The day Mike Powell soared past Carl Lewis and Bob Beamon

By Andrew James Aug 20, 2007, 9:52 GMT

Osaka, Japan - Carl Lewis bettered the 100 metres world record, but a long jump defeat against Mike Powell is the lasting memory from the first time that the world athletics championships came to Japan in 1991.

The conditions were far from glorious on that night of August 30 in Tokyo's Olympic stadium, with intense humidity and swirling wind.

But that didn't stop Lewis and Powell from battling in an epic competition in which they landed four of the seven best jumps in event history and Powell walked away with the gold medal and a still valid world record of 8.95 metres.

Lewis came to Tokyo unbeaten in 81 long jump competitions spanning a decade, including Olympic gold in 1984 and 1998 and titles at the first two world championships 1983 and 1987.

In addition, his personal best 8.79m was better than Powell's 8.66m, and Lewis had only a few days earlier won the blue-riband 100m in a world record 9.86 seconds.

Expectations were huge that Bob Beamon's world record of 8.90m from the altitude of Mexico City at the 1968 Olympics would fall. Lewis soared 8.56m in qualifying after a narrow foul which appeared to be around 8.80m.

Lewis opened the final with 8.68m and then raised his fists in delight after adding a wind-aided 8.83m in the third round, while Powell hat 8.54m on his second jump.

In the fourth round, Powell over-stepped with the tip of his shoe a potential world record jump, appealing the red flag in vain on his knees as joy turned into despair.

Lewis was undeterred and became the first man ever to go beyond Beamon's mark of 8.91m. That was good enough for the competition lead but an illegal tail-wind of 2.9 metres per second (up to 2.0 is legal) denied him a world record as well.

It would have been short-lived joy, anyway, as Beamon's mark fell a few minutes later. Powell provided the jump of his life, with a legal wind of 0.3 and 8.95m flashing on the scoreboard after a seemingly endless measurement.

Powell celebrated, but Lewis still had two jumps left. Lewis tried his very best, falling just short on 8.87m and 8.84m, with Powell fouling his last jump.

Powell later described the agonizing wait until he was assured of the gold and the world record, having only a few months earlier lost against Lewis on the final jump, by one centimetre, at the US trials for the worlds.

'It was five minutes and 31 seconds from the time (Lewis) walked onto the runway to the time he jumped. My heart was beating very quickly. I started to feel faint. I hoped not, but deep down, I thought he would beat me.'

'This is a dream come true. Honestly, I thought that Carl would beat me in the last jump. I have conditioned myself for so long to see him come from behind and beat me. I thought he would jump nine metres,' Powell said.

Powell celebrated his win by racing through the in-field, and hugging and lifting an astonished Japanese official into the air who had earlier red-flagged him.

Lewis had mixed feelings, saying: 'He had just one great jump, the best jump of his life, but that's all it takes in the long jump.'