by Larry Eder
This Day in Track & Field–July 30
1928—Canada’s Percy Williams took the first half of his sprint double at the Amsterdam Olympics by winning the Men’s 100-meters in 10.8. He would win the 200 two days later. Winning the silver and bronze medals were Great Britain’s Jack London (10.9) and Germany’s Georg Lammers (10.9). Finishing 4th was 18-year old Frank Wykoff (11.0), a recent graduate of Glendale (CA) H.S. He would win the first of his 3 Olympic gold medals in the 4×100 relay four days later.
Great Britain’s Lord Burghley (aka David Cecil), was a narrow winner in the Men’s 400-hurdles (53.4) over the U.S. duo of Frank Cuhel (53.6) and defending champion Morgan Taylor (53.6), the defending champion.
Ireland’s Pat O’Callaghan won the first of his two Olympic titles in the Hammer with a throw of 168-7 (51.39). 2nd was Sweden’s Ossian Skiöld (168-3 [51.29]) and 3rd was American Ed Black (160-10 [49.03]).
Medalists/Results: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_at_the_1928_Summer_Olympics
Olympedia Reports: https://www.olympedia.org/editions/9/sports/ATH
Videos
M100: https://olympics.com/en/video/amsterdam-1928-williams-percy
M400h (side-by-side w/Karsten Warholm’s 2021 WR!: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=861965074907975
https://www.olympic.org/percy-williams
Percy Williams: https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/66279
1948–The first post-World War II Olympic champions were crowned in London, as Czech Emil Zátopek won the 10,000-meters (29:59.6), Australia’s John Winter the Men’s High Jump (6-6 [1.98]), and France’s Micheline Ostermeyer the Women’s Discus
(137-6 [41.92]). Zátopek’s 47.8s margin of victory is still the greatest in Olympic history.
Winter, the only one in the 20-man final using the scissors/Eastern-cutoff style of jumping, had to deal with a steady rain and occasionally a boisterous crowd that was cheering for Zatopek during the 10,000.
Ostermeyer, who performed as a concert pianist during her athletic career, would also win gold in the Shot Put and bronze in the High Jump later in the Games.
Other Medalists/Notes:
Men’s 10,000: France’s Alain Mimoun (30:47.4), Swden’s Bertil Albertson (30:53.6)…Finland’s Viljo Heino, the World Record holder,
dropped out after battling Zátopek for the first 6k.
Men’s HJ: Norway’s Bjørn Paulson (6-4 ¾ [1.95]), American George Stanich (6-4 ¾ [1.95])…this was the first year that ties were broken
by the countback rule of fewer misses at heights (the 4th & 5th placers also cleared 6-4 ¾)
Women’s DT: Italy’s Edera Cordiale-Gentile (135-1 [41.17]), France’s Jacqueline Mazéas (132-9 [40.47])…among the athletes missing
from this event was unofficial World Record holder Nina Dumbadze of the Soviet Union, which refused to compete at the
Olympics (From Olympedia).
Medalists/Results: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_at_the_1948_Summer_Olympics
Olympedia Reports: https://www.olympedia.org/editions/12/sports/ATH
Winter:
Ostermeyer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micheline_Ostermeyer
https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/67992
1974–Rick Wohlhuter ran 2:13.9 on the first day of competition at the Martin Luther King Games in Oslo to smash the previous World Record for 1000-meters by 2.1-seconds. Wohlhuter, who had said before the meet that he was going after the record, ran away from a loaded field in the process–2.Mike Boit (Kenya) 2:16.7, 3.John Walker (New Zealand) 2:17.1, 4.Rod Dixon (New Zealand) 2:17.2, 5.Byron Dyce (Jamaica) 2:17.6. Boit was with him every step of the way until the Notre Dame grad, who set a WR for 880-yards the previous year, sprinted away in the final 200-meters. His 2:13.9 lasted as a World Record until Sebastian Coe ran 2:13.40 in 1980, and it still stands as the American Record, the oldest one on the books.
There was almost a second World Record in the Men’s High Jump. All other events had long been completed, but thousands of fans stuck around to watch “Big D” (Dwight Stones) try to improve his year-old global mark of 7-6 ½ (2.30). With the bar set at 7-7 (2.31), Stones, who had needed only one jump to clear each of seven previous heights, from 6-6 ¾ (2.00) to 7-5 ¾ (2.28), almost did it again at the record height, barely brushing the bar off with his heel! That would be the best of his three attempts.
Video(1000): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEYDHU7saAg
Hall-of-Fame Bios
Wohlhuter: https://www.usatf.org/athlete-bios/rick-wohlhuter
Stones: https://www.usatf.org/athlete-bios/dwight-stones
WR Progression: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1000_metres_world_record_progression
Wohlhuter Looks Back(2014):
1976–Bruce Jenner closed out his brilliant career by winning the gold medal in the Decathlon at the Montreal Olympics. His score of 8,618 points (8,634-current tables) raised his own World Record by 80 points. Winning silver was West Germany’s Guido Kratschmer (8411) and the bronze went to the Soviet Union’s Nikolay Avilov (8369), the defending champion.
For the 2nd Olympics in a row, Finland’s Lasse Virén was a double winner, finishing first today in the Men’s 5000-meters (13:24.76) to go along with his earlier win in the 10,000.
Virén, who ran 55.4 for his last 400, held off repeated challenges on the last lap from New Zealand’s Dick Quax (13:25.16), West Germany’s Klaus Hildenbrand (13:25.38), Quax’s teammate Rod Dixon (13:25.50), and Great Britain’s Brendan Foster (13:26.19).
