This Day in Track & Field, February 18, Doris Brown Heritage destroyed WR in Mile at 4:40.4 (1967), written by Walt Murphy

Walt Murphy’s News and Results Service ([email protected]), used with permission.

This Day in Track & Field-December 2, Frank Shorter wins Fukuoka Marathon for third time (1973), Born this Day: Mike Larrabee, two-time 1964 Olympic gold medalist (400m, 4x400m), written by Walt Murphy

The Brooks Run Guide Interviews, Julian Florez, Assistant Coach, Brooks Beasts Track Club, Episode 9

The Brooks Run Guide, A Brooks Coaching Newsletter, Back Issues (#1-#9), Fall/Winter 2025

This Day in Track & Field–February 18

1950—Freshman John Joe Barry, Villanova’s first recruit from Ireland, won the mile (4:11.5) by 5 yards over Horace Ashenfelter at the U.S. Indoor Championships before 12,500 fans at Madison Square Garden. (Barry was born in Illinois, but grew up in Ireland).

Other notable winners:

60y-Andy Stanfield (6.2)

1000y-Roscoe Lee Browne (2:15.6)…went on to have a successful career as an actor

60yh-Harrison Dillard (7.3) won the 4^th of his eventual 8 titles

Pole Vault-Bob Richards (14’/4.27)

Shot Put-Jim Fuchs (56-3 5/8 [17.15+])

Mile Walk-Henry Laskau (6:33.4) won the 3^rd of his 10 consecutive titles.

Stanfield (200), Ashenfelter (Steeplechase), Dillard (110-hurdles), and Richards (PV) all went on to win Olympic gold

In 1952. Dillard had previously won the 100-Meters at the 1948 Olympics.

NY Times Coverage

1956–A week after improving his world indoor record in the Shot Put to 59-9 (18.21), Parry O’Brien ignored the 60-foot barrier by winning the AAU title in New York with an amazing toss of 61-5 ¼ (18.725?). That was also better than his outdoor record of 60-10 (18.54) It was the 4^th of his 9 consecutive U.S. indoor titles.

Another WR was set by Bob Backus in the 35lb-Weight Throw (63-10 ½ [19.47]). It was the 3^rd of his 7 U.S. titles.

Results (for T&FN Subscribers): https://trackandfieldnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/eTN1956_vol02_14.pdf

Past U.S. Champions: https://www.flipsnack.com/USATF/usatf-indoor-champions/full-view.html

1967—Bob Seagren set an American Record of 17-3 (5.26) in the Pole Vault at the Cleveland Knights of Columbus meet.

Report (For T&F News Subscribers)

1967–Taking advantage of Louisville’s spacious 220-yard wooden oval (a rarity in those days), 2 individuals and one relay team set new World Indoor Records.

Tommie Smith won the 440y in 46.2 to smash Theron Lewis’s previous mark of 47.1.

Tom Von Ruden won the 880y in 1:49.0 to break Tom Farrell’s record of 1:49.8.

Southern University won the Mile Relay in 3:10.2 to take down the former mark of 3:11.1 that they had shared with

Texas Southern.

Report (For T&F News Subscribers)

1967–Doris Brown(Heritage) ran 4:40.4 in Vancouver to crush her own World and American Indoor Records in the mile (4:52.0).

1973—Belgium’s Emiel Puttemans set two World Indoor Records in West Berlin, running 7:39.2 for 3000-meters on his way to a time of 8:13.2 for 2-miles. He had set the previous 3k record of 7:45.2 just a week earlier.

http://www.racingpast.ca/john_contents.php?id=227

Emiel Puttemans on TFN Cover, courtesy of Track & Field News.

1989—Dion Bentley (Penn Hills,Pa) set the still-standing U.S. National H.S. Record of 26-6 ½ (8.09) in the Long Jump at Penn State. The previous record of 26-2 (7.975?) was set by Jerry Proctor (Muir,CA) in 1967.

Bentley would jump 26-9 ¼ (8.16) outdoors to break Carl Lewis’s National Record of 26-8 ¼ (8.13) and would hold on to the record for 20 years until Marquis Goodwin (Rowlett,TX) jumped 26-10 (8.18) in 2009.

He is currently the Captain of the DeKalb County(GA) Fire Department and the department’s public information officer.

https://wpial.org/hof.aspx?hof=16

1996–Namibia’s Frank Fredericks set the current World Indoor Record of 19.92 in the 200-meters in Liévin, France. Since the event is no longer a championship event at the elite level, that record could last a very long time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_QNNlyma-Y

2001—Running in a NY Road Runners Challenge Race at NY’s Armory, Marla Runyan set an American Indoor Record of 15:07.33 for 5000-meters. Lynn Jennings set the previous record of 15:22.64 in 1990.

“I don’t know what to say,” an emotionally overcome Runyan told reporters after the race. “I just got into this zone, and everything went perfectly.”

Runyan, who is legally blind, had become the first visually-impaired athlete to compete in the Olympics the previous year, finishing 8^th in the 1500-meters in Sydney. She would make her 2^nd Olympic team in the 5000-meters in 2004.

A five-time gold medalist at the Paralympics, Runyan was a 3-time U.S. Champion at 5000-meters (2001-2003) and won the U.S. title at the Twin-Cities Marathon in 2006 (2:32:17), which turned out to be the final race of her career.

Runyan currently works with the Boston A.A.

