1.
GV EXT Athletes carrying flags at meeting in Tbilisi, Georgia, U.S.S.R.
0.10

2.
GVs Soviet flags raised as torch is lit
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3.
MVs Soviet jumper Vladimir Yaschenko limbering up (3 shots)
0.46

4.
CU Electronic sign showing 2.34 metres
0.50

5.
GV Yaschenko clears the jump and runs off across track (2 shots)
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Initials BB/0210


SPORT: ATHLETICS

Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Athletics -- and Soviet athlete Vladimir Yaschenko has broken his own world high jump record at an international athletics meeting in Tbilisi, Georgia.

SYNOPSIS: The official world record for high jump which Vladimir Yaschenko held was 4 ft. 7 3/4 inches (2.33 metres). There have been unsubstantiated reports of higher jumps -- for example the Tutsi tribesmen in Central Africa say they have cleared heights of up to 8 ft. 2 1/2 inches (2.50 metres) -- but from inclined take-offs.

As Vladimir Yaschenko limbered up he may well have been thinking of his last jump in March this year in Milan, when he cleared 2.35 metres. However, this was indoors, and was not eligible for ratification as a world record, so his previous jump of 2.34 metres, set in Richmond, Virginia in the United States still held.

The electronic sign shows the height of the pole to be cleared. Yaschenko broke his world record by one centimetre.