by Larry EderWalt 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: [email protected] ) 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 ([email protected]), used with permission
This Day in Track & Field–September 26
1967—A fund-raising dinner was held in Vancouver, British Columbia, the site of the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games that featured the Miracle Mile, the race in which history’s first two sub-4 minute milers met in a classic duel.
England’s Roger Bannister beat Australia’s John Landy in that race and both were the featured guests at the affair. Joining them were Canadian sprint legends Percy Williams, the 1928 Olympic gold medalist in the 100 and 200, and Harry Jerome, the 1964 NCAA Champion while at Oregon, and…comedian Bob Hope!
http://www.miraclemile1954.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Williams_(sprinter)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Jerome
1981— In the inaugural Pepsi Challenge Fifth Avenue Mile on New York City’s famed thoroughfare, Sydney Maree defeated a stunning field that included Eamonn Coghlan, Steve Scott, John Walker, Steve Cram, Ray Flynn, and runner-up Mike Boit, by two seconds in 3:47.52, which remained the fastest time in the history of the event until Scotland’s Josh Kerr ran 3:44.3 in 2024! Over the next four years, Maree would go on to set American records at 1500, the mile, and 5000 meters. American Leann Warren won the women’s race in 4:25.21.
Maree’s fast time, 2nd only to Sebastian Coe’s track WR of 3:47.33 at the time, is attributed to the fact that once the runners reached the crest of the one uphill section of the course, they could see the finish line and started kicking—with 600-meters still to go!
Ross Donoghue, the designated rabbit, led the field through the first 1/4-mile in 53.2, while Tom Byers led at the half-way point in a sizzling 1:52.8. Maree soon took the lead, passing the ¾ split in 2:52.6 before pulling away to his impressive win.
“I’ve never gone into such oxygen debt,” said Walker. Boit said, “It was so difficult. I could see the finish. I was sprinting as fast as I could. But I was not gaining ground.”
Originally, there were to have been pacing clocks every five blocks, but even had they been set up, they would have been ignored. “We couldn’t have turned to look at them,” Ireland’s Ray Flynn said. “It was too intense a race. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Villanova grad Maree, a new permanent U.S. resident, had won his 2nd NCAA title at 1500-meters in June and had competed internationally during the summer for the first time after previously being banned because of his South African heritage. He said after the race, ”This race was a thank you to the American people, to American track and field officials and to the people who trusted me and allowed me to compete in international competition. ‘I wanted to show them a good show”.
The creation of Fred Lebow, the visionary head of the NY Road Runners, the event drew 100,000 fans who lined both sides of 5th Avenue, and is still going strong. And, just like the 1976 NY City Marathon inspired other big-city marathons, road miles are popular all over the world. (The course ran from 82nd St.-62nd St., while it now runs from 80th St.-60th St.)
Results
Men: 1.Sydney Maree 3:47.52, 2.Mike Boit (Kenya) 3:49.59, 3.Thomas Wessinghage (Germany) 3:50.48, 4.Steve Cram (Great Britain) 3:50.78, 5.Ray Flynn (Ireland) 3:51.49, 6.John Walker (New Zealand) 3:53.26
7.Steve Scott 3:53.84, 8.Tom Byers 3:56.24, 9.Eamonn Coghlan (Ireland) 3:57.23, 10.Ross Donoghue 3:58.74, 11.Omar Khalifa (Sudan) 3:59.5(ht), 12.Vince Draddy 4:01.0(ht), 13.Craig Masback 4:08.3
Women:1.Leann Warren (USA) 4:25.31, 2.Brit McRoberts (CAN) 4:28.34, 3.Boxer (GBR) 4:28.90, 4.Jan Merrill (USA) 4:31.49), 5.Monica Joyce (IRL) 4:32.20, 6.Joan Hansen (USA) 4:32.8, 7.Maggie Keys (USA)4:34.7, 8.Kim Gallagher (Upper Dublin H.S.,PA) 4:36.4, 9.Cindy Bremser (USA)4:29.3, 10.Ellen Wessinghage (West Germany) 4:39.4, 11.Brenda Webb (USA) 4:41.1, 12.Cathie Twomey (USA) 4:42.9.
https://www.nytimes.com/1981/09/27/sports/maree-runs-3-47.52-wins-5th-ave-mile.html
How The Race Came To Be: https://www.nytimes.com/1981/09/28/sports/fifth-avenue-mile-tribute-to-runners.html
Race Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAnHs6eTYgU
Sports Illustrated Vault(Lebow)
Winners: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_Avenue_Mile
1988—After running 3 rounds on the three previous days at the Seoul Olympics, the stage was set for a wild final of the Men’s 800-Meters.
It was a loaded field, with Kenya’s Nixon Kiprotich and the Brazilian duo of José Luíz Barbosa and Joaquim Cruz, the defending Olympic champion, fighting for the lead on the backstretch and going through the 200 split in under 24-seconds!
