Only five men in history have flown further: Americans Mike Powell, Bob Beamon and Carl Lewis, Soviet athlete Robert Emmiyan and Cuban Ivan Pedroso.
The jump placed him within 17cms of Mike Powell's world record and passed Jai Taurima's national mark by 29cm. "I knew it was big," Lapierre explained, "but I didn't know how big until I went and looked at the tape and then it was like, `Oh my God, 8.78m'. That's only 17cm from the world record and I couldn't believe it."
However, in a cruel twist the performance cannot be recognised because of a strong tailwind measured at 3.1m a second (the limit for records is 2.0m/s). Lapierre displayed the enthusiasm that will push him onward in explaining the tailwind and non-ratification of the record did not matter.
"I know I can do it, wind or no wind. I'm going to break 8.50m this year, no matter what," he said. "It's just going to be a matter of time."
The effort has heads turning and asking who is this athletic sensation? At the Bejing Olympics Fabrice jumped 7.90m. Last year he jumped a personal best of 8.35m (Madrid) and signalled his talent in March by winning the 2010 World Indoor Championships (8.17m) (Doha, Qatar).
"It's always been there," Lapierre said. "People don't understand that one day I'm going to jump even more exceptional than that. It's only a matter of time until I do something crazy and everyone is going to take notice." This "crazy" jump has made the athletics world take notice and has put Lapierre as favourite heading towards the Commonwealth Games in October.
The Commonwealth Games has been a successful sanctuary for developing our athletic hopefuls. A team of 69 is set for the Games with Lapierre confident of jumping even further.
One athlete that knows Commonwealth Games success is Stuart Gyngell. Like Lapierre he set the athletic world on fire with national junior then senior records in the Shot Put. He then won bronze at the 1986 Commonwealth Games. Because of his size and profile this man mountain even appeared in the Mad Max 2 movie.
However, he shocked the sporting world by walking away from the sport. Throughout this whole journey Gyngell's faith in Jesus remained strong. Gyngell entered full-time Christian service and became chaplain to the Australian athletics community.
With a huge servant heart Gyngell faithfully served and cared for the people in athletics. More than 20 years after his last Commonwealth Games Shot Put achievements, Stuart Gyngell returned to the sport, not as a chaplain but as a competitor again.
At the 2007 national championships he Shot 17.40m winning bronze. His return to the sport has again given him a profile to share what Christ has done for him and how Jesus is part of his sport and life.