But first, when is a world record attempt not a world record attempt? When it’s Manchester United winger Anthony Elanga jumping on a box…
When is a record not a record?
Mediawatch is not about to downplay a 63-inch box jump because Mediawatch would struggle to pull off a six-inch box jump, but the coverage of Anthony Elanga’s really quite impressive feat has been ludicrous:
‘Anthony Elanga nearly breaks world record in Man Utd pre-season training after showing off impressive box jumps’ – The Sun.
‘Anthony Elanga nearly breaks world record in pre-season training at Man Utd’ – Mirror.
‘Anthony Elanga almost breaks world record as he prepares for Manchester United return’ – Manchester Evening News.
Sorry, but you cannot ‘nearly’ or ‘almost’ break a world record jump unless you attempt to break that record.
No, he was not ‘inches away from breaking a world record’ (The Sun) because what he did was complete a 63-inch box jump, which is not the same as nearly completing a 67-inch box jump. Nowhere close.
Indeed, Twitter is full of people who managed the 63-inch box jump and we don’t see anybody proclaiming that they nearly broke a world record. Here are just a couple:
63” inch max box jump today. pic.twitter.com/O330OzN5vr
— mercury swaim (@MercurySwaim) March 25, 2022
🚨 PR ALERT 🚨 PR ALERT 🚨
ANOTHER Day at the gym which means ANOTHER PR broken. Yesterday I completed a 63 inch run approach box jump. Little sloppy but got the job done. 👀😬 pic.twitter.com/r0Q3ZSY0gv— D3Westbrook (@art0rosquist) July 25, 2020
Mediawatch is old enough to remember UK high jumper Steve Smith clearing 2.35. We are pretty sure nobody ever claimed that he nearly broke Javier Sotomayor’s world record of 2.45 even though the difference was JUST INCHES.
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