by RBR AdminThis Day in Track & Field–August 25
1929–Eddie Tolan ran 10.4 for 100-meters in Copenhagen to equal the World Record he already shared with Charley Paddock. Tolan would win the 100 and 200 at the 1932 Olympics.
https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/79132
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Tolan
1950—Evelyn Lawler tied the American Record of 11.7 in the 80-meter hurdles in Freeport, Texas. Lawler and her husband, Bill Lewis, would later become coaches in Willingboro, New Jersey. Among the athletes they mentored were two of their children, Carl and Carol Lewis!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_Lawler
1956—Four American Records were set at the U.S. Women’s Olympic Trials in Washington, D.C. Earlene Brown was responsible for two of them with wins in the Shot Put (46-9 ½ [14.26m]) and Discus (145-4 ½ [44.31m]).
The other two sere set by Irene Robertson in the 80-meter hurdles (11.6) and Margaret Matthews in the Long Jump
(19-9 ¼ [6.02m]). 2nd in the Long Jump was 17-year old Willye White, who made the first of her five Olympic teams. She would win a silver medal at the Melbourne Olympics.
Another teenager, 16-year old Wilma Rudolph, qualified for her first Olympic team with her 2nd-place finish in the 200-meters. She was narrowly beaten by Mae Faggs (24.2 for both), who also finished 2nd in the 100-meters. Faggs earned a trip to her 3rd Olympics. Rudolph went on to become the star of the 1960 Olympics, winning gold medals in the 100, 200, and 4×100!
Mildred McDaniel (5-4 [1.63) won the High Jump and went on to win the gold medal in Melbourne.
Isabelle Daniels won the 100 (12.0) and ran the lead-off leg on the 4×100 team that would win the bronze medals at the Olympics.
Running the last 3 legs were Faggs, Matthews, and Rudolph.
Results: https://trackandfieldnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/1956.pdf
Hall of Fame Bios: Wilma Rudoplh(1975) Earlene Brown(2005) Mae Faggs
Conversions: https://www.usatf.org/statistics/calculators/markConversions/index.html
1968—Making the U.S. team at the Women’s Olympic Trials in Walnut, California (Mt.SAC/August 24,25)/with their eventual medals won in Mexico City:
100—Wyomia Tyus (gold) 11.3, Margaret Bailes 11.5, Barbara Ferrell (silver) 11.6
200—Margaret Bailes 23.5, Wyomia Tyus 23.7, Barbara Ferrell 23.7
400—Jarvis Scott 53.5, Lois Drinkwater 54.0, Esther Stroy 54.3
800—Madeline Manning (gold) 2:03.0, Doris Brown 2:03.0, Jarvis Scott :04.5
80m-Hurdles—Mamie Rallins 11.0, Patty van Wolvelaere 11.3, Janene Jaton 11.3
High Jump—Sharon Callahan 5-7 ¼ (1.705), 2.Eleanor Montgomery 5-7 ¼, Estelle Baskerville 5-6 (1.675)
Long Jump—Martha Watson 21-3/4 (6.42), Willye White 21-0 (6.40), Barbara Emerson 19-1 ½ (5.83)
Shot Put—Maren Seidler 50-1 ¾ (15.28), Lynn Graham 46-1/2 (14.03), Sharon Shepherd 45-7 (13.89])
Discus—Olga Connolly 175-0 (55.35), Carol Moseke 166-5 (50.75), Nancy Norberg 152-7 (46.50)
Javelin—Barbara Friedrich 177-5 (54.08), Sherry Calvert 160-7 (48.95), RaNae Bair 158-0 (48.16)
4×100(gold)-Bailes, Ferrell, Mildrette Netter, Tyus)
Results: https://trackandfieldnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/1968.pdf
1985–Sydney Maree, who left apartheid in his homeland of South Africa to compete for Villanova, won the 1500-meters in Cologne, Germany, in 3:29.77 to smash Steve Scott’s 5-week old American Record of 3:31.76.
