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This Day in Track & Field–February 6
Walt Murphy’s News and Results Service (wmurphy25@aol.com)
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Used with permission on RunBlogRun.com
(’54 Millrose, ’81 Millrose–Greatest Ever?, Suzy Favor, D.Komen, 4×800 WR, Andrews, Lagat, Drew Hunter/Born On This Day-Peter Farrell/R.I.P.-Spec Towns, Ira Murchison)
1954—This year’s Millrose Games featured a number of gold medalists from the 1952 Olympics.
Luxembourg’s Josy Barthel (4:07.5) the winner of the 1500-Meters in Helsinki, was an easy winner of the Wanamaker Mile in front of 15,000 fans in Madison Square Garden.
Mal Whitfield, who won his 2nd Olympic gold in the 800-meters, scored an impressive double, winning the 600y( 1:10.7) 70 minutes after winning the 880y (1:54.2).
Horace Ashenfelter (Steeplechase) won the 2-mile for the 3rd year in a row, setting a Meet Record of 8:53.3 and a World Record of 8:17.7 en-route for 3000 meters.
Harrison Dillard (110-Hurdles) in the 60y-hurdles (7.2/=Meet Record) and the Reverend Bob Richards in the Pole Vault(14-4 [4.37]) extended their winning streaks at Millrose to 8. Clearing 14’ for the 1st time was future great Don Bragg, a freshman at Villanova.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1954/02/07/92531286.html?pageNumber=195
1981–This was indoor track at its best. A capacity crowd of 18,201 packed Madison Square Garden for the Millrose Games and the athletes responded with a night of records. Track and Field News’ Garry Hill called it “arguably the greatest indoor track meet ever held” and few would argue with his assessment.
It “only” resulted in a meet record, but the Wanamaker Mile stole…
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