Sigi's tips | Long jumps without a board?

I never thought I would develop a personal relationship with a piece of wood. But a tree cut perfectly into fitting pieces houses my printed treasures. And whenever a move was necessary, a new shelf was added for new books. There are no free walls for me. Thank “Billy”. That's what the inventor called his storage system, which even a handyman like me can still put together. Planks that mean the world. In this case for me for biographies, crime novels and hundreds of novels, some of which I have already read twice. For others they are on the theater stages.

Glazed, guaranteed to be cleanly sanded and durable for big performances. Friedrich Schiller already spoke about it in his poem “To the Friends”. “Let’s see the greatest thing of all time, on the boards that mean the world.” The board is omnipresent and extremely adaptable, although sometimes it gets quite strained linguistically. It is sometimes even dangerous, because having a board in front of your head signals a lack of understanding and even obtuseness. Nobody likes to hear that and nobody likes to admit it. Anyone who is presented with a big surprise, in a positive or negative sense, can also describe it as: “That's a board.” We see that the world cannot survive without boards. Think about your kitchen. There’s definitely a “cutting board” lying around.

If it's a good one, then it's made of hard beech wood. And then a “Brettljause” after a nice board game, maybe, who knows, there will be an interesting combination on the chessboard with a waiting bishop that can pose a threat to the king. Or they lean out the window. Be careful, of course, if it's already on the second or third floor. They rest their elbows on the window sill, which is probably varnished and made of glued layers of wood. A beautiful floor should be made of boards, made of thick country wood floorboards. That would be a dream.

The athletes run towards the jump at top speed. © APA/afp / BEN STANSALL

But for cost reasons, the old board is far too often replaced, especially in rental apartments, by laminate, which is nothing more than a carrier board made from paper printing and melamine adhesive. This is how the board is outwitted. On the farm in Bavaria where I grew up, the floorboards were bulging and every now and then my grandma would pull a splinter out of my sole. They were real, strong boards that were washed with soapy water. The wood for this came from our own little piece of forest. At that time, the bark beetle had no appetite for the trees.

Two fronts for and against the board And yet there are now actually considerations about removing a board. Well, that doesn't affect bookworms and flooring installers, but it does affect some athletes. Especially those who are committed to the long jump or triple jump and therefore have to deal with a special board every day. It's the takeoff bar. This is a board made of glued plywood or even, to be more weather-resistant, made of aluminum and wood. It is 122 centimeters long, 20cm wide and ten centimeters thick. Depending on the version, the cost is between 200 and 700 euros. A foot larger than 32 no longer fits on this surface, which also drove us to despair in the school's athletics lessons.

This board, white and demarcated at the front by a rubber-like line, had to be hit as precisely as possible in order to achieve good distance. Because measurements are always taken from the end of the front edge of the board. No matter where you jump from. “Invalid.” And again: “Invalid.” At big competitions, a referee frantically pulls up a red flag. The camera shows exactly where the last nail of the shoe penetrated the plasticine. “Invalid.” At the last World Championships in Budapest, a third of all jumps were in front of the board, i.e. too close to the sand and were consequently not measured.

Jarrion Lawson from the USA. © APA/afp / ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT

Now it's time to tackle this special board, which has served well and flawlessly since the 1896 Olympic Games. There is a threat of nothing more and nothing less than a sporting revolution. The jumps should now be measured within a take-off zone. The fixation on the board should be over, although I can't shake the suspicion that the proponents of such a serious intervention (including the President of "World Athletics", Lord Sebastian Coe) have their eye on even more jumps.

More jumps without take-off bars? The debate has already reached temperatures around boiling point. Some say that the jump, i.e. the plank, is part of this sport. The other side presents the concentration on the jump as an anachronism. Get rid of it. I join the traditionalists. A distance of 8.95 meters, which Mike Powell achieved in a legendary duel in Tokyo in 1991 at the World Championships, is enough for me. Or Bob Beamon's legendary flight in Mexico at the 1968 Olympics of 8.90 meters. 55 centimeters above the then record. Jump off exactly on the board, not a centimeter wasted, which is now always shown thanks to new technology. I also think that's nonsensical. Conjunctive.

With a drop zone, as some have planned, the effective distance would be measured and not that from the front line of the beam. That may sound modern, but it would definitely come at the expense of excitement, because we always look like a hawk first at the take-off and then at the landing. Hitting the board precisely with the best technique (lowering the hips) and the highest possible speed is and was part of the task that athletes always had to face in the long jump. And please let it stay that way. We owe it to the board.

About the author: Sigi Heinrich The multi-award-winning sports journalist (including winner of the German Television Prize and the Bavarian Sports Prize), book author and Eurosport commentator from the very beginning (since 1989) dedicates his column “Sigi's Spitze” to the entire diversity of sport and also likes to poach in strangers areas. Sometimes with a smile and a wink, sometimes serious and thoughtful or deliberately provocative. There should be something for everyone.

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Sigi's tips | Long jumps without a board?

The athletics world is in turmoil. The idea of abolishing the take-off bar in the long jump in favor of a take-off zone is like a revolution. Our columnist Sigi Heinrich joins the traditionalists who want to stick to the old system, especially since the board itself can also have a deeper meaning.

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