by RBR AdminWalt Murphy’s News and Results Service (wmurphy25@aol.com), used with permission.
This Day in Track & Field–February 17
1932 (updated)—Leo Sexton, who would go on to win Olympic gold in L.A. later in the year, won the Shot Put at the NYAC Games in NY’s Madison Square Garden with a toss of 52-8 3/8 (16.06) to set a new World Indoor Record.
Sexton, who stood 6’-4”, 240 pounds (1.93, 109kg), was the 1930 IC4A Indoor champion while at Georgetown, won the first U.S. Indoor title in the 35-pound Weight Throw (1932), was a 3-time U.S. Champion in the Shot Put (2xindoors-1931,1933; 1x-outdoor-1932), and a 3-time U.S. Outdoor champion in the 56-pound Weight Throw (1930-1932).
Less than two weeks after setting a World Record of 4:11.2 in the Wanamaker Mile at the Millrose Games, Gene Venzke lowered the mark here to 4:10.0.
For the 3rd time this year, Emmett Toppino tied the World Record of 6.2 in the 60-yard dash. He would match it 3 more times before the end of the season.
https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/79018
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Sexton
1934 (Updated)—Fresno State’s Walter Marty, who set a World Outdoor Record of 6-8 5/8 (2.04) in the High Jump in 1933, added the Indoor Record to his resume by going higher (6-8 ¾ [2.05]) at the NYAC Games in Madison Square Garden. Finishing 2nd was George Spitz, who held the previous record of 6-8 ½ (2.04). Marty would win U.S. Indoor and Outdoor titles in 1934.
A record also fell in the Pole Vault, with Yale’s Keith Brown clearing 14-4 (4.37) to top his previous best of 14-1 ¾ (4.31).
Despite the pedestrian early pace (2:13-880y), the Baxter Mile provided the thrill of the night for the capacity crowd of 16,000 as Bill Bonthron’s lunge at the tape gave him a narrow win over World Record holder Glenn Cunningham, who fell to the track in his desperate attempt to hold off Bonthron, and the previous record holder, Gene Venzke, with all 3 men being timed in 4:14.0!
Wiki Bio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Marty
Photos: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151606008968844.1073741827.268537913843&type=3
1961—Ralph Boston, the 1960 Olympic gold medalist, broke the World Indoor Record for the Long Jump twice at the NYAC Games at Madison Square Garden. He first jumped 25-11 ½ (7.91) to better his previous best of 25-10 (7.87), then produced the first indoor 26-footer with a leap of 26-1 ¾ (7.97). Soviet Igor Ter-Ovanesyan, the bronze medalist in Rome the previous year, had problems with the short (for him) runway and fouled on all six of his jumps in his U.S. debut.
Another U.S.-Soviet duel panned out a little better, with World Record holder Valeriy Brumel getting the better of John Thomas in the High Jump. Brumel, the silver medalist in Rome (who was also making his U.S. debut) cleared 7-3 (2.21), while Thomas, who finished a disappointing 3rd at the Rome Olympics, could only manage a height of 7-1 (2.16).
Sports Illustrated Vault: https://vault.si.com/vault/1961/02/27/valeris-high-high-jump
1963—Japan’s Toru Terasawa set a World Record of 2:15:15.8 in the Beppu Marathon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toru_Terasawa
1968—Villanova set a World Indoor Record of 7:23.8 in the 2-mile relay at the Mason Dixon Games on Louisville’s spacious 220-yard banked wooden track. The lineup was Ian Hamilton (1:51.6), Charlie Messenger (1:53.2), Frank Murphy (1:49.8), and Dave Patrick (1:49.2).
Oregon State’s Dick Fosbury wowed a new set of fans with his unique style, winning the High Jump (7-1 ¼ [2.165?]) a day after winning at the NYAC Games in New York.
1973—Francie Larrieu ran 4:35.6 in San Diego to set World and American Records for the Mile. Prep Debbie Heald set the previous mark of 4:38.5 in 1972
1974–North Carolina’s Tony Waldrop continued his dominance of the Mile during the 1974 indoor season, running 3:55.0 in San Diego to shatter the previous World Record of 3:56.4, which was shared by Tom O’Hara and Jim Ryun. Waldrop’s mark held up as the collegiate record (he shared it with Oklahoma State’s German Fernandez, who ran an auto-timed 3:55.02 in 2009) until BYU’s Miles Batty ran 3:54.54 at the 2012 Millrose Games.
In the very next race, Steve Prefontaine ran 8:20.4 to better his own American Record in the 2-mile. 15-year old Mary Decker set H.S. Records in the 800 (2:01.8) and 880y (2:02.4). The 800 mark stood for 43 years until Sammy Watson (Rush-Henrietta,NY) ran 2:01.78 in 2017!
