This Day in Track & Field, August 10, Bruce Jenner sets his first world record (1975) in the decathlon, by Walt Murphy

This Day in Track & Field—August 10 

1975–Bruce Jenner got the first world record of his career, scoring 8,524 points (8429-current tables) in Eugene at the USA-Soviet-Poland triangular meet. Fred Dixon was 2^nd (8277/8132) and 3rd was Ukraine’s Nikolay Avilov (8211/8121), who held the previous record of 8,456 (8466).

WR Progression: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decathlon_world_record_progression

http://espn.go.com/classic/s/add_jenner_bruce.html

1983–It was “Wonderful Wednesday” at the inaugural  World Championships in Helsinki.

Carl Lewis won his 3rd gold medal of the Championships as he anchored the U.S. to a World Record win in the Men’s 4×100 (37.86). Preceding Lewis were Emmit King, Willie Gault, and Calvin Smith, who would later win the gold medal in the 200.  Finishing 2-3 in the relay were Italy (38.37) and the Soviet Union (38.41).

It was a busy day for Lewis, who first anchored the U.S. 4×100 team to victory in its heat, then, not too long after, got his winning mark in the Long Jump in the first round (28-3/4 [8.55]) before running in the final of the 4×100. It was a sweep in the Long Jump for the U.S. with Jason Grimes taking the silver (27-2  ½ [8.29]) and Mike Conley the bronze (26-7  ¾ [8.12]).

Mary Decker, leading from the start,  fought off a mighty challenge from Soviet Tatyana Kazankina down the homestretch to win the Women’s 3000-meters in 8:34.62. Kazankina (8:35.13), who stumbled to the track in her desperate bid for victory, was passed by West Germany’s Brigitte Kraus (8:35.11) right before the finish line.

Czech Jarmila Kratochvílová, already the World Record holder in the Women’s 800-meters, set another global record in the 400-meters with her winning time of 47.99. Kratochvílová had won the 800 the previous day less than 35 minutes after winning her semi-final in the 400. Finishing 2nd was her teammate, Tatána Kocembová (48.59), and 3rd was the Soviet Union’s Mariya Pinigina (49.19).

Jamaica’s Bert Cameron (45.05) won the Men’s 400 over Americans Michael Franks (45.22) and Sunder Nix (45.24).

The Soviet Union’s Yekaterina Grun (54.14) edged teammate Anna Ambraziené (54.15) to win the gold medal in the Women’s 400-Meter Hurdles. Winning the bronze was East Germany’s Ellen Fiedler (54.55).

Germany’s Martina Hellmann (226-2 [68.94]) won the Women’s Discus over the Soviet Union’s Galina Murashova (221-3 [67.44]) and Bulgaria’s Maria Vergova-Petkova (217-11 [66.44]).

Medalists: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_World_Championships_in_Athletics

IAAF Coverage

Videos: M4x100  W3000  W400  M400  W400h

WR Progression(4×100): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men%27s_4_x_100_metres_relay_world_record_progression

NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/1983/08/11/sports/carl-lewis-wins-2d-and-3d-gold-medals-at-helsinki.html

Sports Illustrated Vault: https://vault.si.com/vault/1983/08/22/putting-it-all-on-the-line

1984–A year to the day after winning the 3000-meters at the World Championships in Helsinki, this was supposed to be Mary Decker’s moment in the sun. Denied a chance to compete at the 1980 Olympics because of the U.S. boycott, Decker was favored to win the inaugural 3000-meters at the Los Angeles Olympics before an adoring “hometown” crowd.

18-year old Zola Budd didn’t think she’d be able to compete at this Olympics because her native South Africa was banned due to its policy of apartheid. But then it became known that she had a British-born grandfather, which made her eligible to compete for Great Britain.

The two became forever entwined in Olympic history when Decker and the barefoot Budd got tangled up while at the front of the pack with a little more than 3 laps to go. Decker went down hard, out of the race, with a look of despair on her face as she watched the other runners continue on as she sat on the infield.  Romania’s Maricica Puica went on to win the race in 8:35.96, while Budd, still dazed by what had happened earlier, faded to 7th (8:48.80). Winning silver and bronze were Great Britain’s Wendy Smith-Sly (8:39.47) and Canada’s Lynn Williams (8:42.14).

Germany’s Rolf Dannenberg (218-6 [66.60]) was the upset winner in the Men’s Discus over Americans Mac Wilkins (217-6 [66.30]) and John Powell (214-9 [64.36]). The Soviet-led boycott kept away Cuba’s Luis Delís and Czech Imrich Bugar, who would wind up ranked 1-2 for the year by Track and Field News.

