Track Shorts: Zeroing In On Eight Feet

Zeroing In On Eight Feet

As modern man and futuristic equipment approach the once unthinkable 20-ft. pole vault, the 30-ft. long jump, the 60-ft. triple jump and the 2-hr. marathon, the benchmark most likely to fall in Seoul is the 8-ft. high jump. Sweden's Patrik Sjoberg and West Germany's Carlo Thranhardt shared a world record of 7 ft. 11 1/4 in. until last week, when Cuba's Javier Sotomayor soared 7 ft. 11 1/2 in. in Spain. At least three other jumpers, West German Dietmar Mogenburg and Soviets Igor Paklin and Gennadi Avdeyenko, are potential Olympic eight-footers. Sotomayor is among the boycotters.

The enigmatic Sjoberg seems to...

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