Sports Illustrated Vault(Waldrop Feature): https://vault.si.com/vault/1974/03/04/hed-prefer-a-good-book
1985—Jim Howard added ½” to his American Indoor Record in the High Jump by clearing 7-8 ½ (2.35) at the Knights of Columbus meet in Richfield, Ohio.
1996—Fresno State freshman Melissa Price first raised the American Indoor Record to 13-3 ¾ (4.06) in Fresno, then to 13-6 ¼ (4.12m). Price would win the first two NCAA Indoor titles in the Women’s Pole Vault (1998,1999).
1996—Despite throwing up twice during the last 2 miles after having a bad reaction to a sports drink, Bob Kempainen hung on for the win at the Men’s U.S. Marathon Olympic Trials in Charlotte,NC. Joining him on the U.S. team that would compete at the Atlanta Olympics were Keith Brantly and Mark Coogan.
https://www.nytimes.com/1996/02/18/sports/marathon-kempainen-shows-will-in-winning-trials.html
Video(Not for the squeamish!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnUNQ_wo7lE
2001—Not satisfied with setting one World Record when she cleared 15-3 ¼ (4.66) on her “home” runway in Pocatello, Idaho (breaking Svetlana Feofanova’s mark of 15-2 ½ (4.64), Stacy Dragila had the bar raised to 15-5 (4.70) and cleared it on her 3rd attempt to set a 2nd WR!
The meet was part of USATF’s Golden Spike Tour and was held in conjunction with the Simplot Games, one of the premier U.S. High School meets.
After the meet, a group of us went out to dinner at Remo’s Restaurant in Pocatello. After placing our orders in the kitchen, the waitress returned to our table to let us know they had run out of baked potatoes, which, of course, we had all ordered. In unison, we let out a roar of laughter—“How do you run out of potatoes in Idaho?!”.
https://www.worldathletics.org/news/news/dragila-breaks-her-world-record-twice-in-one
2007–Bernard Lagat won the 3000-meters in Birmingham, England, in 7:32.43 to break Tim Broe’s American Record of 7:39.23, which was set in 2002. On the same program, Kenenisa Bekele ran 4:49.99 for 2000-meters to take another World Record from fellow Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie (4:52.86). Bekele had set the current World Record in the 5000 (12:49.60) on the same track in 2004.
IAAF Report: https://www.worldathletics.org/news/report/bekele-steals-the-show-with-2000m-world-best
2007—Bianca Knight (Ridgeland,MS) ran 22.97 at the Simplot Games in Pocatello, Idaho, to break the National H.S. Record of 23.14 that was set by Allyson Felix (L.A. Baptist,CA) in 2003. The record was broken in 2023 when Junior Mia Brahe-Pedersen (Lake Oswego,OR) ran 22.89 in Albuquerque.
Felix (2) and Knight (3) ran the middle legs on the U.S. 4×100 team that set a World Record of 40.82 at the 2012 Olympics in London.
A Look Back (2021): www.milesplit.com/articles/256427/behind-bianca-knights-outrageous-national-record-from-2007
Results: https://id.milesplit.com/meets/195019-simplot-games-2007/results#.YCu5pi1h3BA
2015—Sophomore Kamryn McIntosh (Suffern,NY) set a National H.S. Record (since broken) of 1:28.78 for 600-meters at NY’s Armory.
Post-Race Interview: http://www.armorytrack.com/gprofile.php?mgroup_id=45586&do=videos&video_id=134265
2016—Ethiopia’s Genzebe Dibaba ran 4:13.31 for the mile in Stockholm to smash the World Record of 4:17.14 that was set by Romania’s Doina Melinte back in 1990! It was the 3rd WR set by Dibaba on the Stockholm track, having run 8:16.60 for 3000-Meters in 2014, and 14:18.86 for 5000-Meters in 2015.
World Records were also set by Djibouti’s Ayanleh Souleiman in the 1000-meters (2:14.20) and Qatar’s Abdalelah Haroun in the 500-meters (59.83).
Video (mile): https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3sr8dn
2017—It was a night of records at NY’s Armory. Here’s what I wrote at the time:
Artie O’Connor Invitational-Records For McLaughlin-HOKA NJ*NY TC
It was the first edition of a meet named for the late Artie O’Connor, the coach at Fordham University from 1946-1973, and many of his former athletes showed up to honor his memory. Among the more familiar names who were on hand were Tom Courtney, the 1956 Olympic gold medalist in the 800-meters and 4×400 relay, All-Americans Jack Fath (Mile) and Frank Tomeo (880y), and, of course, Norb Sander, the President of the Armory Foundation who was a member of the Fordham team that won the 4-mile relay at the 1963 Penn Relays.
