This is Track & Field History for August 27, is written, compiled and curated by Walt Murphy. All rights reserved, RunBlogRun used with permission.
Walt Murphy’s News and Results Service ([email protected])
This Day in Track & Field–August 27
1922-Taking advantage of a unique pacing setup, Paavo Nurmi, “The Flying Finn”, ran 8:28.6 to set a World Record for 3000-meters. Nurmi, the only other competitor in the race, ran against a 3x1000m relay team!
WR Progression: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men’s_3000_metres_world_record_progression
1936—Shortly after winning Olympic gold in Berlin, Forrest “Spec” Towns ran 13.7 in the 110-meter hurdles in Oslo to smash his own World Record of 14.1!
From the IAAF Progression of World Records:
“From stride one, his speed was so great that he virtually flew over the first hurdle. The rest of the race was as perfect as the beginning…and he was traveling so fast across the line that he had difficulty stopping around the bend”. Said Towns, “I got off to an unusually good start that day…when I broke the tape I turned around and looked back. The next guy was just then clearing the last hurdle”.
Towns, a junior at Georgia at the time, won the first of his two NCAA titles in June, followed by a win at the U.S. Championships. He would later become the head coach at his alma mater.
Towns is a member of the National and USTFCCCA Coaches Halls of Fame.
https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/79137
1950–The Netherlands’ Fanny Blankers-Koen won the Women’s 200-meters in 24.0 on the final day of competition at the European Championships in Brussels. It was her 3rd title, having previously won the 100-meters (11.7) and the 80-meter hurdles (11.1).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950_European_Athletics_Championships
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Blankers-Koen
1980–Not satisfied with sharing the World Record of 3:32.1 for 1500-meters with fellow Brit Sebastian Coe, Steve Ovett took sole possession of the mark by running 3:31.36 in Koblenz, Germany. Getting excellent pacing from another Brit, Garry Cook (55.6, 1:53.0), Ovett needed every bit of his 53.7 final lap to even win the race over Germany’s Thomas Wessinghage (3:31.58) and Harald Hudak (3:31.96), who were both also under the previous record.
Wessighange had moved ahead of Ovett with 500-meters to go, only to have the Brit retake the lead for good coming off the final turn.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSt80Zfnq8Y
WR Progression: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1500_metres_world_record_progression
1983–It was a sad hint of things to come as more than a dozen athletes in various sports tested positive for steroid use at the Pan-American Games (August 23-28) in Caracas, Venezuela. Adding to the scandal was the fact that quite a few members of the U.S. track and field team left Caracas before they competed, ostensibly to avoid the drug-testing (some cited other reasons for leaving). NY Times article: http://tinyurl.com/ygbjvzr
Sports Illustrated Vault: https://vault.si.com/vault/1983/09/05/caracas-a-scandal-and-a-warning
1991–Michael Johnson had already established himself as the #1 200-meter runner in the world, so he was of course favored to win his first global title over that distance at the World Championships in Tokyo. There was even talk that Pietro Mennea’s 12-year old World Record of 19.72 could fall. The effort was there, but Johnson had to battle one of the strongest head-winds ever in a Championship final (-3.4mps) while crushing Namibia’s Frank Fredericks, expected to be his strongest challenger, by a whopping .33s (20.01-20.34). Johnson said after the race, “I felt I put in a 19.5 or 19.6 effort”. Winning the bronze medal was Canada’s Atlee Mahorn (20.49).
In a battle of NCAA Champions, Zambia’s Samuel Matete (Auburn-1991) edged Jamaica’s Winthrop Graham (Texas-1989) to win the men’s 400-meter hurdles, 47.64-47.74. 3rd was Great Britain’s Kriss Akabusi (47.86). The U.S. was shut out of the medals, with Kevin Young (48.01/UCLA-1987,1988), Danny Harris (48.46/Iowa State/1984-1986), and Derrick Adkins (49.28) finishing 4-5-6. Adkins, who would win gold at the 1995 Worlds and 1996 Olympics, was a 4-time finalist at the NCAA Championships while at Georgia Tech, but his highest finish was 2nd in 1991 (to Matete). Just a year later, Young would win the gold medal in the event at the Barcelona Olympics, setting a World Record of 46.78 that would last until Norway’s Karsten Warholm ran 46.70 in 2021!
Medalists in the Women’s 400-Meters were France’s Marie-José Pérec (49.13), Germany’s Grit Breuer (49.42), and Spain’s Sandra Myers (49.78). Next were the Soviet Union’s Olga Bryzgina (49.82), the defending champion, and American Jearl Miles-Clark (50.50).
