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Dr. Do-It-All
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
By Graham Hays, ESPN.com
ITHACA, N.Y. -- You won't find any record of the jump that left Mike Powell's
mouth agape while looking on at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships
in Arkansas last spring. Cornell long jumper Jeomi Maduka missed the board by
perhaps the length of a toe, and so the graceful explosion that subsequently
propelled her through the air and into the pit never happened, at least according
to the official results.
Good luck convincing either Powell or Cornell men's track coach Nathan Taylor
it was a mirage.
"I refused to believe it," Taylor said of his initial reaction watching the
jump. "However, I was sitting right next to the current world-record holder
in the men's long jump, and an Olympic champion, and he said, 'Oh my God, did
you see that?'"
By Taylor's estimate, it was perhaps the longest jump by an American woman in
more than a decade and would have ranked Maduka among the top handful of jumpers
in the world this year. Even with the memorable foul, Maduka still jumped far
enough in her recorded efforts to finish eighth overall and earn All-America
honors as a result.
Not bad for a basketball player who is going to medical school and plays a mean
violin.
For Graham Hays' full story from ESPN.com, please click here.
