Thomas' record still standing

Long jump record holder Bob Thomas, along with his cousin Maureen Armstrong, look at the Northern Advocate front page about his historic leap. Photo / John Stone

The day Bob Thomas launched himself into the air and wrote himself into New Zealand's athletics history books, he had no idea his long jump record would still be standing 47 years later.

In front of a crowd of 1000, the then 28-year-old Moerewa man rocketed out to 8m 5cm at an athletics meet at Okara Park on January 20, 1968.

"I was so psyched up. It was a lot of nervous energy and adrenaline that got me there," Mr Thomas said of the big jump.

"I hit the board right and I knew it was a good one."

Bob Thomas soars through the air on the way to jumping 8m 5cm.

Yesterday Mr Thomas, a resident at Ranburn Rest Home Hospital and Village, was presented with a certificate by Athletics Northland in recognition of having the longest standing New Zealand athletic field event record. The record leap also made front page news in the Northern Advocate at the time.

Mr Thomas remembers that day well and said, after a breakfast of porridge, he drove to his favourite athletics venue at Okara Park. He did his normal warm up of jogging 400m, a few sprints and practice jumps.

He was spurred on by media reports earlier that week that touted the long jump event as the one to watch and the winner would most likely book themselves a trip to the Mexico Olympics later the same year. At the time, the jump was enough to put him in the top six long jumpers in the world.

Mr Thomas and his rival David Norris, who he beat at the Whangarei meet, were nominated for the games but selectors failed to send them. He was extremely disappointed and just a year later hung up his athletics shoes.

"Once I missed out on Mexico I didn't train through the winter, like I usually did. I coasted through and competed at nationals and won the long jump title. It was time to go."

He turns 76 tomorrow and, while he will be celebrating his birth date, he said he always celebrated January 20 in acknowledgment of his great record-setting jump.

Mr Thomas was working at the Moerewa Affco during the peak of his athletics career and said some of his training was done on the internal stairwells between the floors.

"I used to do a lot of training up and down the steps. I worked on the top floor so I used that to my advantage."

Athletics Northland president Murray Hall said it was an inspiration to younger athletes in the region to know such achievements could be made by Northland competitors.

Maureen Armstrong joined her cousin Mr Thomas for the award presentation and recalled the days when they were growing up in Kawakawa. Using nails and tea tree sticks they constructed a homemade high jump which Mr Thomas would clear with ease.

"It was great fun he could jump so high but we just didn't know just how high."

He has kept a close eye on his record and after the recent New Zealand nationals was happy to see it still stood.

"It could go tomorrow. It shouldn't have lasted all this time with the all weather tracks they have now."