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This Day in Track & Field–September 28
1878—Rene La Montague ran 10.0 for 100-yards at the West Brighton Grounds on NY’s Staten Island to equal his own American Record. He actually ran 101 yards, since, under the rules in effect at the time, he had been assessed the extra yard for committing a false start!
1968—The highlight of this pre-Olympic meet in Victoria, BC, was the men’s 4×100 relay, where a U.S. “B” team (39.1) of Charlie Mays, Larry Questad, John Carlos, and Tommie Smith beat the “A” team that consisted of Charlie Greene, Mel Pender, Ronnie Ray Smith, and Jim Hines. The “A” team went on to win the gold medals at the Mexico City Olympics.
(scroll down-#8): https://forum.trackandfieldnews.com/forum/historical/1730140-john-carlos
1975–Tom Fleming won the 6th NY City Marathon in 2:19:27 (he also won in 1973). This was the last year the race, which also served as the U.S. Women’s Championship, was held entirely in Central Park before stretching out to all five boroughs in 1976. The women’s winner was Kim Merritt in 2:46:14. Sheldon Karlin, the 1972 winner, finished 10th (2:33:27). Fleming passed away in 2017 at the age of 65.
Starters/Finishers: 532/339 Men: 488/303, Women: 44/36
A Look Back(2011): http://www.garycohenrunning.com
/Interviews/Fleming.aspx
Past Winners: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_winners_of_the_New_York_City_Marathon
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/21/sports/tom-fleming-died-new-york-marathon-winner.html?mcubz=3
1975—The Netherlands’ Jos Hermens, now one of the world’s leading athlete managers, set a World Record of 57:31.6 for 20,000-Meters and continued on to set a 2nd WR of 20,907-meters for the 1-hour run in Papendal. The previous Record of 57:44.4 and 20,784m was set by Belgium’s Gaston Roelants in 1972.
1985–Ireland’s Frank O’Mara (3:52.28), a late addition to the race, won the 5th Avenue Mile over Ross Donoghue (3:52.81). Others in this loaded field included Steve Ovett (3rd-3:53.36), Eamonn Coghlan (4th-3:54.39), Mike Boit (6th-3:54.65), Abdi Bile (7th-3:54.78), Ray Flynn (8th-3:56.97), and John Walker (10th-3:58.80).
Canada’s Lynn Williams won the Women’s race in 4:25.03, with Francie Larrieu-Smith finishing 5th in 4:33.16.
Winner of the high school boys race for the 2nd year in a row was John Trautmann (4:04.65), while Shola Lynch won the girls race in 4:48.20.
https://www.nytimes.com/1985/09/29/sports/o-mara-wins-mile-in-upset.html
Winners: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_Avenue_Mile
1988–19-year old Steve Lewis led a U.S. sweep in the Men’s 400-Meters at the Seoul Olympics, with World Record holder Butch Reynolds (43.93) and Danny Everett (44.09) following him across the finish line. Lewis ran 43.87 to set the still-standing World Junior/Under 20 Record.
Joe DeLoach beat training partner Carl Lewis (19.79) to win the Men’s 200 Meters and set Olympic and American Records with his winning time of 19.75. Brazil’s Robson da Silva finished 3rd in 20.04.
Sergey Bubka (19-4 ¼ [5.90m]) led a Soviet sweep in the Pole Vault, with Rodion Gataulin (19-2 ¼ [5.85]) and Grigoriy Yegerov (19-1/4 [5.80]) winning the silver and bronze, respectively. Bubka would eventually win 6 World Outdoor Championship titles, but this would be his only Olympic victory. American Earl Bell was tied for first after clearing 18-8 ¼ (5.70) on his 1st attempt, but missed his 3 attempts at 18-10 ¼ (5.75).
The finish of the Women’s 400-Meter Hurdles was so close, officials at first announced the wrong winner! The Soviet Union’s Tatyana Ledovskaya (53.18) had a big lead coming off the final hurdle, but was passed right at the finish by the hard-charging Aussie, Debbie Flintoff-King (53.17). Winning the bronze medal was East Germany’s Ellen Fiedler (53.63).
Florence Griffith-Joyner won her ¼-final race in the Women’s 200-Meters in 21.76 to shave a tenth off her American Record.
