The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern most practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat for landing. In the modern era, athletes run towards the bar and use the Fosbury Flop method of jumping, leaping head first with their back to the bar. Since ancient times, competitors have introduced effective techniques to arrive at the current form; the discipline is, alongside the pole vault, one of two vertical clearance events to feature on the Olympic athletics programme. It is contested at the World Championships in Athletics and IAAF World Indoor Championships, is a common occurrence at track and field meetings; the high jump was among the first events deemed acceptable for women, having been held at the 1928 Olympic Games. Javier Sotomayor is the current men's record holder with a jump of 2.45 m set in 1993 – the longest standing record in the history of the men's high jump.
Stefka Kostadinova has held the women's world record at 2.09 m since 1987 the longest-held record in the event. The rules for the high jump are set internationally by the International Association of Athletics Federations. Jumpers must take off on one foot. A jump is considered a failure if the bar is dislodged by the action of the jumper whilst jumping or the jumper touches the ground or breaks the plane of the near edge of the bar before clearance; the technique one uses for the jump must be flawless in order to have a chance of clearing a high bar. Competitors may begin jumping at any height announced by the chief judge, or may pass, at their own discretion. Most competitions state that three consecutive missed jumps, at any height or combination of heights, will eliminate the jumper from competition; the victory goes to the jumper. Tie-breakers are used for any place. If two or more jumpers tie for one of these places, the tie-breakers are: 1) the fewest misses at the height at which the tie occurred.
If the event remains tied for first place, the jumpers have a jump-off, beginning at the next greater height. Each jumper has one attempt; the bar is alternately lowered and raised until only one jumper succeeds at a given height. The first recorded high jump event took place in Scotland in the 19th century. Early jumpers used either a scissors technique. In years, soon after, the bar was approached diagonally, the jumper threw first the inside leg and the other over the bar in a scissoring motion. Around the turn of the 20th century, techniques began to change, beginning with the Irish-American Michael Sweeney's Eastern cut-off. By taking off like the scissors and extending his spine and flattening out over the bar, Sweeney raised the world record to 1.97 m in 1895. Another American, George Horine, developed an more efficient technique, the Western roll. In this style, the bar again is approached on a diagonal, but the inner leg is used for the take-off, while the outer leg is thrust up to lead the body sideways over the bar.
Horine increased the world standard to 2.01 m in 1912. His technique was predominant through the Berlin Olympics of 1936, in which the event was won by Cornelius Johnson at 2.03 m. American and Soviet jumpers were the most successful for the next four decades, they pioneered the evolution of the straddle technique. Straddle jumpers took off as in the Western roll, but rotated their torso around the bar, obtaining the most efficient and highest clearance up to that time. Straddle-jumper, Charles Dumas, was the first to clear 7 feet, in 1956, American John Thomas pushed the world mark to 2.23 m in 1960. Valeriy Brumel took over the event for the next four years; the elegant Soviet jumper radically sped up his approach run, took the record up to 2.28 m, won the Olympic gold medal in 1964, before a motorcycle accident ended his career. American coaches, including two-time NCAA champion Frank Costello of the University of Maryland, flocked to Russia to learn from Brumel and his coaches. However, it would be a solitary innovator at Oregon State University, Dick Fosbury, who would bring the high jump into the next century.
Taking advantage of the raised, softer landing areas by in use, Fosbury added a new twist to the outmoded Eastern Cut-off. He directed himself over the bar head and shoulders first, sliding over on his back and landing in a fashion which would have broken his neck in the old, sawdust landing pits. After he used this Fosbury flop to win the 1968 Olympic gold medal, the technique began to spread around the world, soon floppers were dominating international high jump competitions; the last straddler to set a world record was Vladimir Yashchenko, who cleared 2.33 m in 1977 and 2.35 m indoors in 1978. Among renowned high jumpers following Fosbury's lead were Americans Dwight Stones and his rival, 1.73 metres tall Franklin Jacobs of Paterson, NJ, who cleared 2.32 m, 0.59 metres over his head. The most important aspect to put of all pieces of the jump together is the body mechanics
Paul John Sorg was a businessman and member of the United States House of Representatives from Ohio. He was born in Wheeling, Virginia on September 23, 1840, he attended public school. He was the youngest son of immigrants from Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany. Paul Sorg moved with his parents and siblings to Cincinnati, Ohio in 1852 where he was apprenticed as an iron molder, he attended night school in Cincinnati. He served in the Union Army during the Civil War. In 1864 Paul J. Sorg met John Auer, a German-born tobacco roller in Cincinnati. Auer could make tobacco; these two men organized a firm for the manufacture of tobaccos. In 1869 they partnered with another tobacco firm in Cincinnati. One of the new partners lived in Middletown and urged the newly formed company, Wilson and Company, to relocate there and a new plant was constructed. Sorg and Auer soon sold their share of the business and formed another company, P. J. Sorg Tobacco Co. to manufacture cut filler and plug tobacco. One of their brand names was "Biggest and Best."
