Photos: Mind over gravity
The Enterprise — Marcello Iaia
The flop: At the high jump during the state championships at the University at Albany June 13, athletes hurled themselves over a thin rod, each with his own variation of the arched-back move known as the “Fosbury Flop,” named after Olympic gold medalist Dick Fosbury, where jumpers land on their backs and shoulders.
The Enterprise — Marcello Iaia
Guilderland junior Zaviir Berry stretches out his arms, and faces directly backward during the high jump. An aspiring engineer, Berry, 17, says the flop is a way jumpers transfer the center of gravity almost outside of their bodies as they clear the bar, allowing the forces, generated by their jumps and the motion of their limbs, to carry through.
The Enterprise — Marcello Iaia
The long view: Berry looks on calmly as other jumpers make attempts Saturday. Besides the physics involved in jumping, he says the other important element is confidence. Before graduating, Berry’s goal is to break his coach’s record; Jason Usher jumped 6 feet, 9 ¼ inches in the 1995 state qualifier, competing as a Guilderland student. So far, Berry has gone from 5 feet, 6 inches to 6 feet, 3 inches in a few years. On Saturday, he made 6 feet, 2 inches but missed two inches higher and ranked at 13 in the finals.
The Enterprise — Marcello Iaia
Hasani Rathan, a man of will, clears the bar on his way to victory Saturday. Unlike most jumpers, Rathan doesn’t use a marked starting point from which to run into his jump. He was eventually the only one to clear 6 feet, 10 inches, his personal record, and missed at 7 feet, taking first place. Rathan, 18, is from William Floyd School District on Long Island and plans to jump for the University at Buffalo next fall.