The Women’s 100-meter hurdles was severely affected by the boycott, with the eventual top-8 World Rankers staying home. Taking advantage of their absence was American Benita Fitzgerald-Brown (12.84), who edged Great Britain’s Shirley Strong (12.88) to win the gold medal. Kim Turner (13.06) won the bronze in a close finish over France’s Michelle Chardonnet. At least that’s what everyone thought at the time.

It was originally announced that Turner and Chardonnet had tied for 3^rd,  but, just before the medal ceremony, officials determined that Turner had finished 3^rd outright. The French protested the decision, though, and some six months later, the IAAF ruled that the pair had, in fact, tied and Chardonnet finally ended up receiving her own bronze medal!

Kenya’s Julius Korir won the Steeplechase (8:11.60), while Brian Diemer (8:14.06) passed the tiring Henry Marsh (8:14.25) just before the finish line to win the bronze medal. Diemer has been in charge of the successful Div.III X-Country program at Calvin College since 1986. France’s Joseph Mahmoud (8:13.31) won the  silver medal.

Germany’s Ulrike Meyfarth won the Women’s High Jump with an Olympic Record clearance of 6-7  ½ (2.02). 2nd was Italy’s Sara Simeoni(6-6  ¾ [2.00]) and 3rd was American Joni Huntley (6-5  ½ [1.97]).

Medals/Results: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_at_the_1984_Summer_Olympics

Olympedia Reports: https://www.olympedia.org/editions/21/sports/ATH

Videos: W3k  MSC  W100h (commentary by Renaldo Nehemiah)  MDT  WHJ

Sports Illustrated Vault: https://vault.si.com/vault/1984/08/20/triumph-and-tragedy-in-los-angeles

PHOTO: http://www.hiram.ws/photography/mary.zola.html

Decker-Slaney Looks Back: http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jul/07/sports/sp-crowe7

1989—Some of the greats of the sport were on display in Malmo, Sweden, with meet organizers doing a good job of attracting local sponsors to help pay for such a collection of stars.

The Santa Monica Track Club was out in full force, with Carl Lewis (100), Floyd Heard (200), Johnny Gray (800) and Kevin Young (400h) winning their respective events.

NBC was impressed enough by the attractive fields that they sent announcers Charlie Jones and Frank Shorter and myself to cover the meet. We traveled to Gothenburg to edit the show for a delayed airing in the U.S.

Men

100(-1.1)-1.Carl Lewis 10.13, 2.Andre Cason 10.22, 3.Leroy Burrell 10.22, 4.Dennis Mitchell 10.25

200(-0.5)-1.Floyd Heard 20.59, 2.Joe DeLoach 20.74

400-1.Butch Reynolds 44.32, 2.Danny Everett 44.52

800-1.Johnny Gray 1:45.99

1500-1.Kip Cheruiyot (Kenya) 3:35.44, 2.Steve Scott 3:35.92, 3.Joe Falcon 3:36.25

3000-1.Said Aouita (Morocco) 7:43.95

110h(-1.4)-1.Tonie Campbell 13.52

400h,1.Kevin Young 48.60

High Jump-1.Hollis Conway 7-7 (2.31), 2. Patrik Sjöberg (Sweden) 7-7

Pole Vault-1.Sergey Bubka (SU/Ukraine) 18-4  ¾(  5.61)

Triple Jump-1.Mike Conley 54-10(16.71)

Hammer-1.Yuriy Syedikh 265-0 (80.77?)

Women

100(-0.5)-1.Merlene Ottey (Jamaica) 11.15

800-1.Julie Jenkins 2:01.99, 2.Joetta Clark 2:02.10, 3.Rose Monday 2:02.87

1995—Instead of playing it safe after fouling on her first two attempts in the final, Ukraine’s Inessa Kravets threw caution to the wind by setting a World Record of  50-10  ¼ (15.50) in the Triple Jump at the World Championships in Gothenburg,Sweden, 3 days after Jonathan Edwards set a WR in the Men’s TJ!  Winning silver and bronze were Bulgaria’s Iva Prandzheva (49-9  ¾ [15.18]), who also bettered the previous WR of 49-6 (15.09), and Russia’s Anna Biryukova (49-5  ¾ [15.08]).

Derrick Adkins (47.98) beat 1991 Champion Samuel Matete (48.03) to win the Men’s 400-meter hurdles. France’s Stéphane Diagana (48.14) won the bronze medal.