This new firm they built up to become one of the largest of its type in the world and Sorg became Middletown's first multi-millionaire. On July 20, 1876, he married Susan Jennie Gruver in Middletown. In 1888, he completed a $1 million, 35-room stone Romanesque mansion that still stands in Middletown, converted to apartments at one time the mansion is under restoration by Mark and Traci Barnett and being converted back to a single family residence. Being a public-spirited man, he made many civic and charitable contributions to build up the city of his adoption, including the 1891 Sorg Opera House, the performance center of Middletown's Sorg Opera. At a special election held in May 1894 to fill the vacancy caused by the death of George W. Houk, Paul Sorg was elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-third congress from Ohio's Third district, he declined at first to accept renomination in 1894, in pique that a friend had not been appointed Consul to Berlin by President Grover Cleveland, to whose campaign Sorg had contributed generously.
However, he relented and was narrowly re-elected to the Fifty-fourth in 1894 when the Republicans swept all but two seats of the Ohio delegation and two-thirds of Congress as a result of the Panic of 1893. He was the ranking member on the Committee on Labor, he declined a third election in 1896. James M. Cox, a Butler county native working as assistant telegraph and railroad editor of the Cincinnati Enquirer, went with Sorg to Washington as his executive secretary. A few years Cox held the same seat in Congress. After leaving Congress, he allowed his name to be put in nomination for Governor of Ohio at the July 1897 Democratic convention, but withdrew his name during the second ballot, he allowed efforts toward nomination again for the 1899 election, but these came to nothing when he became ill. Sorg resumed his former tobacco business activities in Middletown, forming a Tobacco Trust with Lorillard and Liggett until he sold the business to Continental Tobacco Company for $4.5 million in 1898.
With the proceeds, he purchased in 1899 a paper company, the first paper mill in Middletown but had subsequently gone through several hands. He renamed the Paul A. Sorg Paper Co. for his son who became president of the firm. Paul J. Sorg continued his business career as president of a bank in which he had invested in 1891, he had real estate and railroad interests. His saw a future for the bicycle industry in its earliest beginnings, he may have foreseen the great war of the nations, to come only a few years after his death, for his development of the Miami Cycle Company included, the introduction of its wheeled productions into every market, second, the manufacture of shells and shrapnel which were in demand by the United States government. Realizing the vital necessity of railroads to the growth of a western community, he was the chief instrument in securing for Middletown a branch of the great Panhandle System, known as the M. and C. Railroad, he was the good genius of Middleton at critical periods.
When the Merchants' National Bank stood on the verge of failure, he purchased a controlling interest in its stocks and set the wheels in motion again, saving many depositors among his fellow townsmen from serious loss. He took charge of the affairs of the Middletown Gas Company at a critical period due to poor management, brought it back to prosperity, he was appointed by Governor Asa S. Bushnell, a leader in trust-busting, to be a delegate to a national Conference on Trusts in 1899; the topic of discussion was to be "Trusts and Combinations, their uses and abuses—Railway, labor and commercial," a subject on which Sorg could be said to be an expert. Paul John Sorg died in Middletown, where he was interred in Woodside Cemetery. United States Congress. "Paul J. Sorg". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Taylor, William A. Ohio in Congress from 1803 to 1901. Columbus, Ohio: The XX Century Publishing Company, 1901. Numerous articles from 1870 to 1910 in the New York Times. Index to Butler County Place Names Biographical Sketch "Paul J. Sorg".