It was primarily a meet for local colleges, but there were two special events added to the program and
they provided the highlights of the night
First up was the Women’s 300-Meters, where Union Catholic(NJ) senior Sydney McLaughlin, the 2016 U.S. Olympian in the 400-Meter Hurdles, would have a final chance to break Francena McCorory’s National H.S. Record of 36.96. She had come close twice at the Armory this season, running 37.11 on January 14 and 37.09 at last week’s Millrose Games.
Running in the favored lane 5 the entire race, McLaughlin finally got the elusive record, crossing the finish line in 36.82 seconds. It was the 3rd National H.S. Record for McLaughlin, who set the 400 standard of 51.84 at the Armory at (the 2016) New Balance Indoor Nationals, and set the outdoor record of 54.15 in the 400-meter hurdles at last year’s U.S. Olympic Trials.
(From Armorytrack.com): “Last week there were so many more people at Millrose and much better competition,” said McLaughlin, who competed in the NYRR Millrose Game’s Women’s 300m against Olympic gold medalists Shaunae Miller and Natasha Hastings. “That got into my head a little bit and I really didn’t run my race.
“This week I tried to get out and run my race and focus on all the points my coach taught me. From last week until now it was about building confidence … I kept telling myself ‘I could do it’ because last week there was a lot of self-doubt and the competition was intense. Coming into this race I wanted to mentally prepare myself that I could do this.”
Up next was the 4-mile relay, where Frank Gagliano’s HOKA NJ*NY TC team would be taking aim at the NYAC’s 24-year old World Indoor Record of 16:16.67. The team originally hoped to not only break the record, but to take it under 16-minutes! That did seem a possibility leading up to the meet, but Colby Alexander, who had run 3:55.99 the week before in the Wanamaker Mile at Millrose, came up with a sore calf on Monday and had to be replaced by Graham Crawford, who had an injury of his own in December and had lost some training time due to a virus he picked up earlier this month.
There were five other teams in the race, but it quickly became a race against the clock as steepler Donn Cabral, a 2-time Olympic finalist and a 2-time NCAA champion at Princeton, got things rolling for coach Gags with his 4:05.4 lead-off leg,
The 2nd leg was handled by former Monmouth University standout Ford Palmer, who went out in a perhaps too-quick 56.6 for his first 1/4-mile, but was able to maintain his form and ran a fine 3:59.5 for his carry.
Crawford, just a year out of North Carolina State, had run 3:56.05 last August, but this would be his first race of the year and he wasn’t yet in that kind of shape (see above). He covered his first 1/2-mile in a respectable 2:02.3, but couldn’t hold that pace and wound up with a split of 4:08.6.
With Columbia grad Kyle Merber, fresh off a 3rd-place finish in last week’s Wanamaker Mile (with a time of 3:54.67), it seemed apparent that the World Record would be broken, but by how much?
Merber, wearing his trademark headband, ran his first 1/4-mile in 58.6 and followed with splits of 1:58.6 and 2:58.7 before finishing the race with a final split of 3:59.3 and a team time of 16:12.81, almost 4 seconds under the previous World Record. Watching from trackside was Paul Mascali, who was the coach of the NYAC team that had just lost its status as Word Record holders!
(From Armorytrack.com): Said Merber, “It was really exciting (running anchor) but a bit chaotic. I was passing (lapped) guys constantly and it was kind of like dodging traffic. You get caught up in somebody’s pace and you have to stay in your own world”.
It was the first World Record for “Gag” (aka Coach Gags), one of the most successful and beloved coaches in the sport, since his Georgetown team ran 9:20.96 in the DMR at the 1987 Penn Relays! Also present for the big night were his assistants, Tom Nohilly, once one of the best steeplechasers in the U,S., and 1992 Olympian(5k) John Trautmann, who ran the opening 1200 leg on that Georgetown Distance Medley team!
Said Gag in an email, “It means so much to us to put this race on and break the record! We have an outstanding group of athletes in Westchester(NY). They all live in the same area and train at Masters School in Dobbs Ferry and the Armory. We had a great performance at Millrose and the next week set a world record!!! We are very proud of the HOKA NJ*NY TC!”