Medalists in the 50k-walk were Finland’s Valentin Kononen (3:43:42), Italy’s Giovanni Perricelli (3:45:11), and Poland’s Robert Korzeniowski (3:45:57), who went on to become one of the most decorated race-walkers in history. https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/74758

Syria’s Ghada Shouaa (6651) won the Heptathlon over Russia’s Svetlana Moskalets (6575) and Hungary’s Rita  Ináncsi (6522).

Gwen Torrence (21.77), who had earlier won the 100-meters, crossed the finish line first in the Women’s 200-meters, far ahead of Jamaica’s Merlene Ottey (22.12), and was in the middle of her post-race press conference when she found out she had been disqualified for a lane violation. It was one of a record 55 disqualifications (including 22 lane infractions) during the Championships. Finishing behind Ottey were Russia’s Irina Privalova (22.12) and Galina Malchugina (22.37).

The video linked below clearly shows Torrence stepping on the inside line of her lane on a number of occasions.

Medalists: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_World_Championships_in_Athletics

Results  Videos: M400h  200   WTJ 

1997—It certainly wasn’t easy, but Ukraine’s Sergey Bubka remained the only man to capture the Men’s Pole Vault at the World Championships, winning his 6^th straight title on the final day of competition in Athens.

Bubka, Russia’s Maksim Tarasov, and American Dean Starkey all cleared 19-4  ¾ (5.91), with Bubka in the lead with fewer misses. Tarasov took the lead after clearing 19-6  ½ (5.96), a height that Bubka passed. With his winning streak at the Worlds  on the line, the 33-year old Bubka, thought by some to be past his prime, then got over     19-8  ½ (6.01) on his first attempt. Tarasov and Starkey never cleared another height, giving Bubka his 6^th title.

Another Worlds’ winning streak remained intact as Germany’s Lars Riedel won the Men’s Discus for the fourth straight time (224-10 [68.54]). The silver medal went to Lithuania’s Virgiljus Alekna (218-10 [66.70]) and the bronze to Germany’s Jürgen Schult (217-0 [66.14]), the World Record in the event at the time (243-0 [74.08]/1986).

The Women’s 4×400 relay provided one of the most exciting finishes of the Championships. At the final exchange, Russia’s Tatyana Alekseyeva had the lead over Team USA’s Jearl Miles-Clark, Jamaica’s Sandie Richards, and Germany’s Grit Breuer. Those last 3 had finished 2-3-4 in the 400-Meters earlier in the Championships.

Richards quickly moved ahead of Miles-Clark into 2^nd, and that order was maintained through the final turn. Miles-Clark went wide as they entered the homestretch and seemed to have timed her move perfectly when she moved into the lead. However, Alekseyeva was running on the outside of lane 1, giving Breuer just enough room to sneak by on the inside to “steal” the win for Germany(3:20.92), with Miles-Clark holding on for 2^nd (3:21.03), with Richards bringing Jamaica home in 3^rd (3:21.30).

The Men’s 4×400 was also exciting, with the U.S. (2:56.47) holding on for the “win” over Great Britain (2:56.65) and Jamaica (2:56.75). However, the U.S. was later stripped of its title after 2^nd leg Antonio Pettigrew admitted using performance-enhancing drugs. Poland moved up to 3^rd place (3:00.26).

In the absence of the U.S., which went out in the 1^st round after botching the 1^st exchange, Canada, with 100m Champion Donovan Bailey on the anchor, had no trouble winning the Men’s 4×100 (37.86). 2^nd and 3^rd were Nigeria(38.07) and Great Britain(38.14).

Medalists in other events:

Women’s High Jump: Norway’s Hanne Haugland (6-6  ¼ [1.99]), Russia’s Olga Kaliturna (6-5 [1.96]), Ukraine’s Irina Babakova (6-5 [1.96])

Men’s 5000: Kenya’s Daniel Komen (13:07.38), Morocco’s Khalid Boulami (13:09.34), Kenya’s Tom Nyariki (13:11.09)

Women’s 100-Meter Hurdles: Sweden’s Ludmila Engquist (12.50), Bulgaria’s Svetla Pishtikova (12.58), Jamaica’s Michelle Freeman (12.61)

Men’s Marathon: Spain’s Abel Antón (2:13:16) and Martin Fiz (2:13:21), Australia’s Steve Moneghetti (2:14:16).