Find a Grave. Retrieved 2009-05-24
Karmatrón y los Transformables is a Mexican science fiction and fantasy comic book created by Oscar González Loyo, published in 1986 by CEPSA. The weekly series was published only in Mexico, non-stop and during 5 years, from 1986 to 1991; the comic is considered one of the first Mexican sci-fi super robot "manga" and is notable because of its once-per-week publication schedule, something uncommon at its time of release. Karmatron depicts the adventures of an extraterrestrial humanoid called Zacek, emperor of the alien Zuyua people and a Kundalini warrior that an ancient prophecy announced to be the one who could restore the balance between light and darkness in the universe. Zacek was the bearer of the powerful Kalpe-Om, a magical belt that allowed him to transform himself into Karmatron, a 300 feet tall armoured spiritual warrior. Karmatron defended good and peace in all the universe fighting the forces of dark emperor Asura of Metnal and his evil god, the Master of Shadows, with the help of his numerous friends and his Transformables, an army of giant transformers.
On, he created smaller ones -like Magneto and Warp. The comic has been called a space opera by its author, though it had certain elements of comedy and fantasy; the story starts millions of years ago, in a distant place in the universe—Planet Zuyua—where Zacek lived peacefully as the youngest of two heirs to the Zuyuan throne. There, young Zacek learned advanced cybernetics as a career, he built robots and small, as a hobby, his father, emperor Canilek was the founder and leader of the Great Universal Alliance that opposed emperor Asura's militaristic campaign of universal conquest. In issue # 1, Asura's metnalian army invaded Planet Zuyua's capital city and forced the zuyuan people out of their own planet, as thousands of them were exterminated by emperor Asura's bloodthirsty occupation forces. In the middle of the attack, four giant robots programmed by Zacek to activate in case of peril burst into action, attacking Asura's soldiers and ships and wreaking havoc in the invading army. Enter the first of many Transformables: Titan, a robot/tank and the Transformables' leader.
These four unexpected robotic heroes helped the zuyuans to survive the invasion so they could plan their exodus to a safer planet. However, while zuyuan strategists planned an escape route from Planet Zuyua, emperor Canilek sent his two sons on a quest to seek the Planet of Eternity, a sacred, mystical place where spiritual warriors go to attempt to awake the Kundalini serpent that lived in Mount Meru, thus gain the spiritual transcendence, inner peace and power that comes with being a Kundalini. Canilek hoped that at least one of his sons became the prophetized Kundalini warrior who would defeat Asura and bring back peace to the universe. Canilek's best friend and advisor, was a spy who informed emperor Asura of Canilek's plans. Aspier was commanded by Asura to kill Canilek when the appropriate time came, which he gleefully did, helped by the turmoil of Asura's invasion. Meanwhile and his older brother Nazul arrived at the Planet of Eternity, but as they reached the sacred serpent's chamber located in the depths of Mount Meru, a metnalian soldier who followed them by Asura's command assaulted the two princes and managed to grab Nazul and take him to his ship before he could go into the serpent's resting place.
Zacek was unable to help his brother, because the heavy slab of stone that guarded the serpent's chamber entrance slammed shut in that precise moment, trapping him in there. A voice in the chamber told Zacek that he had no other choice than to follow his father's wishes and attempt to awake the Kundalini Serpent, which he reluctantly did; the zuyuan prince underwent the difficult task of awakening the sacred serpent, a feat that only the most spiritually enlightened and pure of heart could accomplish. Zacek managed to succeed in his mission, became a full-fledged Kundalini warrior. Katnatek, the first Kundalini warrior appeared before him and gave him his Kalpe-Om, the magical item that allowed him to transform in the most powerful warrior of good in this universe. By uttering a sacred mantra, Zacek transformed into Karmatron for the first time. Equipped with his powerful new armor, Karmatron rushed to Planet Metnal to save his brother, but he arrived too late. Emperor Asura tortured Nazul at his leisure, the dark emperor dumped him into Metnal's dreaded Darkness Zone, a place full of twisted, voracious man-eating beasts.
Karmatron arrived at the Darkness Zone only to find the mangled corpse of Nazul still being devoured by the monsters who dwelled there. He discovered that the evil emanations that impregnated the entire planet Metnal were noxious to him so he could only managed to escape from that horrid place with his brother's remains in his hands. Asura caught a glimpse of this awesome steel giant that came to his planet, he became violently enraged for he acknowledge him for what he was, knew him to be the source of many future problems; the comic book followed Zacek's further adventures as he battled Asura across the galaxies