Maree, who won 3 NCAA Outdoor titles (5000-1979, 1500-1980,1981), had bettered Scott’s 1st AR of 3:31.96 (1981) when he set a World Record of 3:31.24 in 1983, but he didn’t become a U.S. citizen until 1984.
Maree returned to South Africa in 1995 with his wife and 5 children, and soon became the CEO of a government-owned company that provided small business loans to black-run companies. He pleaded not guilty to fraud charges that were brought in 2004, but was convicted in 2006. His appeals failed, and he started serving a 5-year sentence in June, 2011. Efforts by his family to have him released early paid off when he was paroled in 2013.
Sports Illustrated Vault:
(July 18, 1983)
https://vault.si.com/vault/1983/07/18/he-ran-knew-not-why
(Dec.20,2011)
https://vault.si.com/vault/2011/12/12/running-into-trouble
Citizenship: news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1907&dat=19840502&id=xWYrAAAAIBAJ&sjid=99gEAAAAIBAJ&pg=1508,2410282
Release: http://villanovarunning.blogspot.com/2013/03/sydney-maree-released-from-south.html
In other action on the track, Mary Slaney won the 3000-meters in 8:29.69 to break her own 3-year old American Record of 8:29.71
1991–Before the race in Berlin at the 2009 World Championships, the Men’s 100 final at the World Championships in Tokyo was considered the greatest of all time. Carl Lewis won in 9.86 to break the World Record of 9.91, which was set by training partner Leroy Burrell at the U.S. Championships in New York in June. Burrell was also under his previous record, finishing 2nd in 9.88, while Dennis Mitchell finished 3rd in 9.91 to give the U.S. a sweep.
Next across the finish line, all under 10-seconds, were Great Britain’s Linford Christie (9.92), Namibia’s Frank Fredericks (9.92), and Jamaica’s Ray Stewart (9.95). It was later revealed that Mitchell’s reaction time was .09s, which would have signaled an automatic false start signal to the starter–but he wasn’t wearing the then-optional headphones!
Jackie Joyner-Kersee’s opening leap of 24-1/4 (7.32) was good enough to clinch her 2nd World Championship title in the Long Jump, with rival Heike Drechsler of Germany finishing a close 2nd (23-11 [7.29m]), with the Soviet Union’s Larisa Berezhnaya
(23-4 [7.11]) edging teammate Yelena Sinchukova (23-1 ¼ [7.04]) for the bronze medal.
Knowing that Drechsler, the 1983 World Champion, was always a threat to pass her, JJK kept jumping, but stepped on the plasticine in the 4th round and twisted her right ankle. She was able to take one more jump, but the injury came back to haunt her the following day during the opening of the Heptathlon. She made it through the first three events (100-hurdles, High Jump, Shot Put), but then collapsed to the track as she came out of the turn in the 200-meters, a victim of a hamstring pull that apparently was triggered by the ankle injury.
It was 1-2 finish for the Soviet Union in the Men’s Hammer, with 36-year old Yuriy Seydikh (268-0 [81.70]), the World Record holder in the event, beating Igor Astapkovich (265-7 [80.94]) to win the gold medal. 3rd was Germany’s Heinz Weis (263-11 [80.44]).
Medalists in the Women’s Marathon were Poland’s Wanda Panfil (2:29:53), who won by only 4 seconds over Japan’s Sachiko Yamashita (2:29:57), and Germany’s Katrin Dörre-Heinig (2:30:10).
Medalists/Results: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_World_Championships_in_Athletics
Athletics Weekly Recap: https://athleticsweekly.com/london-2017/iaaf-world-championships-history-tokyo-1991-63856/
1996—Nigeria’s Francis Obikwelu (100, 200) and Ethiopia’s Assefa Mezgebu (5000,10,000) were double winners at the World Junior Championships in Sydney, Australia.
Obea Moore won the 400 (45.27) and helped the U.S. win the 4×100 and 4×400 relays.
Finishing 3rd in the Men’s 400 Meter Hurdles was Angelo Taylor, who would return to Sydney 4 years later to win the first of his two Olympic titles (also won in 2008).
