Shortly after the jump, it began pouring down at the stadium, making the job of the other finalists more difficult. The East German who got silver jumped 8.19 metres.

And this is the bit you will like, Mr MacKay: one sports reporter called Beamon a man who had seen lightning. Never had he jumped more than 8.33 metres before his Olympic achievement and never would he jump more than 8.22 metres after those games. Just that once he succeeded in producing the perfect jump.

Bob Beamon’s world record remained in place for twenty- three years and is still the world’s second-best result today.

A SEA RESCUE

In 2014, a fibreglass boat drifted to an atoll in the Pacific Ocean. The boat was all scratched up and covered with mussels and other marine creatures. The following items were discovered inside: a waterfowl chick, still alive; a dead turtle; turtle shells; remnants of fish – and a thin, bearded, long-haired man clad only in a pair of threadbare underpants.

The man was led ashore. He appeared to know only Spanish and when, having drunk a couple of glasses of water, he began to talk, he kept repeating to himself, ‘I feel bad, very bad, I am very far away…’

He was extremely thin and confused.

The occupants of the atoll included a Norwegian marine scientist and some local inhabitants. At first, there was no one there who spoke Spanish. The man was taken to the mayor. He introduced himself as José Ivan and said he had set out from Mexico sixteen months earlier. But Mexico was 13,000 kilometres away.

José Ivan drew the mayor a picture. It showed a boat, with two men inside it. Then he drew an arrow to demonstrate that one of the men had fallen from the boat into the water. He drew turtles, birds and fish. He drew his own hands. He drew rain and turtle blood. He drew a light falling from the sky and a horse running alongside water. He drew children dancing in water with turtle shells. He drew till the point of the pencil snapped.

The researchers doubted José Ivan’s story. It transpired that José Ivan was a made-up name (the man appeared to have been living in Mexico illegally). It also seemed impossible for him to have drifted 13,000 kilometres in his small boat.

I found a photo of José Ivan on the internet. It had been taken two weeks after his landing. The man’s hair is short again and his beard has been shaved off. His skin is blotchy and seems to have peeled off in places. The expression in his eyes is joyless. And, Mr MacKay, guess what José Ivan says, according to the caption? ‘I just want to be left in peace.’

Wishing you a good winter.
Annu

Dear Mrs Heiskanen,

I laughed a lot, reading José Ivan’s story. The man drifts at sea for almost a year and a half, on his own, mostly, not knowing if he’ll ever make it ashore alive, and when he’s finally rescued, he says, ‘I just want to be left in peace’!