On this day in 1989 - Javier leaps into the record books

Sport360 staff 00:12 29/07/2015
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  • Sotomayer in action.

    Thought by many to be the greatest high jumper of all time, Cuban athlete Javier Sotomayor created history on this day 26 years ago when he became the first man to jump over eight feet, clearing 2m 44cm at the Central American and Caribbean Championships in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

    Sotomayor’s feat, at the young age of 22, was miraculous, and saw him claim the gold medal a full 18cm above the jump of silver medallist Troy Kemp, and followed on from him breaking the world indoor record four months earlier in Budapest.

    The Cuban leapt to Olympic gold at Barcelona in 1992, claiming silver in Sydney eight years later. He set the current world record of 2.45m in 1993.

    1948: First Olympics in 12 years – suspended due to World War II since 1936 – opens at Wembley.

    1995: Monica Seles beat Martina Navratilova at an exhibition in Bucharest. It was Seles’ first match in two years after being stabbed by a fan.

    1996: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer signs for Man Utd. The Baby-Faced Assassin would go on to score 126 goals (watch below) in 366 games for the club.

    2012: China’s Yi Siling wins the first gold medal of the London 2012 Olympic Games in 10m air rifle.

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