The Soviet Union’s Viktor Saneyev won his 3rd straight Olympic gold medal in the Triple Jump, but he had to come from behind to do so. American James Butts had taken the lead with his 4th-round jump of 56-4 ½ (17.18), a personal best, but Saneyev came through in the 5th round with his winning jump of 56-8 ¾ (17.29). 3rd was Brazil’s João do Pulo (55-5 ½ [16.90]).
Another Soviet, Tatyana Kazankina, who had won the Women’s 800 four days earlier, completed her Olympic double by winning a slow-paced Women’s 1500-meters in 4:05.5. Kazankina, who sprinted from behind in the homestretch, covered her last 800 in 2:03.5 and her final 400 in 56.9! Silver and bronze went to the East German duo of Gunhild Hoffmeister (4:06.02) and Ulrike Klapezynski (4:06.09). Jan Merrill, who had set an American Record of 4:02.61 in her semi-final, finished 8th-4:08.5)
Medalists/Results:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_at_the_1976_Summer_Olympics
Olympedia Reports: https://www.olympedia.org/editions/19/sports/ATH
WR Progression: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decathlon_world_record_progression
Jenner’s Marks:
10.94, 23-8 ¼/7.22, 50-4 ¼/15.35, 6-8/2.03, 47.51[4298]. 14.84, 164-2/50.04, 15-9/4.80, 224-9,/68.52 4:12.61
Read Tim Layden’s excellent Sports Illustrated article about Jenner’s transition from Bruce to Caitlyn
http://www.si.com/olympics/2016/06/28/caitlyn-jenner-1976-olympics-gold-medal
Videos
Men’s 5k
(full race): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3PehlOMyAM
Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91qa_2QJ9CU
Decathlon(focus on Jenner): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gL4CDvCqvrE
1977—Mark Belger (4:03.32), about to enter his senior year at Villanova, won the mile at the Boston Relay Carnival over his teammate-to-be Sydney Maree (4:03.91), who had recently arrived from his native South Africa. 3rd in the race was Villanova grad Ken Schappert (4:04.48), whose daughter Nicole (Tully) won the 5000 at the 2015 U.S. Championships.
In other highlights, 17-year old prep Lynn Jennings, in-between her junior and senior years at the Bromfield School(MA), won the 800 (2:10.3) and the Mile (4:52.2); a month out of high school, Renaldo Nehemiah, who ran 10.43 in his heat, finished a close 2nd in the 100 to Cliff Wiley (10.53-10.59/headwind); Rosalyn Bryant won the Women’s 400 in 52.9.
The Philadelphia Pioneer Club won all 3 sprint relays–Jason Grimes, Tony Darden, Herman Frazier, and Charles Joseph won the 4×200 in 1:21.23, faster than the World Record of 1:21.4, but the mark couldn’t be ratified since the team included Joseph, a native of Trinidad & Tobago. Grimes, Rudy Reid, Joseph, and Frazier won the 4×100 in 39.59, and Frazier (46.5), Bruce Greene (46.2), Darden (46.6), and Joseph (47.4) won the 4×400 in 3:06.66.
The meet, which was televised on Public Broadcasting, was held at Boston University’s Nickerson Field and was directed by BU grad John Thomas, the former World Record holder in the High Jump.
1980–Despite intense heckling from the Soviet crowd at the Moscow Olympics, which was rooting for co-silver medalist Konstantin Volkov, Poland’s Wladyslaw Kozakiewicz won the gold medal in the Pole Vault and set a World Record of 18-11 ½ (5.78). Poland’s Tadeusz Ślusarski, the defending champion, shared the silver medal with Volkov (both cleared 18-6 ½ [5.95]). Missing due to the U.S.-led boycott were Americans Mike Tully and Tom Hintnaus. Kozakiewicz’s response to the crowd after his record vault (celebrated by using a well-known gesture, telling the Soviet crowd where they could shove it!-from Olympedia) was caught in this photo (scroll down):
https://culture.pl/en/article/kozakiewicz-pole-vault-olympics-scandal-poland
Russia’s Viktor Markin won the Men’s 400 in 44.60, followed by Australia’s Rick Mitchell (44.84) and East Germany’s Frank Schaffer (44.87). Cuba’s Alberto Juantorena, the defending champion who was recovering from an injury, finished 4th in 45.09.
East Germany’s Bärbel Wöckel (22.03), running from lane one, successfully defended her Olympic title in the Women’s 200-Meters. Winning silver and bronze were the Soviet Union’s Nataliya Bochina (22.19) and Jamaica’s Merlene Ottey (22.20), who won the first of her 30 global medals! Missing due to the boycott was American Evelyn Ashford.
The Soviet Union got a 1-2 finish in the Men’s Shot Put from Vladimir Kiselyov (70-1/2 [21.35]/OR) and Aleksandr Baryshnikov (69-2 [21.08]). East Germany’s Udo Beyer (69-1 ¼ [21.06]), the World Record holder and defending champion, won the bronze medal.
East Germany’s Hartwig Gauder (3:49:24) won the 50k Walk, which was reinstated to the Olympic program after not being contested in 1976. Winning silver and bronze were Spain’s Jorge Llopart (3:51.25) and the Soviet Union’s Yevgeny Ivchenko (3:56.32).
Results: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_at_the_1980_Summer_Olympics
Olympedia Reports: https://www.olympedia.org/editions/20/sports/ATH
WR Progression: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men’s_pole_vault_world_record_progression
T&F News Cover(Kozakiewicz-September):
https://trackandfieldnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/1980_09.jpg
