This Day in Track & Field–September 21
1895—Future Hall-of-Famer Bernie Wefers equaled the pre-IAAF World Records of 9.8 (9-4/5) in the 100y and 21.6
(21-3/5) in the 220y in front of 10,000 fans at a dual meet at Manhattan Field in New York between the N.Y. Athletic Club and the London A.C., considered the leading T&F club in the world at the time.
Bernard Wefers, photo courtesy of Wikipedia
Dartmouth’s Stephen Chase, the 1895 IC4A Champion, tied his own WR of 15-2/5 in the 120y-Hurdles. The mark wasn’t accepted as an American Record because he knocked over a hurdle during the race!
Michael Sweeney bettered his own mark in the High Jump with his 3rd-attempt clearance of 6-5 5/8 (1.97). Said Sweeney, “The next thing I remember was Teddy Roosevelt picking me out of the pit. He was (New York) Police Commissioner in those days, and was an official in the games”.
The NYAC won all 11 events on the day, leading the New York Sun to write, “We not only beat the British; we beat the world”.
Wefers, considered by many to be the “World’s Fastest Man” during the 1890s, won the 100y-220y double 3 years in a row at the U.S. Championships (1895-1897) and was a 3-time IC4A Champion while at Georgetown (1896-100y,220y); 1897-220y). After his retirement from competition, he became the coach at the NYAC for 45 years. During his time at the NYAC, he would take the train from New York to New Brunswick,NJ, to coach the Rutgers team!
Wefers
HOF(2008): https://www.usatf.org/athlete-bios/bernie-wefers
1901—Harry Gill set a pre-IAAF World Record of 122-4 (37.29) in the Discus in Toronto.
Gill became the head coach at Illinois, which won the first NCAA team title in 1921—a meet he organized! (It was
the first NCAA Championship in any sport)
He founded Gill Athletics, which became the leading supplier of T&F equipment in the U.S.
Harry Gill, photo courtesy of USATF Hall of Fame
Inducted into the National Hall of Fame in 2015
https://www.usatf.org/athlete-bios/harry-gill
Gill Athletics: https://www.gillathletics.com/about
1907—Two pre-IAAF World Records were set by two Irish-American “Whales” at the Canadian Championships in Montreal.
Ralph Rose upped his own record in the Shot Put to 49-7 ¼ (15.12), and Matt McGrath won the Hammer Throw with a toss of 173-7 (52.90).
Whales: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Whales
1955—Great Britain’s Diane Leather won the Mile at London’s White City Stadium in 4:45.0 to take almost six seconds off her previous World Record of 4:50.8. She had become the first woman to break 5-minutes for the Mile (4:59.6) in 1954, shortly after Roger Bannister had broken the 4-minute barrier in the Men’s Mile.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/12/obituaries/diane-leather-dead.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Leather
1959–Romania’s Iolanda Balaș got the 6th of her 14 World Records in the Women’s High Jump by clearing 6-1/2 (1.84m) at the Balkan Games in Bucharest.
Iolanda Balas, photo courtesy of Olympics.org
In addition to setting multiple World Records, Balaș was the first woman to clear 6-feet, had a remarkable unbeaten streak of 154 meets (sometimes reported as 140 or 150), and was a 2-time Olympic gold medalist (1960,1964)!
WR Progression: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women’s_high_jump_world_record_progression
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iolanda_Balaș
https://www.worldathletics.org/news/iaaf-news/iolanda-balas-obituary
1986—West Germany’s Klaus Tafelmeier threw the Javelin 281-3 (85.74) in Como, Italy. This would become the 1st ratified World Record set with the “new” implement.
From the IAAF Progression of World Records:
The innovations of the new implement were that the centre of gravity was shifted about 4cm forwards, and the surface area of the javelin tail was reduced. The effect of this was that the soaring phase no longer took place with the result that distances were reduced, but the javelin always stuck in the ground, making measurement easier. The new equipment was introduced by the IAAF on 1 April 1986. At the beginning of 1987, the IAAF accepted as the new World Record the performance which while fulfilling all requirements was the best to have been achieved up to 31 December 1986. Below is the list showing the development of records with the new spear.
257-11 (78.62) Klaus Tafelmeier (FRG) London 14.09.1985
262-00 (79.86) Brian Crouser (USA) Papeete 27.03.1986
268-02 (81.74) Roald Bradstock (GBR) Tucson 03.05.1986
269-10 (82.24) Klaus Tafelmeier (FRG) Hannover 07.06.1986
274-06 (83.68) Viktor Yevsyukov (URS) Leningrad 08.06.1986
280-01 (85.38) Tom Petranoff (USA) Helsinki 07.07.1986
281-03 (85.74) Klaus Tafelmeier (FRG) Como 21.09.1986
WR Progression: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men%27s_javelin_throw_world_record_progression
Conversions: https://www.usatf.org/statistics/calculators/markConversions/index.html
2003—Great Britain’s Paula Radcliffe ran 1:05:40 for the Half-Marathon at the BUPA Great North Run in South Shield, England, but the mark was never submitted for ratification as a World Record because it was run on a point-to-point course with an excessive drop of 30.5-meters. (From the IAAF Progression of World Records).
Paula Radcliffe, photo courtesy of World Athletics
2008—Two exciting races at the 5th Avenue Mile in New York, with Great Britain’s Lisa Dobriskey (4:18.6) edging Shannon Rowbury (4:19.2) in the Women’s race, and New Zealand’s Nick Willis (3:50.5) chasing down Bernard Lagat (3:50.6) to win the Men’s title.
Other notable finishers:
Men: 5.Chris Solinsky 3:54.1…8.Will Leer 3:56.4, 9.James THie (GBR) 3:57.0, 10.David Torrence 3:57.5, 11.Kevin Sullivan (CAN) 3:58.9, 12.Nick Symmonds 4:00.5
Women: 4.Erin Donohue 4:24.9…7.Amy Mortimer 4:30.9, 8.Sara Hall 4:32.6
Videos
(Men): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xELt13EL61A
(Women): https://www.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?event_id=324&do=videos&video_id=6897
David Monti’s Report/Results: https://www.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?event_id=324&do=news&news_id=3704
Let’s Run: http://www.letsrun.com/2008/fifthlrc0921.php