Almost the length of a double-decker bus - that's how far American Mike Powell jumped at the world championships in Japan in 1991.
Powell, an International Association of Athletics Federations ambassador, was in Dunedin yesterday to help launch a worldwide children's athletics programme.
The 51-year-old, who still holds the long jump world record of 8.95m, signed T-shirts and had his photo taken with hundreds of Otago children at Forsyth Barr Stadium.
Powell bettered Bob Beamon's almost 23-year-old record by 5cm in Tokyo to win the first of two world championship titles.
His mammoth leap came moments after fellow American Carl Lewis jumped 8.91m, a jump that did not count as a world record because of a 2.9m-a-second tail wind.
The world record came on Powell's fifth jump in the competition, after he managed 7.75m, 8.54m, 8.29m and a foul with his first four attempts.
''The thing I'm most proud of is before I broke the world record, Carl Lewis jumped the furthest jump in history,'' Powell said.
''I think we all think when the moment comes and we have to stand up and do something ... And that moment, instead of faltering, I stood up and I jumped further than he did.''
Powell went on to win a world championship gold medal in Germany in 1993, and bronze in Sweden, in 1995.
He also won silver medals at the 1988 Seoul and 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
Powell, one of just four people since 1900 to hold a world record for more than 20 years, said he was ''very surprised'' his record still stood.
''I thought Carl Lewis was going to beat me in the competition. So, the fact that it's lasted more than 23 years, I didn't think it was going to last 23 minutes.
''So, I'm really, really surprised it's still here. But I'm happy.''
