Walt Murphy is one of the finest track geeks that I know. Walt does #ThisDayinTrack&FieldHistory, an excellent daily service that provides true geek stories about our sport. You can check out the service for FREE with a free one-month trial subscription! (email: WaltMurphy44@gmail.com ) for the entire daily service. We will post a few historic moments each day, beginning February 1, 2024.
by Walt Murphy’s News and Results Service (wmurphy25@aol.com), used with permission
This Day in Track & Field–October 9
1960-18-year old Valeriy Brumel, the winner of the silver medal at the Rome Olympics earlier in the year, raised his European Record in the high jump to 7-2 ¼ (2.19) in Lugansk, Ukraine. Brumel went on to win the gold medal at the 1964 Olympics and set six World records from 1961-1963 (best of 7-5 ¾[2.28]).
Valeriyj Brumel, Olympic champion, photo from Peoples.Ru
Sports Illustrated Vault (1963-In His Own Words):
https://vault.si.com/vault/1963/02/04/the-big-jump-a-siberian-champion-tells-his-story
https://vault.si.com/vault/1969/10/20/you-cant-keep-a-good-high-jumper-down
2005—Deena Kastor won the Women’s race at the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon. It was the first marathon win of her career and her time of 2:21:25 wasn’t far off her American Record of 2:21:16.
Kastor was well on her way to bettering that AR until she started to struggle about 20-miles into the race. Romania’s Constantina Diță, the defending champion, was starting to narrow a once-formidable gap with every stride, but Kastor was able to hold on for a 5-second win, with Diță running a personal best of 2:21:30.
Deena Kastor winning the 2005 La Salle Bank Chicago Marathon, photo courtesy of LSB Chicago marathon
“I suffered greatly in the last 5K, but was able to make the finish line. I’m only now starting to feel ‘Okay,’” Kastor said more than an hour after finishing. “At 20 miles I thought, I’m starting to feel it, starting to feel the pavement a little bit, the bottoms of my feet were getting a little tender. With four miles to go, I thought this was really going to be a long four miles. It was really the last three miles that were the ugliest, and I really, really felt awful.” “I had nothing. One look over my shoulder revealed the defending champion closing quickly. Where the hell was the finish line?”
Led by Felix Limo (2:07:02) and Benjamin Maiyo (2:07:09), Kenyans swept the top-10 places in the Men’s race!
Top 10: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Chicago_Marathon
https://www.time-to-run.com/marathon/chicago/report-2005-chicago
http://www.yourrun.com/deena-kastor-chicago-marathon.html
Videos(Women)
Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCgUl94B7KI
Finish/Interviews: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAd0FsCgvnE
Past Winners: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_winners_of_the_Chicago_Marathon
2022—Kenya’s Ruth Chepngetich was the winner at the Chicago Marathon for the 2nd year in a row, running 2:14:18, the 2nd fastest time in history (at the time), but fell short of her goal of breaking the World Record of 2:14:04. Finishing 2nd in 2:18:29 was Emily Sisson, who broke Keira D’Amato’s 9-month old American Record of 2:19:12.
Ruth Chepngetich flew over the course in Chicago, running a brilliant PB of 2:14.18! photo: Bank of America Chicago Marathon/Kevin Morris
Winner of the Men’s race in 2:04:24 was Kenya’s Benson Kipruto