Race Report: http://nypost.com/2001/02/19/runyan-smashes-indoor-record/

Runner’s World(2014): http://www.runnersworld.com/elite-runners/retired-pro-marla-runyan-continues-to-inspire

2001—Romania’s Gabriela Szabo set a World Indoor Record of 8:32.88 for 3000-meters at the Norwich Union Grand Prix meet in Birmingham, England. Szabo, who had won the gold medal in the 5000-meters at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, picked up a $50,000 bonus for her record run. The previous record of 8:33.82 was set in 1989 by Holland’s Elly van Hulst.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/athletics/1177143.stm

2005–Russia’s Yelena Isinbaeva became the first woman to clear 16-feet in the Pole Vault indoors, clearing that exact height (4.88m) in Birmingham, England.

2006—Russia’s Yelena Soboleva ran 3:58.28 in Moscow, breaking the World Indoor Record of 3:59.98 that was set by Regina Jacobs in 2003.

2009—Meseret Defar ran 14:24.37 for 5000-Meters in Stockholm to break the World Record of 14:27.42 that was set by fellow Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba in 2007.

https://www.worldathletics.org/news/news/news-flash-142437-world-5000m-record-by-def

2011—A Russian team of Aleksandra Bulanova (2:02.2), Yekaterina Sharmina-Martynova (2:03.3), Yelena Kotulskaya-Kofanova (2:00.3), and Anna Balakshina (2:00.6) set a World Record of 8:06.24 in the 4×800 in Moscow. The old WR of 8:12.41 was set by another Russian team the previous year. A U.S. team set the current record of 8:05.89 in 2018.

2018—Christian Coleman, denied a World Record when he ran 6.37 at Clemson two weeks earlier because the required electronic starting blocks weren’t used, left no doubt this time, running 6.34 while winning the 60 at the U.S. Indoor Championships in the sprinter-friendly altitude of Albuquerque. Coleman was pushed all the way by defending champion Ronnie Baker, whose runnerup time of 6.40 was just .01s above Maurice Greene’s previous mark of 6.39.

Coleman, the silver medalist in the 100-meters at the 2017 World Outdoor Championships (Usain Bolt was 3^rd), celebrated by almost running another 60-meters back towards the starting line! (Coleman won the 100 at the 2019 World Championships.

(Coleman served an 18-month ban for “whereabouts” violations that kept him out of the Tokyo Olympics)

https://www.olympicchannel.com/en/stories/news/detail/christian-coleman-ban-miss-tokyo-2020-olympics/

In one of the greatest hurdles races ever, Sharika Nelvis won the Women’s 60-Meter Hurdles in 7.70 to break the American Record of 7.72, which was jointly held by Lolo Jones and Keni Harrison, who finished 2^nd here with another 7.72.

And right behind in 7.73 was Christina Manning (now Clemons), who ran 7.73. All 3 performances cracked the all-time top-10 list.

But wait! In December, 2018, USATF announced that NY-born Susanna Kallur, who has dual-citizenship with Sweden, should have been credited with an American Record when she set the current World Record of 7.68 in 2008! So Jones, Harrison (who would run 7.70 at the World Indoor Championships), and Nelvis could no longer claim the AR on their resume! (Tia Jones helped clarify the situation by lowering the AR to 7.67 in 2024!)

The expected battle between Jenn Suhr and Sandi Morris in the Women’s Pole Vault took a backseat to the breakthrough performance of Katie Nageotte (now Moon), who joined the indoor 16-foot club with her winning clearance of 16-1 ¼ (4.91). Nageotte, the 2013 NCAA Div.II Indoor and outdoor champion while competing for Ashland, had 8 first-jump clearances on her way to setting 3 personal bests during the competition, clearing 15-9 ¼ (4.81) and 15-11 ¼ (4.86) in addition to her winning jump. She missed 3-times at the World Record height of 16-6 ½ (5.04). She has since won gold at the 2021 Olympics and the 2022 & 2023 World Championships.

Morris and Suhr did have their own private battle to earn a spot on the U.S. team that would compete at the upcoming World Indoor Championships. Suhr was in 2^nd place after clearing 15-9 ¼ on her first jump, while Morris missed twice before passing to the next height, 15-11 ¼. She cleared on her only remaining attempt, while Suhr missed once, then went out after passing to 16-1 ¼ and missing on both attempts, leaving Morris in 2^nd and on the U.S. team.

Coleman Videos:

https://www.usatf.tv/gprofile.php?mgroup_id=45365&mgroup_event_id=25&year=2018&do=videos&video_id=233769

Breakdown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQZgNl2XxrI

Results: https://results.usatf.org/2018Indoors/

Videos: https://www.usatf.tv/gprofile.php?mgroup_id=45365&mgroup_event_id=25&do=videos&folder_id=recent&year=2018

2023—It was in 2011 that Ryan Crouser set the current U.S. High School Indoor Record of 77-2 ¾ (23.54) in the Shot Put at the Simplot Games in Pocatello, Idaho. Passing on the U.S. Indoor Championships that were taking place the same weekend in Albuquerque, Crouser accepted an invitation to compete at this year’s Simplot Games (the first since 2020 due to Covid-19) from his cousin, Haley Crouser, who is on the meet’s Board of Directors.

Competing against five throwers from Idaho State, Crouser surprised himself (and all of the high school athletes in attendance) by throwing 76-8 ½ (23.38) in the opening round. That not only smashed his own World Indoor Record of 74-10 ½ (22.82), it bettered his Outdoor Record by one centimeter! However, a required survey of the throwing circle and landing area revealed that they did not conform to World Athletics requirements, preventing the mark from being ratified as a WR!