Cuba’s Osleidis Menéndez won the Women’s Javelin and would win gold at the 2004 Olympics, as well as the the 2001 and 2005 World Championships. She would also set two World Records.
Seilala Sua, 2nd in the Women’s Discus, went on to win 7 NCAA titles at UCLA (4-Discus/1997-2000, 3-Shot Put/1999, 2000-indoor and outdoor)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_World_Junior_Championships_in_Athletics
1996—Tom Pukstys broke his own American Record in the Javelin twice in Sheffield, England, first throwing 284-7 (86.74) and then
284-10 (86.82).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Pukstys
1999—Great Britain’s Colin Jackson (13.04), the World Record holder, edged Cuba’s Anier Garcia (13.07) to win his 2nd World title in the Men’s 110-Meter Hurdles in Seville, Spain (won his 1st in 1993). Duane Ross (13.12) won the bronze medal, with fellow American Tony Dees finishing 4th (13.22). Their U.S. teammates, Allen Johnson and Mark Crear, never made it to the final. Johnson, the 2-time defending champion, withdrew from his semi-final after he strained a calf muscle while warming up, and Crear, one of the pre-meet favorites, was disqualified for two false starts in his ¼-final race.
In an exciting run-in off the last barrier, Cuba’s Daimí Pernía (52.89) edged Morocco’s Nezha Bidouane (52.90), the defending champion, and Jamaica’s Deon Hemmings (53.16) to win the Women’s 400-Meter Hurdles. It was the 3rd medal in a row for Hemmings at the Worlds, having won bronze in 1995 and silver in 1997.
Czech Tomáš Dvořák (8744) won the 2nd of his 3 straight World titles in the Decathlon by almost 200 points over Great Britain’s Dean Macey (8556), who edged American Chris Huffins (8547) for the silver medal.
It took 2 years to determine that the proper medalists in the Men’s 50k-Walk were Italy’s Ivano Brugnetti (3:47:54), Russia’s Nikolay Matyukhin (3:48.18), and American Curt Clausen (3:50:55). It was revealed in November, 2001, that German Skurygin, the original “winner”, had been given a 2-year ban by the Russian Federation after failing a doping test after his “victory”. Poland’s Robert Korzeniowski, the reigning Olympic (1996) and World (1997) champion, was disqualified at the 40k mark for a walking violation.
Germany’s Astrid Kumbernus (65-1 ½ [19.85]), the 1996 Olympic Champion, won her 3rd straight World title in the Women’s Shot Put. Winning silver was her teammate Nadine Kleinert (64-4 [19.61]), and the bronze went to Russia’s Svetlana Krivelyova (63-9 [19.43]).
100 winner Marion Jones, one of the favorites in the Women’s 200, failed to finish her semi-final after suffering a spasm in her back.
Medalists in the Men’s Triple Jump: Germany’s Charles Friedek (57-8 ½ [17.59]), Bulgaria’s Rostislav Dimitrov (57-4 ¾ [17.49]), and Great Britain’s Jonathan Edwards (57-4 ¼ [17.48]), the future World Record holder in the event.
Medalists/Results: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_World_Championships_in_Athletics
Jones: https://www.worldathletics.org/news/news/usa-track-field-statement-on-marion-jones-con
Videos: M110h W400h M50k-Walk(includes interview w/ Astrid Kumbernuss
2003—After the previous day’s theatrics in the ¼-final round, the final of the Men’s 100-Meters at the World Championships in Paris/St.Denis went off without a hitch.
Kim Collins (St.Kitts & Nevis), who drew lane 1 after finishing only 4th in his semi-final, surprised the field to finish 1st in 10.07, followed by Trinidad & Tobago’s Darrel Brown (10.08), who had set a World Junior Record of 10.01 in his ¼-final race, and Great Britain’s Darren Campbell (10.08). Finishing 4th and 5th were Great Britain’s Dwain Chambers (10.08) and World Record holder Tim Montgomery (10.11), both of whom eventually had their performances annulled due to doping violations. Collins would win bronze medals in the 100 at the 2005 and 2011 Worlds, and would continue competing into his 40s.