4-mile relay splits(from Jack Pfeifer):
1/4 1/2 3/4 Mile Final
Cabral 60.2 2:01.1 3:02.8 4:05.4 4:05.4
Palmer 56.6 1:57.7 2:58.8 3:59.5 8:04.9
Crawford 60.6 2:02.3 3:06.5 4:08.6 12:13.5
Merber 58.4 1:58.6 2:58.7 3:59.3 16:12.81
Artie O’Connor
http://www.nytimes.com/1982/07/16/obituaries/arthur-o-connor-dies-at-77-coached-track-at-fordham.html
Armory Coverage
http://www.armorytrack.com/gprofile.php?do=view_event&event_id=12173&mgroup_id=45586&year=2017
Joining Tom Courtney(l) at the meet was another NY legend, St.John’s alum Tom Farrell, the bronze medalist in the 800 at the 1968 Olympics (Attached)
2022—Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen, the gold medalist in the 1500-Meters at the Tokyo Olympics, added a World Record to his already impressive resume, running 3:30.60 for the metric mile at the World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting in Liévin France, on Thursday. Finishing a distant 2nd in 3:33.70 was the previous record holder, Ethiopia’s Samuel Tefera, who ran 3:31.04 in 2019. He would return to Liévin in 2025 to set a WR of 3:45.14 for the mile.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=si3MH1eVyrY
Analysis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aqeJQCMbqM
2023—DeAnna Price raised the World Record for the 20-pound Weight Throw twice on the 2nd day of action at the U.S. Indoor Championships in Albuquerque, NM. She threw 84-6 ¾ (25.77) in the 3rd round, then topped that by almost a foot with a toss of 85-4 ½ (26.02) in the 5th round. The previous record of 84-0 (25.60) had been shared by Gwen Berry (2017) and Janeah Stewart (2023).
Series: 81-6 ¾ (24.86), 83-6 ½ (25.46), 84-6 ¾ (25.77),82-8 ½ (25.21), 85-4 ½ (26.02), foul
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdQOoVtB0m8
Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hj_xPxUHrIk
2023—Oklahoma State (9:16.40) edged Washington (9:16.65) in the Distance Medley at the Arkansas Qualifier in Fayetteville as both teams were well under the Collegiate Record of 9:19.42 that was set by Oregon in 2021.
Lineups
OSU 9:16.40 (Fouad Messaoudi-2:49.49, DeJuana McArthur-46.81, Hafez Mahadi-1:47.27, Ryan Schoppe-3:52.83)
Washington 9:16.65 (Joe Waskom-2:49.41, Daniel Gaik-46.36, Cass Elliott-1:47.42, Kieran Lumb-3:53.46);
Significant Birthdays
Born On This Day*
Mohamed Katir—Spain 27 (1998) Silver medalist in the 5000-meter at the 2023 World Championships
Bronze medalist in the 1500 at the 2022 WC
8th in the 5000 at the 2021 Olympics
Set 2 European Records in 2023—7:24.68i, 12:45.01
Born in Morocco, started representing Spain in 2020
Past performances are now suspect after he was hit with 2 suspensions for “whereabout failures” and “tampering”.
His ban started on Feb.7, 2024, and will expire on Feb.6, 2028.
PBs: 3:28.76 (2021), 3:34.32i (2023), 7:27.64 (2021), 7:24.68i (2023/#3 All-Time), 12:45.01 (2023/ER)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_Katir
https://worldathletics.org/athletes/spain/mohamed-katir-14642046
Maru Teferi—Israel 33 (1992) Silver medalist-Marathon/2023 World Championships…11th at the 2022 WC…2017-DNF
3-time Olympian—2016 (73rd), 2021 (13th), 2024 (26th)
Silver medalist at the 2022 European Championships
Winner of the 2022 Fukuoka Marathon…Has completed 21 marathons since 2015
Born in Ethiopia, he moved to Israel with his family when he was 14 years old
PBs: 13:40.37 (2019), 28:34.27 (Dec. 2020), 60:52 (2021), 2:04:44 (Dec. 2024)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maru_Teferi
https://worldathletics.org/athletes/israel/maru-teferi-14526757
https://www.nnrunningteam.com/team/maru-teferi/
(Jumpin’) Joe Greene 58 (1967) 2-time Olympic bronze medalist—Long Jump (1992,1996)
Part of a U.S. sweep in 1992 (Behind Carl Lewis and Mike Powell)
Silver medalist at the 1993 World Indoor Championships
1995 U.S. Indoor Champion
1989 NCAA Champion—Ohio State…1st Buckeye to win the NCAA LJ since Jesse Owens in 1935 & 1936
Went from 8th to 1st with his final (wind-aided) jump of 27-7 ¼ (8.41)…3rd Indoors in 1989 & 1990
Made the T&F News Top-10 World Rankings 6 times (#3 in 1992, 1996)
NCAA Triple Jump-1989i (2nd), 1990(3rd)
PBs: 27-10 (8.48/1995), 28-5w (8.66/1992), 55-4 ¾ (16.88/1989)
http://www.olympedia.org/athletes/78478
His two Olympic medals wound up in a Las Vegas Pawn Shop
Pawn Stars Connection:
http://www.looper.com/2754/biggest-payouts-pawn-stars-history/
http://olympicringsandotherthings.blogspot.com/2011/09/only-olympic-bronze-at-gold-silver-pawn.html
Happy Ending (1992 medal returned!) (Good read!)