Results: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_World_Championships_in_Athletics

IAAF Report/Results

NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/1997/08/11/sports/11iht-track.t_7.html

Videos: W4x400  M4x400  M4x100  W100h  MMar M5000

2001—The Dominican Republic’s Félix Sánchez won the Men’s 400-meter hurdles at the World Championships in Edmonton, Alberta, in 47.49. Trailing in 2^nd and 3^rd were Italy’s Fabrizio Mori (47.54) and Japan’s Dai Tamesue (47.89). For the first time in global championship history (except for the ’80 boycott Olympics), no American was in the final.

Marion Jones (22.39) pulled away from the Bahamas’ Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie (22.52) down the homestretch to “win” the Women’s 200-meters. 3^rd across the line was Jones’ teammate, Kelli White (22.56).

After Jones and White were retroactively disqualified after admitting previous drug use, the official results now read:1.Ferguson-McKenzie, 2.LaTasha Jenkins (USA/22.85), 3.Cydonie Mothersill (CAY/22.88).

Richard Limo (13:00.77) won the Men’s 5000 over Ethiopia’s Million Wolde (13:03.47) and fellow Kenyan John Kibowen (13:05.20).

Medalists in the Women’s Triple Jump were Russia’s Tatyana Lebedeva (50-1/2[15.25]), Cameroon’s Françoise Mbango (47-10  ¾ [14.60]), and Bulgaria’s Tereza Marinova (47-10[14.58]).

Medalists: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_World_Championships_in_Athletics

Results:

https://www.worldathletics.org/results/world-athletics-championships/2001/8th-iaaf-world-championships-6947294

Videos

M400h: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1RqgzE1h08

M5000: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CXugT36vMM

2005–Tianna Madison (22-7  ¼ [6.89]), the NCAA Champion from Tennessee, pulled off a shocking upset in the wind and rain to win the Women’s Long Jump at the World Championships in Helsinki. Rather than forfeit the $40,000 prize money given to winners at the Worlds, Madison gave up her final two years of collegiate eligibility. Winning silver and bronze were France’s Eunice Barber (22-2  ¼ [6.76]) and Cuba’s Yargelis Savigne (21-11  ½ [6.69]).

Bryan Clay (8732) won the Decathlon by more than 200 points over Czech Roman Šebrle (8521), the World Record holder in the event. 3^rd was Hungary’s Attila Zsivoczky (8385).

“It’s always great to beat the king,” exclaimed Clay at the end, paying homage to the current Olympic champion and world-record holder Šebrle.  “Many events could have gone wrong today, but everything went my way.  I have been second twice, with Roman finding a way to win [at the 2004 Olympics and 2004 World Indoors].  Now I have learned from him how to do it myself!”

The Bahamas’ Tonique Williams-Darling, the 2004 Olympic champion, ran down Sanya Richards-Ross in the homestretch to win the Women’s 400-Meters (49.55-49.74). 3^rd was Mexico’s Ana Guevara (49.81).

Medalists in other events:

Men’s Javelin: Estonia’s Andrus Varnik (286-0 [87.17]), Norway’s Andreas Thorkildsen (282-9 [86.18]), Russia’s Sergey Makarov (274-1 [83.54])

Men’s 1500: Bahrain’s Rashid Ramzi (3:37.88), Morocco’s Adil Kaouch (3:38.00), Portugal’s Rui Silva (3:38.02)…9.Alan Webb (3:41.04)

Medalists: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_World_Championships_in_Athletics

IAAF Report/Results

Videos: DEC  W400  M1500

Madison: http://www.iaaf.org/news/feature/tianna-bartoletta-long-jump-iaaf-diamond-leag

Wiki Bio: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tianna_Bartoletta

Sports Illustrated Vault: https://vault.si.com/vault/2005/08/22/while-you-werent-watching

Clay: https://worldathletics.org/news/news/clay-i-credit-fans-support-for-my-personal-1

Madison: https://worldathletics.org/news/news/madison-boxes-her-way-to-gold

2012–This was a day of records, upsets, and heartbreak at the London Olympics.

A U.S. lineup of Tianna Madison, Allyson Felix, Bianca Knight, and Carmelita Jeter won the Women’s 4×100 in an amazing 40.82 to smash the 27-year old World Record of 41.37, which was set by an East German team in 1985. Jamaica was a well-beaten 2^nd, but still set a National Record of 41.41 (since broken). 3^rd was Ukraine (42.04).

Running without the injured LaShawn Merritt, the U.S. was upset by the Bahamas in the Men’s 4×400 (2:56.72NR-2:57.05). The Bahamas, which ran with a foursome of former U.S. collegiate runners, had the lead through the first two legs, but Tony McQuay, running a great 43.4 leg, gave U.S. anchor Angelo Taylor a 2-meter edge at the final handoff.

