Charles Porter

1936 –

Charles ‘ Chilla’ Porter captured the imagination of the Australian public by challenging the first man to clear seven feet (2.13 metres), Charles Dumas of the United States, in the high jump at Melbourne. The competition concluded in the gathering gloom in the pre-floodlighting days of the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Porter and Dumas were the only jumpers to clear 2.10 metres (6 feet 10¾ inches) and then Dumas was the only one to jump 2.12 metres (6 feet 11½ inches). A six-time winner of the Australian high jump title, Porter won silver medals in that event at the Empire and Commonwealth Games at Cardiff 1958 and Perth 1962 and was unplaced in the Olympics at Rome 1960.