Naoto Tajima

Naoto Tajima (Japanese田岛 直 人, born August 15, 1912 in Iwakuni, † 4 December 1990) was a Japanese athlete and Olympic champion. He was the first triple jumper, who reached the length of 16 meters. At a height of 1.78 he had a competition weight of 67 kg.

His Olympic debut Tajima at the 1932 Olympic Games when he finished third in the long jump with 7.15 meters in sixth place. In 1934 he won the long jump at the Far Eastern Games and was third in the triple jump.

At the 1936 Olympic Games on August 4, the final was played in the long jump. Behind the US- American Jesse Owens ( 8.06 meters ) and the German Luz Long ( 7.87 meters) Tajima won with 7.74 meters bronze. He had an inch ahead of the two fourth place, the German Wilhelm Leichum and the Italian Arturo Maffei.

On 6 August 1936, was the triple jump final at the plan. The qualifying distance of 14 meters had exceeded equal to 23 athletes, including the Australian world record holder Jack Metcalfe, who jumped 15.78 meters in late 1935. After three attempts, 17 athletes dropped out, including Luz Long. In leadership was after the preliminaries with 15.76 Tajima before Metcalfe 15.50 and the second Japanese Masao Harada with 15.45. In the fourth experiment Tajima skipped then the world record mark and landed at 16.00 meters. In the last test Harada still jumped to 15.66 and secured silver.

Tajima jumped 14.81 meters in 1938 again and then ended his career. He was in later years, director of the Japanese Amateur Sports Association. His world record was surpassed in 1951 by the Brazilian Adhemar Ferreira da Silva by one centimeter. Naoto Tajima was the third Japanese triple jump Olympic champion in a row. Three days after the Korean -born Japanese Tajima Son Kitei won in the marathon for Japan. After Japan won no more gold medal in the Olympic athletics until 2000, the marathon runner Naoko Takahashi won gold in Sydney.