1 Jun
Written By Matthew Eastley

The ‘Bob Beamon’ of St Mary’s

On 18 October 1968, a 22-year-old New Yorker stunned the athletics world by producing a sporting leap which obliterated all records before it. The man’s name was Bob Beamon and the stage was the Olympic Games in Mexico City.

That day Beamon became not only the world’s first 28 foot long jumper but the first 29 foot jumper too as he seemingly flew magically through the Mexican air to record a jump of 29 feet and two and a half inches. Though it was unquestionably altitude-assisted, Beamon’s record stood for 23 years before it was surpassed by Mike Powell, also at altitude.

Which brings us to St Mary’s. As mentioned before, 1974 joiner Patrick Calnan recently supplied a batch of Sports Day programmes from the mid 1970s to the early 1980s which, helpfully, carried the school record for each event.

One of these stood out. Back in 1949, a young St Mary’s pupil called David Read produced a leap of four metres, 91 cm to set a new first year record.

Though many tried, this record could not be beaten. In 1978, the outstanding Chris Lehane arrived at the school and broke a number of records, including the long jump record for the second, third and fourth years – but he could not quite match the brilliant jump that David Read produced all those years ago.

To the best of my knowledge, the record was never broken. In the 1990s, the first year record still belonged to a D Read although it is listed as being set in 1994, surely an error with the last two numerals switched over. Maybe whoever typed the piece could not believe the record had stood all that time and just assumed it was set in 1994 rather than 1949.

Both Mike Crotty and Wilfrid Lockwood, who were at St Mary’s in the 1940s, recall David and the jump in question.

Wilfrid told me: “I recall a photograph of him breaking the record. He was a couple of years ahead of me, although we were both in the sixth form in 1954/55 doing A-Levels in English and Geography. David lived locally and was a very friendly and generally agreeable lad with a good sense of humour. He went from school to, I think, Loughborough, and then joined the RAF as a fighter pilot. We met in Cambridge when he was stationed locally.”

While it is obviously not in the same league as Beamon’s extraordinary effort in Mexico City, David’s jump on that summer’s day 72 years ago set the standards for all to follow.

Whatever you went on to do David or wherever you are now, we salute you. St Mary’s own ‘Bob Beamon’.