This was perhaps the greatest long jump competition ever as both of the top two athletes achieved distances beyond the then world record which had stood for almost 23 years (though one was over the wind-legal limit of 2.0 m/s). Both made the best wind-legal jumps of their careers in this competition; the still best and still third best wind-legal jumps in history; and the best two long jumps not aided by altitude.

Carl Lewis' record at the time was: two time Olympic Gold Medalist, two time World Champion (in the era when it was also still a once-every-4-year event) and, having been undefeated in ten years, he was deservedly considered the best long jumper in the world. Lewis had set the World Record in the 100 metres sprint 5 days earlier. Lewis was in the lead through four rounds: his first round jump of 8.68 set a new championship record, then his third round jump set his then personal record, albeit wind assisted at 8.83w.

Mike Powell's fourth round jump looked like it was in the range of Lewis, but was ruled a foul. The closeness of the call upset Powell: he went down to his knees at the board trying to see the microscopic indentation into the plasticine indicating it was a foul. Lewis' fourth round jump was wind-aided, but, at 8.91w m, it was the longest ever competition long jump in history, beating the existing wind-legal world record set by Bob Beamon at altitude at the 1968 Summer Olympics. Powell's wind-legal fifth round jump topped both, setting the world record at 8.95 m (29 ft 4.36 in). But the competition was not over. Moments later Lewis answered with his lifetime wind-legal personal record of 8.87 m (29 ft 1.21 in) (into a slight head-wind: -0.2 m/s). Both athletes still had one jump remaining. Powell fouled, and Lewis made his second best wind-legal jump of 8.84 m (29 ft 0.03 in).

Thus the competition included three of the five best wind-legal long-jumps ever (to 30 August 2018, at least); two of them by Carl Lewis, plus a wind-aided jump by Lewis beyond the then world record (a record he had been chasing for ten years), yet Lewis still finished in second place. Since this competition, no athlete, including Powell and Lewis, has 'legally' jumped within 20 cm of Powell's world record (though some had in the previous decade or so).

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Championship records were as follows.

World Record	Bob Beamon (USA)	8.90	Mexico City, Mexico	18 October 1968
Championship Record	Carl Lewis (USA)	8.67	Rome, Italy	5 September 1987

• Startlist

Order / Lane	ATHLETE	COUNTRY	PB	SB 1991
1	Vladimir Ochkan	URS	8.34	7.84i
2	Hitoshi Shimo	JPN	8.10	8.10
3	Jonathan Moyle	NZL	7.55
4	Milan Gombala	TCH
5	Edrick Floréal	CAN	8.20	8.20
6	Khalid Ahmed Mousa	SUD	7.35
7	Lotfi Khaida	ALG	7.51
8	Carl Lewis	USA	8.79	8.64
9	Jesús Oliván	ESP	8.12	8.12
10	James Sabulei	KEN
11	George Ogbeide	NGR	8.24	8.24
12	Paulo De Oliveira	BRA
13	Badara Mbengue	SEN	7.69
14	Francois Reteno	GAB
15	David Culbert	AUS	8.13
16	Giovanni Evangelisti	ITA	8.43	7.93i
17	Mark Forsythe	GBR
18	Ivan Stoyanov	BUL
19	Andre Müller	GER	8.11	7.76i
20	Zunrong Chen	CHN	8.26	8.26
21	Frans Maas	NED	7.84i	7.45i
22	Jaime Jefferson	CUB	8.53	8.26

Order / Lane	ATHLETE	COUNTRY	PB	SB 1991
1	Geng Huang	CHN	7.57i	7.57i
2	Kareem Streete-Thompson	CAY	8.09	8.09
3	Ángel Hernández	ESP	8.15	7.75i
4	Mike Powell	USA	8.66	8.63
5	Fausto Frigerio	ITA
6	Robert Emmiyan	URS	8.86
7	Krasimir Minchev	BUL
8	Ian James	CAN	7.54
9	Mattias Sunneborn	SWE
10	Larry Myricks	USA	8.74	8.50
11	Csaba Almasi	HUN	7.71i	7.71i
12	Dietmar Haaf	GER	8.25	8.23
13	Franck Zio	BUR	7.49
14	Murat Ayaydin	TUR	7.89	7.60i
15	Borut Bilac	YUG	8.24
16	Bogdan Tudor	ROU	7.95i	7.95i
17	Craig Hepburn	BAH
18	Dmitriy Bagryanov	URS	7.90i	7.90i
19	Jarmo Kärnä	FIN	8.16
20	Musabbah Ali Saeed	UAE
21	Konstadínos Koukodímos	GRE	8.26	8.26