The 33-year old Taylor, the 2-time Olympic champion in the 400-meter hurdles, had been a member of winning U.S. 4×400 teams at the 2008 Olympics and the last three World Championships, but had no response when he was passed in the homestretch by Ramon Miller, who finished off the Bahamas’ win with his 44-flat split. Preceding Miller (Dickinson State) were veteran Chris Brown (Norfolk State-45.2), Demetrius Pinder (Texas A&M-43.3), and Michael Mathieu (Texas Tech-44.3). Trinidad & Tobago (2:59.40) won the bronze medals.

Oscar Pistorius ran a 45.7 anchor for 8^th-place South Africa.

Just as she did the year before at the World Championships in Daegu, Morgan Uceny, once again in position to win a medal,  fell in the final of the Women’s 1500-meters.

Pounding the track in frustration, with tears rolling down her face, Uceny was still on the ground when Turkey’s Asli Çakır Alptekin (4:10.23) and Gamze Bulut (4:10.40) crossed the finish line in 1^st and 2^nd place, but they were retroactively disqualified for doping violations. The medals originally went to Bahrain’s Maryam Jamal (4:10.74), Russia’s Tatyana Tomashova (4:10.90), and Ethiopia’s Abeba Aregawi (4:11.03), but Tomashova was herself later disqualified.  Originally finishing 6^th (upgraded to 3rd) was Shannon Rowbury (4:11.26), who said of her U.S. teammate’s fall, “Horrifying. My heart goes out to her. If you lose a race, it’s supposed to be because you didn’t have it, not because you fell.”

Ironically, Uceny’s fall took place on the same date that Mary Decker fell in the 3000 at the 1984 Olympics!

A U.S. lineup of Jeff Demps, Doc Patton, Trell Kimmons, and Justin Gatlin ran 37.38 in its heats of the Men’s 4×100 to break the American Record of 37.40 that had been shared by teams from the 1992 Olympics and 1993 World Championships(semi-final).

In the final the next day, a lineup of Kimmons, Gatlin, Tyson Gay, and Ryan Bailey ran 37.04, finishing 2nd to Jamaica’s World Record of 36.84 (Trinidad & Tobago [38.12] and France [38.16] were next across the line). After Tyson Gay’s admission of drug use, he returned the silver medal he had won in London, but it wasn’t until 2015 that the IOC officially disqualified the entire team. The 37.04 was stricken from the record books, but, for some strange reason, the IAAF has also stricken the 37.38 from the heats, even though Gay wasn’t part of that team!

USATF and Track and Field News took the position that the 37.38 was a legitimate performance and was still considered the American Record (tied in 2015 by another U.S. lineup at the World Relays in the Bahamas) until the U.S. team ran 37.10 at the 2019 World Championships in Doha!

After Germany’s Björn Otto and Raphael Holzdeppe cleared 19-4  ¾ (5.91) on their first attempts,  France’s Renaud Lavillenie was sitting in 3^rd place in the Men’s Pole Vault after missing on his 1st try. Passing to the Olympic Record height of 19-7 (5.97), Lavilennie moved from 3^rd to 1^st when he cleared on his 2^nd (and final) effort (Holzdeppe-bronze missed 3-times, Otto-silver twice before taking one futile effort at 19-9 [6.02]).

Medalists in other events:

Women’s 5000: Ethiopia’s Meseret Defar (15:04.25/also won in 2004), Kenya’s Vivian Cheruiyot (15:04.73), Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba (15:05.15)…4.Kenya’s Sally Kipyego (15:05.79).

Women’s Hammer: Poland’s Anita Włodarczy (254-7 [77.60]/won on her last throw), Germany’s Betty Heidler (253-0 [77.12]), China’s Zhang Wenxiu (250-5 [76.34]). (Russia’s Tatyana Beloborodova originally finished 1^st (256-6 [78.18]), but was retroactively disqualified for doping violations)

Medalists: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_at_the_2012_Summer_Olympics

Results: https://www.worldathletics.org/results/olympic-games/2012/the-xxx-olympic-games-6999193

Olympedia Reports: https://www.olympedia.org/editions/54/sports/ATH

Uceny: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/games–saddest-sight–morgan-uceny-s-anguish.html

(2013 Article): http://www.iaaf.org/news/feature/uceny-in-search-of-career-defining-success

Videos: W4x100  M4x100  M4x400  W1500

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