This Day in Track & Field, August 17, Albert Hill wins 800 meter at Antwerp Olympics (1920), Ireland sets WR for 4 x 1 Mile (1985), by Walt Murphy News and Results Services

Walt Murphy’s News and Results Service  (wmurphy25@aol.com)

This Day in Track & Field–August 17

1920—Britain’s Albert Hill (1:53.4) came from behind in the homestretch to win the 800-meters at the Antwerp Olympics. Close behind were American Earl Eby (1:53.6), South Africa’s Bevil Rudd(1:53.6), and Great Britain’s Edgar Mountain(1:53.7).

31 at the time, Hill remains the oldest Olympic gold medalist in the event. He would win a 2^nd gold in the 1500 two days later.

            France’s Joseph Guillemot passed Finland’s Paavo Nurmi (15:00.00) with 200-meters to go in the 5000-meters, and won going away in 14:55.6.  3^rd was Sweden’s Eric Backman (15:13.0).

            The U.S. got a 1-2 finish in the Men’s High Jump from Dick Landon (6-4  3/8 [1.936]) and Harold Muller (6-2  ¾ [1.90]). 3^rdwas Sweden’s Bo Eklund (6-2  ¾ [1.90]).

Medalists/Results: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_at_the_1920_Summer_Olympics

Olympedia Reports: https://www.olympedia.org/editions/7/sports/ATH

1977–A German foursome of Thomas Wessinghage (3:38.8), Harald Hudak (3:39.1), Michael Lederer (3:44.6), and Karl Fleschen (3:36.3) ran 14:38.8  in Cologne to set a World Record in the 4×1500 relay. The record lasted for 32 years until a team from Kenya ran 14:36.23 in 2009.

1983—Tyke Peacock jumped 7-7  ¾ (2.33) in Berlin to break the American Record of 7-7  ¼ (2.32) that he had shared with Dwight Stones, Jeff Woodard, and Del Davis.

            Another American Record was set by Henry Marsh in the Steeplechase (8:12.37).

Sports Illustrated Vault: https://vault.si.com/vault/1983/08/29/above-and-beyond-the-call-of-duty

1985–Four of Ireland’s greatest milers combined to set the current World Record of 15:49.08 in the 4-mile relay at Dublin’s Belfield Stadium. And guess who had the slowest split?

            Eamonn Coghlan, pushed by the “B” team’s John Treacy the entire way, led off in 4:00.2, followed by Marcus O’Sullivan (3:55.3), Frank O’Mara (3:56.6), and Ray Flynn (3:57.0). The previous mark of 15:59.57 was set by a John Walker-led New Zealand team in 1983.

            The reluctant foursome had to be coaxed by Irish journalist  John O’Shea, the founder of the international humanitarian agency GOAL, into competing in the fund-raising event.  O’Sullivan,  O’Mara, and Flynn were in the middle of the European track season, and Coghlan was still recovering from an injury. In fact, Coghlan, as well as his three eventual teammates, didn’t think the record was possible with him on the team, since he was far from being in top shape.

            “I know even I was pushing not to have Coghlan on the team,” said Flynn. “A week or so before we’d raced together in a road mile over in Minneapolis, and Eamonn had run 4:22. So he was really in bad shape. Terrible shape. The other guys mightn’t admit to it, but we were all trying to push him off our team. We just didn’t think we’d break the record with him on board.”

            “But Eamonn was such a competitor that he was able to produce that mile almost naturally, even in his worst possible condition, helped by the fact that John Treacy was on the B-team and chasing him down. Now I’m so happy that he was part of it, and gave the whole thing so much more credibility.”

            Coghlan fought the hardest not to be included on the team. “I remember John (O’Shea) getting on to me about running and I told him no way, that I hadn’t done a track session in six months because of injury. I knew I was in no shape to run the mile and just the night before we had a real blow-out over it. I think he actually called me a waster. That’s how mad we both were.”

            “Then that morning (fellow ex-Villanovan) Noel Carroll called up, partly to apologize for John. Somehow, he managed to convince me to give it a go and I ended up winning the first leg bang on four minutes. Noel always claimed after that it was  the best mile I ever ran.”

            “We were all leaving and saying to each other ‘that was great wasn’t it?’ I came away from it feeling just so high,” said O’Sullivan, “and I suppose in many ways it was the quintessential evening of what we were all about at that time”.

            “We left feeling as high as a kite and feeing that this was what it was all about. We always got along well, all of us, the Irish athletes and I think we all at least gave the appearance we were enjoying what we were doing, that money wasn’t the end all of why we were in it and that evening summed it up I think. It was a kind of a benchmark in our lives to what an evening should be, an event.”

            “There was nothing on the line that night and yet if I had to name five memorable races that would be right up there. It was just so energetic and full of life, full of everything.”

https://www.irishecho.com/2020/10/legendary-irish-milers-to-run-again

Video(includes post-race interview): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpnFS62KVlM

GOAL: http://www.goal.ie/

1988–Butch Reynolds  ran 43.29 in Zürich to smash Lee Evans’ 20 year old World Record in the 400-meters (43.86). Reynolds had come close with his 43.93 win at the U.S. Olympic Trials in July, but needed a pre-race pep talk from his brother Jeff to be convinced he could get the record in his final major race before the Seoul Olympics.

        Reynolds, running in lane 4, keyed off Nigeria’s Innocent Egbunike, who ran a scorching 200 from lane 5. Egbunike started paying for his fast pace, but Reynolds was still going strong and was right on Evans’ record pace as he passed 300-meters. With his brother Jeff, who had run 45.54 in the “B” race, cheering him on, the powerful Reynolds (6-2  3/4, 176) stormed down the final straightaway to finish off his record run.

        Following Reynold across the line were Danny Everett (44.20), Steve Lewis (44.26), Andrew Valmon (44.55),  Cuba’s Roberto Hernández (44.94),  Egbunike (44.97), and  Antonio McKay (45.10).

        Carl Lewis won the Men’s 100 in 9.93, but no one knew at the time that he had equaled his own World Record, since Ben Johnson’s mark of 9.83, set at the 1987 World Championships, as well as his subsequent time of 9.79 that he would run at the Seoul Olympics later in 1988, hadn’t yet been stricken from the record books. When they finally were (after his admission of drug use), the WR reverted to Lewis’ 9.93 from the ’87 Worlds!

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y30DFZ6cSg

Reynolds Looks Back:

http://www.runblogrun.com/2015/03/reynolds-rap-reflections-from-the-400m-2-all-time-performer-by-dave-hunter.html

T&F News Cover(October):

https://trackandfieldnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/1988_10.jpg