Walt Murphy is one of the finest track statisticians that I know. Walt does #ThisDayinTrack&FieldHistory, an excellent daily service that provides true geek stories about our sport. You can check out the service for FREE with a free one-month trial subscription! (email: WaltMurphy44@gmail.com ) for the entire daily service. We will post a few historic moments each day, beginning February 1, 2024.
Track & Field History is copyrighted by Walt Murphy News and Results Services, and all rights are reserved. RunBlogRun uses this content with permission.
This Day in Track & Field–August 14
1909–American Ralph Rose won the AAU title in the Shot Put with a (pre-IAAF) World Record toss of 50-3 1/8 (15.31?).
WR Progression: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men’s_shot_put_world_record_progression
1949–Fortune Gordien raised his American and World Records in the Discus to 186-11 (56.97) in Hämeenlinna, Finland.
WR Progression: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men’s_discus_world_record_progression
1953—Mal Whitfield ran 1:48.0 in Copenhagen to break his own American Record of 1:48.6 in the 800.
1982—Dave Volz vaulted 18-10 ¼ (5.75) in Nice to break his own American Record of 18-9 ½ (5.73)
1983—It was a busy schedule on the final day of action at the inaugural World Championships in Helsinki.
Eamonn Coghlan had become a legend on the U.S. indoor circuit, but had suffered much criticism back home in Ireland after finishing 4th in the 1500-meters at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal and 4th in the 5000 at the 1980 Games in Moscow. But all was forgiven after he won the 5000 meters here in Helsinki.
Intent on doing well at the last two Olympics, Coghlan stayed away from the pageantry of the Opening Ceremony. But he was determined to enjoy his experience at the inaugural World Championships and proudly served as the flag-bearer as the Irish team marched in the parade of nations in Helsinki.
Coghlan had gone through some tough times leading up to the Worlds. Jumbo Elliott, his coach at Villanova, passed away in 1981, and Gerry Farnan, his long-time coach in Ireland, died a year later. Injuries kept him out of action for all of 1982, and then, in February, 1983, his father, who came from Ireland to be with his son for the U.S. indoor season, died in his sleep at Coghlan’s home in Rye,NY.
Fully recovered from his 1982 injuries, Coghlan entered 1983 in great form, as evidenced by his 3:49.78 indoor mile record at the Meadowlands. But his last race before Helsinki left him filled with doubt. Weakened by a cold, he finished 4th in a high-profile mile that was won by Steve Scott over Sebastian Coe.
As he returned home to Dublin, he worried that he wouldn’t be at full strength for the Worlds, where he would step up to the 5000. For the first time, he visited the grave of Farnan, the man who always knew the right thing to say to get him motivated for his next race. Coghlan saw the epitaph on his old coach’s tombstone, which read:
“Don’t quit when you are beaten
Fight back to an even more glorious victory
Not only in competition, but also in life”
Coghlan wrote in his book, “Chairman of the Boards, Master of the Mile”, “I thought, ‘That’s exactly what Gerry was teaching us kids when we were growing up. Don’t quit, fight, fight, fight. It was an emotional moment. I bent down on my knees, said a prayer, as if I was directly talking to him and then plucked up a handful of grass from the grave and stuck it in my wallet’. You’ll be with me all the way, I whispered.”
Coghlan was content to stay off the lead during the early stages of the slow-paced race, but was in perfect position as the bell lap approached. He first moved into 2nd, past Germany’s Thomas Wessinghage, the man he had feared most coming into the race, then set his sights on the Soviet Union’s Dmitriy Dmitriyev, who was 5-6 meters in front.
Coghlan caught up to Dmitriyev on the backstretch, but held off moving past him, determined to wait for the right moment to unleash his kick. Coghlan drew even with Dmitriyev as they were coming off the final turn, took a quick peek at his rival, and thought to himself, “I’ve got him”. Brimming with confidence, a smiling Coghlan raised his clenched fists as he took the lead, confident that the win was his. He crossed the line in 13:28.53 as the valiant Dmitriyev slipped to 4th behind Germany’s Werner Schildauer (13:30.20) and Finland’s own Martti Vainio (13:30.34). Finishing 5th was American Doug Padilla (13:32.08).
While some questioned Coghlan’s gesture at the head of the stretch, he explained, “It wasn’t arrogance. It wasn’t cockiness. It wasn’t with any disrespect for (Dimtriyev). It was because here, having finished 4th twice, now I’m going to become the World Champion”. U2 was in the middle of a concert back home in Ireland, and lead singer Bono announced Coghlan’s victory to the crowd.
Mary Decker, winner of the 3000 earlier, completed her great double by winning the1500-meters. Decker had the lead at the bell, but was followed closely by the Soviet Union’s Zamira Zaytseva. As they entered the final turn, Zaytseva took the lead, cutting in maybe a little too soon on Decker. Zaytseva quickly opened a 5-meter lead, but the determined Decker ran her down and won in 4:00.90 as the straining Zaytseva fell to the ground and rolled across the finish line in 2nd (4:01.19). She was followed by teammates Yekaterina Podkopayava(4:02.25) and Ravilya Agletdinova-Kotovich(4:02.67).