Eliminated in the first semi-final earlier in the day were training partners Ato Boldon and Maurice Greene, the 3-time defending champion, who felt a “pop” in his left quad as soon as he got out of the blocks.
Boldon, who was hoping to win his 8th global sprint medal, said of the drawn-out ¼-final round (see August 24), “It ruined my whole meet. That many starts and the delay causing us to be out there for 45 minutes. And I was already coming off of a serious car accident the season before and wasn’t 100% healthy. I won that (1/4-final) race and the next day had nothing left”.
Russia’s Svetlana Feofanova, 2nd to Stacy Dragila at the 2001 Worlds, won the Women’s Pole Vault this year with a shaky clearance of 15-7 (4.75). 2nd was Germany’s Annika Becker (15-5 [4.70) and 3rd was Russia’s Yelena Isinbaeva (15-3 [4.65), the World Record holder. Dragila, working on a new technique, finished 4th (14-11 [4.55]).
Sweden’s Christian Olsson dominated the Men’s Triple Jump, getting his winning mark of 58-1 ¾ (17.72) in the 1st round. His next 4 jumps were also farther than runnerup Yoandri Betanzos of Cuba (56-8 ½ [17.28]). Winning the bronze was the Bahamas’ Leevan Sands (56-7 ½ [17.26]). Finishing last in the final competition of his career was Great Britain’s Jonathan Edwards, the 2-time World Champion and World Record holder.
The Men’s High Jump featured one of the tallest world-class competitors the event has ever seen, as well as one of the shortest! South Africa’s Jacques Freitag, who stands 6’-8 ¼” (2.04), cleared 7-8 ½ (2.35) to win the gold medal, while Sweden’s Stefan Holm
(5’-11 ¼” [1.81]) won the silver medal on misses over Canada’s Mark Boswell, with both clearing 7-7 ¼ (2.32). Boswell was the 1999 & 2000 NCAA Indoor & Outdoor champion while at Texas.
Sanya Richards(Ross), Demetria Washington, and DeeDee Trotter were all eliminated in the Semi-Finals of the Women’s 400, making this the 3rd Worlds in a row that the U.S. wouldn’t have anyone in the final!
Medalists in other events
Men’s Hammer: Belarus’s Ivan Tikhon (272-5 [83.05]), Hungary’s Adrián Annus (263-8 [80.36]), Japan’s Koji Murofushi (262-10 [80.12]). Tikhon was coached by Sergey Litvinov, the 2-time World Champion (1983,1987) and 1988 Olympic Champion.
Women’s Discus: Belarus’s Irina Yatchenko (220-10 [67.32]), Greece’s Anastasia Kelesidou (220-3 [67.14]) and Ekaterini Voggoli
(218-11 [66.73])
Medalists/Results: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_World_Championships_in_Athletics
IAAF Coverage Additional Reports
2004–Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell(Brown) edged 18-year old American Allyson Felix to win the gold medal in the Women’s 200-meters at the Athens Olympics (22.08-22.15). Winning the bronze medal was the Bahamas’ Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie (22.30).
Greece’s Faní Halkiá (52.82) thrilled the Athens crowd by winning the Women’s 400-Meter Hurdles. Winning silver and bronze were Romania’s Ionela Târlea (53.38) and Ukraine’s Tetiana Tereschuk-Antipova (53.44). 4th was American Sheena Johnson-Tosta (53.83) and 8th was World Record holder Yuliya Pechonkina (55.79), who faded after clipping the 8th hurdle.
Russia’s Olga Kuzenkova, the silver medalist in 2000, set an Olympic record of 246-1 (75.02) while winning the Women’s Hammer. 2nd and 3rd were the Cuban duo of Yipsi Moreno (240-8 [73.36] and Yunaika Crawford (240-1[73.18]).
Medalists/Results: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_at_the_2004_Summer_Olympics
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