Seoul Medalists: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_at_the_1988_Summer_Olympics
Videos: M400 M200 W400h Men’s PV
2000–Greece’s Konstantinos Kenteris won the Men’s 200 (20.09) at the Sydney Olympics as favored John Capel, thinking there would be a recall, hesitated in his blocks and finished 8th and last (20.49). Winning silver and bronze were Great Britain’s Darren Campbell (2014) and Trinidad & Tobago’s Ato Boldon (20.20). It was the 4th Olympic medal for Boldon, who had won bronze in the 100 & 200 in 1996, and silver in the 100 earlier in Sydney.
Marion Jones finished first in the Women’s 200 (21.84), but it was the Bahamas’ Pauline Davis (22.27) who wound up with the gold medal after Jones was later disqualified. Silver and bronze went to Sri Lanka’s Susanthika Jayasinghe (22.28) and Jamaica’s Beverly McDonald (22.35).
Estonia’s Erki Nool (8641) won the Decathlon over the Czech Republic’s Roman Šebrle (8606) and American Chris Huffins (8595). Nool trailed Huffins by 14 points after 9 events, but easily overtook him in the 1500-Meters (4:29.48-4:38.71) to capture the gold medal. While the 1500 was one of his weakest events, Huffins bettered his personal best by 12 seconds to salvage the bronze medal (Great Britain’s Dean Macey was a close 4th with a score of 8567 points). American Tom Pappas finished 5th (8425). One of Nool’s coaches was Great Britain’s Daley Thompson, the gold medalist in the Decathlon at the 1980 and 1984 Olympics.
Nool caught a break in the Discus. After fouling on his first two throws, he fouled again on his 3rd throw, but successfully appealed the call and was granted an extra throw (143-3 [43.66]).
Czech Tomáš Dvořák, the World Record holder in the event (8994), was hampered by a knee injury and could only manage a 6th-place finish (8385).
Cuba’s Iván Pedroso, a winner at 7 World Championships (4 Indoors, 3 Outdoors), was a heavy favorite to win the Men’s Long Jump, but needed a 6th-round leap of 28-3/4 (8.55) to overtake Australia’s Jai Turima, who had set a National Record of 27-10 ¼ (8.49) in the 5th round. Turima, who electrified the crowd of 110,000 by battling Pedroso throughout the competition, fell short with his final jump of 27-2 (8.28) The bronze medal went to Ukraine’s Roman Shchurenko
(26-3 ½ [8.01]). Pedroso would win his final Indoor and Outdoor World titles in 2001.
Dwight Phillips was the top American finisher in 8th place, marking the first time the U.S. had not won at least one medal in the event at the Olympics (excluding the 1980 boycott year). Phillips would go on to win gold 4 years later in Athens.
Medalists in other events:
Women’s Shot Put: Belarus’s Yanina Korolchik (67-5 ½ [20.56]), Russia’s Larisa Peleshenko (65-4 ¼ [19.92]),
Germany’s Astrid Kumbernuss (64-4 ½ [19.62]/defending champion)
Women’s 20k-Walk: China’s Wang Liping (1:29:05), Norway’s Kjersti Plätzer (1:29:33), Spain’s Maria Vasco
(1:30:23)
Medalists: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_at_the_2000_Summer_Olympics
Videos: W200 M200 MLJ
The Decathlon gets in-depth treatment early in this 2-hour feature (18:02 mark):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xHMsL6sSLQ
John Capel, after winning the 2003 World title: “Sydney, Australia, haunts me every night,” he said. “It took the fire out of me. To actually be back…again to show that I can be one of the top sprinters in the world, it helps me out a lot.”
&;https://worldathletics.org/news/news/capel-burying-the-ghosts-of-sydney
2003–Paul Tergat set a World Record of 2:04:55 in the Berlin Marathon, but barely won the race over fellow Kenyan Sammy Korir, whose runnerup time of 2:04:56 was also under the previous mark of 2:05:38, set by American Khalid Khannouchi in 2002. Tergat’s time was the first mark officially recognized by the IAAF as a WR, and was the first of 8 consecutive alterations of the WR set in Berlin.
WR Progression: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marathon_world_record_progression
http://www.letsrun.com/2003/tergatberlin.php
A Look Back (2023): https://worldathletics.org/heritage/news/paul-tergat-kenya-berlin-marathon-sub-205