After the qualifying round for the Men’s Pole Vault had been canceled twice by heavy rain, officials were forced to schedule a 27-man final!
There was no rain when the event finally got underway, but there were swirling winds that the vaulters had to deal with. Emerging as the winner after seven hours of competition was the virtually unknown Sergey Bubka, a 19-year old from Ukraine, who was the only man to clear 18-8 ¼ (5.70). This was the first of six World titles for Bubka, who, of course, went on to become the greatest vaulter in history (of course, Mondo Duplantis might have something to say about that before his career is over!). 2nd was Bubka’s teammate, Konstantin Volkov, and 3rd was Bulgaria’s Atanas Tarev–both cleared 18-4 ½ (5.60).
Cordner Nelson wrote in Track and Field News that the Men’s 1500 was “…the most ridiculously tactical championship race ever run”! Taking advantage of the slow pace (65-seconds for the first 400), was Great Britain’s Steve Cram, who ran a 52-flat last lap to finish off his win in 3:41.59.
Next across the line were favored Steve Scott (3:41.87), Morocco’s Said Aouita (3:42.02), and Great Britain’s Steve Ovett (3:42.34).
Calvin Smith (20.14) won the first of his two World titles in the Men’s 200-meters. Elliott Quow (20.41) was 2nd, followed by World Record holder Pietro Mennea (20.51).
18-year old Heike Daute (Drechsler) of East Germany won the Women’s Long Jump (23-10 3/4w [7.27]), while Carol Lewis won the bronze medal with a leap of 23-1 1/4w (7.04). Daute-Drechsler went on to win a 2nd World title 10 years later in 1993, and also was the gold medalist at the 1992 and 2000 Olympics. Winning the silver medal here was Romania’s Anișoara Cușmir-Stanciu (23-5 ½ [7.15]).
The U.S. was trailing the Men’s 4×400 relay when 3rd leg Willie Smith got close to Nikolay Chernyetskiy with 150-meters to go before the final exchange. Too close, apparently, since there was some slight contact and Smith went down.
As he tried to get up, Great Britain’s Todd Bennett ran into him, causing him to fall again and lose the baton. By the time Smith recovered, any chance for a medal was long gone. The Soviets continued on unchallenged, winning in 3:00.79, followed by West Germany (3:01.83) and Great Britain (3:03.53).
Australia’s Rob DeCastella won the Men’s Marathon (2:10:03) over Ethiopia’s Kedebe Balcha (2:10:27) and East Germany’s Waldemar Cierpinski (2:10:37), the 1976 & 1980 Olympic Champion.
East Germany’s Marita Koch won the Women’s 200 (22.13) over Jamaica’s Merlene Ottey (22.19) and Great Britain’s Kathy Smallwood-Cook (22.37). 4th was Florence Griffith-Joyner (22.46).
Winner of the Men’s Discus was Czech Imrich Bugár (222-2 [67.72]). Finishing 2-3 were Cuba’s Luis Delís (221-0 [67.36]) and Czech Gejza Valent (216-9[66.08]).
The Women’s 4×400 was won by East Germany (3:19.73), followed by Czechoslovakia (3:20.32) and the Soviet Union (3:21.16).
Decker’s double-win earned her Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year award.
https://vault.si.com/vault/1983/12/26/she-runs-and-we-are-lifted
Medalists: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_World_Championships_in_Athletics
IAAF Coverage
A Look Back: https://www.runnersworld.com/advanced/a20852481/remembering-the-1983-helsinki-world-championships/
Sports Illustrated Vault: https://vault.si.com/vault/1983/08/22/putting-it-all-on-the-line
“Chairman of the Boards, Master of the Mile”- http://tinyurl.com/2uehro8
Videos
M5000 Last Lap W1500 W4x400 M4x400 MMar-Finish W200 M200
Off The Track
You never know who you’re going to run into at the airport after a track meet
Konstantin Volkov, Sergey Bubka, and me, proving I really was a redhead back in the day! (I was able to get Bubka to autograph the photo a few years later)
NBC had assembled a T&F production/announcing team in 1978/1979 in preparation for its coverage of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. When the U.S. boycotted those Games, NBC only sent a small crew, since the network’s hours of coverage would be greatly reduced. While many of those early hires, myself included, were disappointed at missing the Olympics, we were able to work on other T&F broadcasts and were grateful to finally get the opportunity to work on a “big” event–these inaugural World Championships…Bruce Jenner was supposed to be in Helsinki as part of the announcing team, but stayed home to be with his wife, who was about to give birth!….NBC supplemented its U.S.-based crew with some British personnel, some of whom brought cricket gear to Finland. They challenged the Yanks to a match, and, of course, kicked our butts! (or did they? I ran into Graeme, a British cameraman, at the Tokyo Olympics and he says the Yanks won!)
