Straddle technique straight, and head and trunk pass the bar at the same time. Charles Dumas, the first high jumper to clear 7 ft, and John Thomas (silver medal at the 1964 Olympics) used this technique. Valeriy Brumel (gold in 1964) dove a little bit, his head going over the bar before his trunk. Probably the most extreme exponent of the dive straddle was Bob Avant, who cleared 7 ft. in 1961. Avant's technique was close to a pure dive, with just a small knee lift on his lead leg. The last world record jump with the straddle technique was Vladimir Yashchenko's
India at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics major global sporting event. Selected athletes have achieved one of the competition's qualifying standards. India at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics India' participated in the 2009 World Championships in Athletics held at Berlin from 15–23 August. Six Indian athletes had qualified for the Championships, but none of them won any medal. Only Babubhai Panucha, who competed in the 20 km walk category managed to establish a new National record clocking a time of 1:23:06 beating his own previous record time. Athletics Federation of India had sent a team of six athletes for the competition, which is ranked only next