beat at Rome, according to Wooderson.