Outside the lines of the track and beyond the hurdles exists a track and field event that lies off the beaten path.
While it may be an obscure sport, the triple jump has survived just as long as the Olympic Games, dating back to 1829 B.C. as an event in the ancient Irish Tailteann Games.
Even the LSU track and field triple jumpers acknowledge the distinctness of the sport. Senior jumper Lynnika Pitts admits her ignorance when she was first introduced to the event as a freshman at East Ascension High School, while senior jumper Fitzroy Dunkley still finds himself explaining the event’s concept to his friends.
“My coach said [triple jump] and I was just like, ‘Is that English? What’re you saying?’” Pitts said.
“I’ve met a bunch of people that haven’t known what the triple jump is,” Dunkley said. “I would just describe it as the three-step jump. … Or I just tell them to go on YouTube.”

Understanding the idea of the triple jump came easy for Pitts and Dunkley, but learning to execute it was a challenge.
Dunkley breaks the sport down into three phases: the runway, the jump and the landing.
Before one can get to the hop, skip and jump, as the triple jump is often described, Dunkley said one must perfect the runway phase.
Standing 40 meters from his finish line, the sand pit, Dunkley leans back to obtain balance. The Trelawny, Jamaica, native sprints down the runway in pursuit of his takeoff point, the 20-centimeter wide board that sits 11 meters away from the pit.
Unlike running events, one misstep in the triple jump can affect your entire performance, Dunkley said. The run is the most important part of the three-step process, but staying relaxed is also crucial, he said.
“I don’t think about anything,” Dunkley said. “Your body knows. You’ve done it a million times. You can feel the rhythm. You don’t count your steps in your head. You just know you’re at the board and it’s time to jump.”
A solid first jump is critical for achieving a sound distance, but attempting three jumps at once demands smoothness on the runway.
An effective triple jump looks more like one glide into the sand than three separate jumps, Dunkley said. But mastering the rhythm takes a good deal of practice.
“It was difficult for me to learn at first,” Pitts said. “It took me a couple weeks to get down the rhythm and a long time to actually perfect it. … Let’s just say those first jumps weren’t pretty.”
Since her first attempts at the unique track and field event, Pitts has developed into one of LSU’s most successful triple jumpers as the No. 7 ranked Lady Tiger in program history.
The Prairieville native recently earned a career-best third place finish at the 2014 NCAA Indoor Championships on March 15.
Pitts also joined Dunkley at the SEC Indoor Championships on Feb. 28 where both athletes set personal records with jumps of 44 feet, 3/4 inches and 51 feet, 5 inches, respectively.
Pitts and Dunkley are the leading triple jumpers on LSU’s women’s and men’s track and field teams, respectively. Joining three other LSU triple jumpers, Dunkley and Pitts are two elite competitors in a sport unlike any other.
But no matter how peculiar the triple jump may seem, it remains an exclusive sport.
“No one can just get up one day and say, ‘Hey, I’m going to triple jump,’” Dunkley said. “You can get up and say you’re going to do the 100 [meter]. But if you try to do the triple jump you might get yourself hurt. You have to learn all the different phases. To put it all in one, it’s all complicated.”

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Taylor Balkom

LSU freshman jumper Jonathan Pitt prepares to run down the track Tuesday, April 22, 2014 in Bernie Moore Stadium.