Barbosa led through 400-meters in a quick 49.54, followed closely by Kiprotich, Cruz, Great Britain’s Peter Elliott, American Record holder Johnny Gray, Morocco’s Said Aouita, and Kenya’s Paul Ereng, the NCAA Champion from Virginia who often ran from the back.
Positions kept changing as they headed into the final turn, with no more than two meters separating the top 6, while Gray had slipped back a little.
While Cruz, Elliott, and Aouita were fighting for the lead as they neared the homestretch, Ereng, 6th with 200-meters to go, passed Barbosa and Kiprotich and took aim at Cruz, who by now had pulled away from Elliott and Aouita. While Cruz was beginning to wilt after the blistering early pace, Ereng, hugging the rail, moved into 2nd and then sprinted into the lead, finishing off his upset win with a personal best time of 1:43.45. Cruz (1:43.90) held on for 2nd, with Aouita (1:44.06) edging Elliott (1:44.12) for 3rd.
Ereng, previously a 400 specialist with a best of 45.6, only took up the 800 at the beginning of the year at the urging of Virginia coach Fred Hardy. Ereng is currently the Head X-Country coach at Texas A&M.
Less than an hour after finishing 2nd in his heat of the 200-Meters, Carl Lewis opened the defense of his Olympic Long Jump title with a first round jump of 27-7 ¼ (8.41) that put him into the lead for good. The first man to win back-to-back Olympic titles in the event, Lewis led a U.S. sweep of the medals, with Mike Powell winning silver (27-10 ¼ [8.49]), and Larry Myricks the bronze (27-1 ¾ (8.27).
Lewis had drawn the #1 jumping position for the opening 3 rounds, but officials, knowing he had run the 200 earlier, allowed him to jump last. However, he had to jump 1st as the event moved to the final 3 rounds, meaning he would have to take two consecutive jumps. Officials stuck to protocol this time, and Lewis, who got the rest he was looking for by arguing for 15-minutes, responded with his longest jump of the day—28-7 ¼ (8.72)! (From T&F News)
Another repeat winner was Roger Kingdom (12.98/Olympic Record), who won his 2nd gold medal in the 110-hurdles over Great Britain’s Colin Jackson (13.28) and American teammate Tonie Campbell (13.38). Florida State’s Arthur Blake looked like a potential medalist after catching a flyer at the start, but wound up last after hitting too many hurdles.
The East German duo of Sigrun Wodars (1:56.10) and Christine Wachtel (1:56.64) won gold and silver in the Women’s 800, with American Kim Gallagher winning the bronze medal to go along with the silver she won 4 years earlier in Los Angeles. Her time of 1:56.91 fell just .01s short of Mary Slaney’s American record of 1:56.90. U.S. teammate
Delisa-Walton Floyd finished 5th (1:57.80).
It was an Eastern bloc sweep in the Women’s 400-Meters, with the medals going to Soviets Olga Bryzgina (gold-48.65) and Olga Nazarova (bronze-49.90) and East German Petra Müller (silver-49.45), with Americans Valerie Brisco-Hooks (50.16), the defending champion, Diane Dixon (50.72), and Denean Howard (51.12) finishing 4-5-6.
Yuriy Sedykh’s quest for a 3rd Olympic title (1976,1980) in the Men’s Hammer was thwarted by Soviet teammate Sergey Litvinov, 278-2 (84.80) to 274-10 (83.76). Making it a Soviet sweep, Jüri Tamm(266-3 [81.16]) won the bronze medal. Both Sedykh and Tamm passed away in September, 2021
Morocco’s Brahim Boutayeb (27:21.46) won the Men’s 10,000 over Italy’s Salvatore Antibo (27:23.55) and Kenya’s Kipkemboi Kimeli (27:25.16). 4th was France’s Jean-Louis Prianon (27:36.43), as all 4 bettered the Olympic Record of 27:38.35 that was set by Finland’s Lasse Virén in 1972 (World Record at the time).
The race was hot from the start, with the 21-year old Boutayeb pulling away in the latter stages of the race. He was still 4 seconds ahead of World Record pace (27:13.81) after 9000-meters, but slowed a bit in the final kilometer.
East Germany’s Petra Felke, the World Record holder, set an Olympic Record of 245-0 (74.68) while winning the Women’s Javelin. Winning the silver and bronze were Great Britain’s Fatima Whitbread (230-8 [70.32]) and East Germany’s Beate Koch (220-9 [67.30]).
Medalists/Results: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_at_the_1988_Summer_Olympics
Olympedia Reports: https://www.olympedia.org/editions/22/sports/ATH
Videos: M800 M110h W800(Semis & Final) W400 M10k(Last 5000) MLJ