Poor health had kept Kenya’s Billy Konchellah down the previous few years, but he bounced back to defend his World Championship title (Rome-1987) in the Men’s 800-meters, winning in Tokyo with a time of 1:43.99. Brazil’s José Luíz Barbosa, who was run down by Konchellah, finished 2nd (1:44. 24), and American Mark Everett took home the bronze medal (1:44.67). Kenya’s Paul Ereng, the 1988 Olympic champion, finished 4th in 1:44.75 and American Record holder Johnny Gray was 6th (1:45.67). Konchellah’s son, Gregory, known as Yusuf Saad Kamel when he represented his adopted country of Bahrain, won the 1500-meters at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin.
Germany’s Lars Riedel won the first of his five World titles in the Men’s Discus with a throw of 217-2 (66.20). Silver and bronze went to the Netherlands’ Erik De Bruin (215-11 [65.82]) and Hungary’s Attila Horváth (214-4 [65.32]).
Germany’s Kristin Krabbe (10.99) won the Women’s 100-Meters over American Gwen Torrence (11.03) and Jamaica’s Merlene Ottey (11.06), who had been unbeaten in 56 finals since finishing 3rd at the 1987 Worlds. Next in this loaded field were the Soviet Union’s Irina Privalova (11.16) and American Evelyn Ashford (11.30).
Sabine Braun( 6672) won a 3rd World title for Germany on this day with her 1st-place finish in the Heptathlon. 2nd & 3rd were Romania’s Liliana Năstase (6493) and the Soviet Union’s Irina Belova (6448).
Medalists/Results: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_World_Championships_in_Athletics
IAAF Coverage:
Videos
1999–With a gold medal in the 100 already in hand, Maurice Greene completed the first sprint double at the World Championships by winning the Men’s 200-meters in 19.90 in Seville, Spain. Winning silver and bronze were Brazil’s Claudinei da Silva (20.00) and Nigeria’s Francis Obikwelu (20.11), who had run a sensational 19.84 while winning his semi-final race.
Trinidad & Tobago’s Ato Boldon, the defending champion (and one of Greene’s training partners) was out for the year with an injury, and Namibia’s Frank Fredericks, the 1993 Champion, was forced to withdraw from the final because of an injury
Said Greene, “It feels great to accomplish something nobody else has ever accomplished. This is something I have been dreaming of since I was a child. The whole year I have been looking forward to this”.
Another of Greene’s training partners, Inger Miller, won the Women’s 200 in 21.77 over Jamaica’s Beverly McDonald (22.22) and Merlene Frazer, who finished in a dead-heat with Germany’s Andrea Phillipp (22.26 for both). Miller had earlier won the silver medal in the 100.
Italy’s Fabrizio Mori (47.72) won the Men’s 400-Meter Hurdles, with France’s Stéphane Diagana (48.12) winning silver and Switzerland’s Marcel Schelbert just nipping Brazil’s Eronilde Nunes de Araújo to grab the bronze medal (both timed in 48.22).
Romania’s Gabriela Szabo repeated as the winner of the Women’s 5000-Meters, setting a Championship Record of 14:41.82. Winning silver and bronze were Morocco’s Zahra Ouaziz (14:43.15) and Ethiopia’s Ayelech Worku (14:44.22).
Medalists in the Women’s 20k-Walk (Increased in distance from the previously contested 10k) were China’s Liu Hongyu (1:30:50) and Wang Yan (1:30:52), and Australia’s Kerry Saxby (1:31:18).
Medalists/Results: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_World_Championships_in_Athletics
IAAF Coverage Additional Reports
2003–Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj, the World Record holder in the event, won his 4th straight World Championship title in the Men’s 1500-meters, running a quick 3:31.77 in Paris. Finishing 2nd and 3rd were France’s Mehdi Baala (3:32.31) and Ukraine’s Ivan Heshko (3:33.17). Unlike his wins in 1999 and 2001, El Guerrouj didn’t have any pacing help this time from countryman Adil Kaouch.
Mexico’s Ana Guevara won the Women’s 400-Meters in 48.89, the fastest time in the world since 1997. Silver and bronze went to Jamaica’s Lorraine Fenton (49.43) and Senegal’s Amy Mbacké Thiam (49.95), the defending champion.
Running a personal best of 4:44.31, American Tom Pappas finished well back in the Decathlon 1500, but still won the 10-eventer comfortably over World Record holder Roman Šebrle, 8,750-8,634. 3rd was Kazakhstan’s Dmitriy Karpov (8374).
