Taipei long jumper Lin Yu Tang had been struggling to reach eight metres for the last couple of years. He appeared to be stuck on 7.95.
However this year, he won the Indoor Asian gold in February with 8.02m and in May produced a personal best 8.12m in an Osaka meet.
So when Tang came up with an 8.40m jump in his fourth attempt at the Asian Championships in Bangkok on Saturday, the world’s third best jump this year, M. Sreeshankar could not believe his eyes.