Byron Jones, a collegiate American football star hoping for an NFL career, leaped what could be a historic mark in the standing long jump on Monday at the NFL Scouting Combine.
Jones, a defensive back from the University of Connecticut, made a standing jump of 3.73 metres during a testing session in the discipline at the combine, which allows NFL clubs to test prospects speed, strength and fitness in various ways.
Jones, still recovering from a torn labrum, is thought to have set a world best in the seldom-contested standing broad jump, his distance surpassing that of Norway's Arne Tvervaag, who leaped 3.71m in 1968.
USA Track and Field tweeted a vine link to Jones' leap with the message: "Apparently @Byron16Jump has an appropriate Twitter handle."
The long jump by Jones inside the Indianapolis Colts' domed home stadium eclipsed the combine mark of 3.53m set in 2013 by Jamie Collins, a linebacker for the New England Patriots.
The standing long jump was a medal event at the Olympics four times, won three times by American Ray Ewry in 1900 at Paris, 1904 at St. Louis and 1908 in London.
It was last contested at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics when Greek jumper Konstantinos Tsiklitiras won.
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