Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's long jump
The men's long jump competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom was held at the Olympic Stadium on 3–4 August.
Only two athletes achieved automatic qualifying marks, both of those by Marquise Goodwin and Mauro Vinicius da Silva just one centimeter over the minimum at 8.11. The tight field was spread over less than 20 cm. It took a better second jump at 7.92 to make the final, leaving Russian junior and co-world leader Sergey Morgunov on the outside. Defending champion Irving Saladino was unable to get a legal jump in, failing to advance.
In the final, none of the top 3 qualifiers were to play a factor. Christopher Tomlinson took the lead in the first round with an 8.06 with Will Claye in second. In the second round, Greg Rutherford took the lead with an 8.21, while Claye jumped a centimeter better than Tomlinson, to hold on to second. Claye's mark was equaled by Michel Tornéus in the third round. The fourth round was when all but two of the finalists hit their best mark, Claye with 8.12 and Rutherford extending his lead to 8.31. Languishing in seventh to that point, Mitchell Watt did Claye one centimeter better in the fifth round, then improving another three centimeters on his final jump to solidify his hold on the silver medal.
Rutherford's gold medal was the second of three gold medals in one evening for the host country, their most successful day in Olympic history. Rutherford's winning jump of 8.31 was the shortest jump to win the Olympics men's long jump competition since the 1972 Summer Olympics.
Competition format
The competition consisted of two rounds, qualification and final. In qualification, each athlete jumped three times. At least the top twelve athletes moved on to the final; if more than twelve reached the qualifying distance, all who did so advanced. Distances were reset for the final round. Finalists jumped three times, after which the eight best jumped three more times.Schedule
All times are British Summer Time| Date | Time | Round |
| Friday, 3 August 2012 | 19:50 | Qualifications |
| Saturday, 4 August 2012 | 19:55 | Finals |
Records
, the existing World and Olympic records were as follows.| World record | 8.95 m | Tokyo, Japan | 30 August 1991 | |
| Olympic record | 8.90 m | Mexico City, Mexico | 18 October 1968 | |
| 2012 World leading | 8.35 m | Chula Vista, United States | 3 May 2012 | |
| 2012 World leading | 8.35 m | Cheboksary, Russia | 20 June 2012 |
Results
Qualifying Round
Qual. rule: qualification standard 8.10m or at least best 12 qualified.| Rank | Group | Name | Nationality | #1 | #2 | #3 | Result | Notes |
| 1 | B | Mauro Vinicius da Silva | 8.07 | 8.11 | – | 8.11 | ||
| 2 | A | Marquise Goodwin | 8.11 | – | – | 8.11 | ||
| 3 | A | Aleksandr Menkov | 7.87 | 8.09 | 8.09 | |||
| 4 | A | Greg Rutherford | 8.08 | 8.06 | – | 8.08 | ||
| 5 | B | Christopher Tomlinson | 7.62 | 8.06 | – | 8.06 | ||
| 6 | A | Michel Tornéus | 8.03 | 7.49 | – | 8.03 | ||
| 7 | A | Godfrey Khotso Mokoena | 7.81 | 8.02 | 8.02 | |||
| 8 | A | Will Claye | 7.99 | 7.86 | 7.99 | |||
| 9 | B | Mitchell Watt | 7.99 | – | 7.99 | |||
| 10 | A | Tyrone Smith | 7.73 | 7.75 | 7.97 | 7.97 | , | |
| 11 | A | Henry Frayne | 7.82 | 7.95 | 7.95 | |||
| 12 | B | Sebastian Bayer | 7.92 | 7.88 | 3.96 | 7.92 | ||
| 13 | A | Christian Reif | 7.81 | 7.92 | 7.92 | |||
| 14 | A | Eusebio Cáceres | 7.25 | 7.92 | 6.95 | 7.92 | ||
| 15 | B | Aleksandr Petrov | 7.67 | 7.57 | 7.89 | 7.89 | ||
| 16 | B | Sergey Morgunov | 7.87 | 7.87 | ||||
| 17 | A | Mohammad Arzandeh | 7.77 | 7.75 | 7.84 | 7.84 | ||
| 18 | B | Ignisious Gaisah | 7.72 | 7.79 | 7.50 | 7.79 | ||
| 19 | A | Damar Forbes | 7.79 | 7.48 | 7.79 | |||
| 20 | B | Li Jinzhe | 7.59 | 7.67 | 7.77 | 7.77 | ||
| 21 | B | Raymond Higgs | 7.76 | 7.76 | ||||
| 22 | A | Alyn Camara | 7.72 | 7.69 | 7.72 | |||
| 23 | A | Salim Sdiri | 7.71 | 7.58 | 5.75 | 7.71 | ||
| 24 | B | Ndiss Kaba Badji | 7.66 | 7.64 | 7.66 | |||
| 25 | B | Arsen Sargsyan | 7.38 | 7.62 | 7.60 | 7.62 | ||
| 26 | B | Povilas Mykolaitis | 7.61 | 7.61 | ||||
| 27 | B | Stanley Gbagbeke | 5.71 | 7.59 | 7.59 | |||
| 28 | B | Marcos Chuva | 7.55 | 7.06 | 7.55 | |||
| 29 | A | Loúis Tsátoumas | 7.53 | 7.48 | 7.53 | |||
| 30 | A | Štepán Wagner | 7.39 | 7.50 | 7.47 | 7.50 | ||
| 31 | B | Viktor Kuznyetsov | 7.43 | 7.50 | 7.50 | |||
| 32 | B | Luis Rivera | 7.42 | 7.29 | 7.42 | |||
| 33 | A | Lin Ching-hsuan | 7.38 | 7.35 | 7.38 | |||
| 33 | A | Supanara Sukhasvasti | 7.38 | 7.35 | 7.38 | |||
| 35 | A | Boleslav Skhirtladze | 7.26 | 6.95 | 6.90 | 7.26 | ||
| 36 | A | Zhang Xiaoyi | 7.25 | 7.25 | ||||
| 37 | B | Mohamed Fathalla Difallah | 7.08 | 7.08 | ||||
| 38 | B | Roman Novotný | 6.96 | 6.96 | ||||
| 39 | B | George Kitchens | 6.84 | 6.84 | ||||
| 40 | A | Vardan Pahlevanyan | 6.55 | 6.55 | ||||
| B | Luis Felipe Méliz | – | – | |||||
| B | Irving Saladino |