His performance in the gym tests was simply astonishing, smashing his own parallel bars record in the starkly lit Wycombe sports centre with an awesome 100 in 54 seconds; had he pushed himself all the way to the minute he could easily have added more. His innovative 'rocking' technique (like Budd's sliding squat thrusts) was widely copied, but none of his rivals could get anywhere near him, and though Sherwood again pushed him close in the squats section, in reality Jacks was in a class of one here.