Walt Murphy is one of the finest track geeks 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.
by Walt Murphy’s News and Results Service (wmurphy25@aol.com), used with permission
This Day in Track & Field–September 22
1888—George Gray set the 1st of his 8 pre-IAAF World Records in the Shot Put with his winning toss of 43-10 ¾(13.38) at the NYAC Fall Games on NY’s Travers Island.
Wilson Coudon set his 4th (and final) American Record of 117-9 1/2 (35.90) in the Hammer Throw in NY City. “The Strongest Man in Maryland” was a 2-time U.S. Champion in the Hammer (1883, 1886) and the 56-pound Weight Throw.
1956—Bud Held set the last of his 6 American Records in the Javelin with a throw of 270-0 (82.30) in Pasadena, California.
AR Progression: http://trackfield.brinkster.net/RecProg_AllUSA.asp?RecCode=WR&EventCode=MF8&Gender=M&P=F
Hall of Fame Bio: https://www.usatf.org/athlete-bios/franklin-bud-held
1960—Earlene Brown set her 7th (and final) American Record in the Shot Put with a toss of 54-9 (16.69) in Frankfurt, Germany. Brown had won the bronze medal at the Rome Olympics earlier.
AR Progression: http://trackfield.brinkster.net/RecProg_AllUSA.asp?RecCode=WR&EventCode=WF5&Gender=W&P=F
HOF Bio: https://www.usatf.org/athlete-bios/earlene-brown
1968—East Germany’s Margitta Gummel set a World Record of 61-11 (18.87) in the Women’s Shot Put at a pre-Olympic meet in Frankfurt. She would take the Record to another level the following month with throws of 62-6 ¾ (19.07) and 64-4 (19.61) while winning the gold medal at the Mexico City Olympics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margitta_Gummel
WR Progression: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_shot_put_world_record_progression
1983—China’s Jianhua Zhu improved his World Record in the High Jump from 7-9 ¼ (2.37) to 7-9 ¾ (2.38) in Shanghai.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfNPSqYljK4
WR Progression: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men’s_high_jump_world_record_progression
1985—East German athletes set 3 World Records in East Berlin today.
Ulf Timmermann threw the Shot 74-2 ½ (22.62) to smash the World Record of 72-10 ¾ (22.22) that was set in 1985 by fellow East German Udo Beyer, who finished 2nd here with a throw of 71-9 ½ (21.88).
Sabine Busch won the Women’s 400-meter Hurdles in 53.55, breaking the World Record of 53.58 set by the Soviet Union’s Margarita Ponomaryova in 1984.
Taking advantage of a just-legal 2.0mps following wind, Heike Drechsler won the Women’s Long Jump with a leap of 24-5 (7.44). The previous mark of 24-4 ½ (7.43) was set by Romania’s Anişoara Cuşmir in 1983.
WR Progressions(field event conversions are unofficial):
MSP: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men’s_shot_put_world_record_progression
W400h: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_400_metres_hurdles_world_record_progression
WLJ: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_long_jump_world_record_progression
1990—Great Britain’s Peter Elliott won the Men’s division of the Mercedes 5th Avenue Mile for the 3rd time in the last 4 years on a chilly and rainy day in New York. His time of 3:47.83 fell just short of Sydney Maree’s course record of 3:47.52.
PattiSue Plumer won the Women’s race in 4:16.68 to break the CR of 4:19.48 set by Romania’s Maricica Puica in 1986. Runnerup Natalya Artyomova (RUS) was also under the previous record with her time of 4:17.49
Plumer, who had predicted that Sandra Gasser of Switzerland would win, was dumbfounded that she had proved herself wrong. ”I can’t believe I did it,” she said moments after crossing the finish line. (Glaser finished 4th-4:20.61).
Fred Lebow, the president of the New York Road Runners Club, attributed the fast times to the 82d-to-62d Street course’s fresh pavement of glassphalt, a new recycled glass product.
Other leading finishers (Men) 2. Steve Cram (GBR) 3:48.39, 3.William Tanui (KEN) 3:50.52, 4.José Luís González (ESP) 3:51.33, 5.Jim Spivey 3:52.04…10.Marcus O’Sullivan (IRL) 3:55.49…14.Steve Scott 3:57.16, 15.Said Aouita (MAR) 3:58.42.
NY Times
Winners: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_Avenue_Mile
2000—Poland’s Robert Korzeniowski (1:18:59/Olympic Record) won the Men’s 20-kilometer Walk on the 1st day of competition at the Sydney Olympics. Winning silver and bronze were Mexico’s Noé Hernández (1:19:03) and Russia’s Vladimir Andreyev (1:19:27). 4th was Ecuador’s Jefferson Pérez (1:20:18), the defending champion.
Korzeniowski, the 1996 gold medalist in the 50k-Walk, would win that event again later in Sydney and for a 3rdtime in 2004.
Mexico’s Bernardo Segura thought he won the gold medal after overtaking Korzeniowski shortly before they reentered the stadium for the finish. Still, he had already been disqualified by officials for multiple violations. It was only after Segura had received a congratulatory phone call from Mexico’s President that he was informed of his disqualification. An appeal by Mexican officials was rejected.
Finland’s Arsi Harju won the Men’s Shot Put with his 2nd-round toss of 69-10 ¼ (21.29). Taking the following 3 places was the American trio of Adam Nelson (69-7 [21.21]), John Godina (69-6 ¾ [21.20]), and Andy Bloom (68-5 ¾ [20.87]).
Results: https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/olympic-games/27th-olympic-games-6951910
Video-M20kW: https://olympics.com/en/video/men-s-20km-race-walk-sydney-2000-great-olympic-moments
Olympia Reports: https://www.olympedia.org/editions/25/sports/ATH
