This Day in Track & Field, July 30, Emil Zatopek takes London 10,000m (1948), Wladyslaw Kozakiewicz wins Moscow pole vault (1980), by Walt Murphy’s News and Results Services

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 4^th 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). 2^nd was Sweden’s Ossian Skiöld (168-3 [51.29]) and 3^rd 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:…