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When Bob Beamon set the new world record for the long jump at the Olympic Games in Mexico in 1968, with a mark of 8.90 m, Mike Powell was only 5 years old. 23 years later, the longest-standing record in athletics fell into the hands of the boy from Philadelphia who started out as a supporting actor in the shadow of the great favourite, Carl Lewis, and who would become the great protagonist of those memorable world championships. After a discreet first attempt, Mike's second jump that day was 8.54 metres. The competition was red hot. Carl Lewis set the stadium on fire with a fourth jump of 8.91 m (it was not a world record because the wind exceeded the maximum allowed to approve the mark). But Powell had not yet said his last word. Showing maximum concentration, the athlete began his fifth jump: six steps of approach, a vigorous flapping of the arms and 23 strides that placed him six centimetres from the limit marked on the board to fly towards the gold medal, the world record and eternal glory…