Poland’s Robert Korzeniowski, arguably the greatest race-walker of all-time, won his 3rd World title in the 50k Walk event and set a World Record of 3:36:03 in Paris. He would win his 3rd Olympic 50k title the following year in Athens. Winning silver and bronze were Russians German Skurygin (3:36.42) and Germany’s Andreas Erm (3:37.46).
Canada’s Perdita Felicien (12.53) won the Women’s 100-Meter Hurdles over Jamaica’s Brigitte Foster-Hylton (12.57) and American Miesha McKelvey-Jones (12.67). 3-time World Champion Gail Devers failed to make it out of the semi-final round after hitting an early hurdle.
Medalists in other events
Women’s Shot Put: Russia’s Svetlana Krivelyova (67-8 ¼ [20.63]), Belarus’s Nadzeya Ostapchuk (66-1/4 [20.12]), Ukraine’s Vita Pavlysh (65-10 ½ [20.08])….5th was 18-year old Valerie Adams (61-2 ¼ [18.65]) of New Zealand, who would go on to win 10 consecutive global titles from 2007-2014 (OG-2, WC-4, WIC-4).
Medalists/Results: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_World_Championships_in_Athletics
Videos: M1500 W400 M50k-Walk W100h
Dunaway’s Worlds: https://www.worldathletics.org/news/news/dunaways-worlds-7
2004–The U.S. finished 1-2 in the Men’s Pole Vault at the Athens Olympics, Tim Mack taking the gold medal with an Olympic Record clearance of 19-6 ¼ (5.95m) and Toby Stevenson the silver with a jump of 19-4 ¼ (5.90m). Italy’s Giuseppe Gibilisco (19-2 ¼ [5.85]) won the bronze medal. Mack was trailing Stevenson until he cleared the winning height on his 3rd attempt.
China’s Liu Xiang won the 110-meter hurdles in Athens and equaled Colin Jackson’s World Record of 12.91, while American Terrence Trammell won his 2nd straight Olympic silver medal (13.18). Cuba’s Anier García (13.20), the defending Olympic champion, won the bronze medal.
A year to the day after winning his 3rd World title in the event, Poland’s Robert Korzeniowski (3:38.46) won his 3rd straight Olympic title in the Men’s 50k-Walk (he also won the 20k-walk in 2000). Silver and bronze went to Russia’s Denis Nizhegorodov (3:42:50) and Aleksey Voyevodin (3:43:34).
Russia swept the medals in the Women’s Long Jump, with only 2 centimeters separating the top 3—Tatyana Lebedeva (23-2 ½ [7.07]), Irina Melashin a(23-1 ¾ [7.05]/better 2nd mark), Tatyana Kitova (23-1 ¾ [7.05]). Marion Jones (22-5 ¾ [6.85]) originally finished 5th, but her result was eventually stricken as the result of her doping violations.
Medalists in the Women’s Javelin were Cuba’s Osleidys Menéndez (234-8 [71.53]), who fell just one centimeter short of her World Record, Germany’s Steffi Nerius (215-11[65.82]), and Greece’s Miréla Manjania (210-11[64.29’).
China’s Xiang Huina (30:24.36) won a close Women’s 10,000-Meters over Ethiopia’s Ejegayehu Dibaba (30:24.98), who was followed across the line by teammates Derartu Tulu (30:26.42), a 2-time Olympics Champion (1992,2000) and Werknesh Kidane (30:28.30). Dibaba, thinking that Xiang was a lapped runner, threw her arms up in triumph when she crossed the finish line, thinking she was the winner!
Jamaica won the Women’s 4×100 relay, setting a National Record of 41.73 with a lineup of Tayna Lawrence, Sherone Simpson, Aleen Bailey, and Veronica Campbell-Brown, while the U.S. didn’t finish the race after Marion Jones and Lauryn Williams failed to connect on the 2nd exchange. Winning silver and bronze were Russia (42.27) and France (42.54).
Medalists/Results: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_at_the_2004_Summer_Olympics
IAAF Coverage: https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/olympic-games/28th-olympic-games-6913163
(Jim) Dunaway’s Athenian Column (The difference between Athens and his 1st Olympics in 1956)
2007–This is what they mean by a blanket finish. In a rematch of their World Championships battle in Helsinki in 2005, Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell edged defending champion Lauryn Williams to win the Women’s 100-Meters in Osaka. Both were timed in 11.01, with Campbell having a miniscule .002s advantage (11.006-11.008). Close behind in 3rd was unheralded Carmelita Jeter (11.02), followed by a 3rd American, Torri Edwards (11.05), Belgium’s Kim Gevaert (11.05) and France’s Christine Arron (11.08). With the top finishers anxiously watching, It seemed to take forever to post the official results on the stadium scoreboard–Williams and Edwards were even listed as finishing first before their names were quickly removed.
Portugal’s Nelson Évora won the Men’s Triple Jump with a leap of 58-2 ½ (17.74), while American Walter Davis, the defending champion, won the bronze medal (56-10 ¼[17.33]). 2nd was Brazil’s Jadel Gregório (57-8 ½ [17.59]). Davis won 4 NCAA titles (2-indoors/2-outdoors) in the Triple Jump (and one in the Long Jump) while at LSU.
Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele (27:05.90) won the 3rd of his 4 World titles in the Men’s 10,000-Meters. Teammate Sileshi SIhine (27:09.03) won the silver medal and Kenya’s Martin Mathathi won the bronze (27:12.17).
Medalists in other events
Men’s Hammer: Belarus’s Ivan Tikhon (274-4 [83.63]), Slovenia’s Primož Kozmus (269-11 [82.29]), Slovakia’s Libor
Charfreitag (267-8 [81.60]), a 2-time NCAA Champion while at SMU (1998,2000).
Women’s Steeplechase: Russia’s Yekaterina Volkova (9:06.57) and Tatyana Petrova (9:09.19), Kenya’s Eunice
Kertich( 9:20.09)
Medalists/Results: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_World_Championships_in_Athletics
IAAF Coverage:
2010—Molly Huddle ran 14:44.76 for 5000-Meters in Brussels to break Shalane Flanagan’s 3-year old American Record of 14:44.80 by only .04s.
2011–It was a big day for Kenyan women on the first day of the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, as they won all six available medals. In the morning, Edna Kiplagat (2:28:43), Priscah Jeptoo (2:29:00), and Sharon Cherop (2:29:14) swept the medals in the Women’s Marathon. And then Vivian Cheruiyot (30:48.98), Sally Kipyego (30:50.04), Linet Masai (30:53.59, the defending champion, and Priscah Cherono (30:56.43) finished 1-2-3-4 in the 10,000-meters during the evening session. Americans Shalane Flanagan (31:25.57), Jen Rhines (31:47.59), and Kara Goucher (32:29.58) finished
7-9-13. Cheruiyot would win a 2nd gold medal in the 5000 later in the Championships. Kipyego had a brilliant collegiate career at Texas Tech, winning a record-tying nine NCAA individual titles at various distances. Now a U.S. citizen, she finished 17th in the Olympic Marathon in Sapporo in 2021.
Medalists/Results: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_World_Championships_in_Athletics
IAAF Coverage Additional Reports/Quotes
2015—After losing the lead to Cuba’s Pedro Pablo Pachado (58-2 [17.73]) in the final round of the Men’s Triple Jump at the World Championships in Beijing, Christian Taylor came right back with a monster jump of 59-9 (18.21) to grab the gold medal and break Kenny Harrison’s 19-year old American Record of 59-4 ½ (18.09). It was the 2nd of Taylor’s 4 World titles—he won in 2011 and would win again in 2017 and 2019. Portugal’s Nelson Évora (57-5 ¾ [17.52]) won the bronze medal. One of the first people to congratulate Taylor was Harrison, who texted simply, “Finally”!
Returning to the Bird’s Nest, where his road to greatness began at the 2008 Olympics, Jamaica’s Usain Bolt won the Men’s 200 (19.55) over Tyson Gay (19.74). 3rd was South Africa’s Anaso Jobodwana (19.87/NR)
Allyson Felix, a 3-time World Champion at 200-meters, won her first at 400-Meters, running 49.26 (#4 All-Time U.S.) to easily beat the Bahamas’ Shaunae Miller (49.67), while Jamaica filled the next 4 places—Shericka Jackson (49.99), Christine Day (50.14), Stephenie Ann McPherson (50.42), and Novlene Williams-Mills (50.47). Phyllis Francis finished 7th in 50.51. Miller (Uibo) would beat Felix the following year at the Rio Olympics (she would win again in Tokyo in 2021), while Francis would win the 2017 World title.
Poland’s Anita Włodarczyk, the reigning Olympic Champion, set a Meet Record of 265-3 (80.85) while winning the 3rd of her eventual 4 World titles in the Women’s Hammer (she won a 2nd Olympic gold in 2016). 2nd and 3rd were China’s Zhang Wenxiu (250-5 [76.33]) and France’s Alexandra Tavernier (242-10 [74.02]).
Medalists/Results: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_World_Championships_in_Athletics
