This Day in Track & Field HIstory, August 31, Sara Simeoni clears 2.01 meters, equals WR in high jump (1978), written, edited and compiled by Walt Murphy

Walt Murphy’s News and Results Service  ([email protected])

This Day in Track & Field–August 31

1904—Many of the events at the Olympics in St.Louis were dominated by Americans and that was evident on this day as the U.S. swept the medals in all 4 finals.

Men’s 200—Archie Hahn (21.6), winner of the 60-Meters 2 days earlier, added a gold in the 200-Meters (straight). 2^nd and

3^rd were Nate Cartmell (21.9-estimated) and William Hogenson (22.1e).

Men’s 400-Meter Hurdles (set at 30”)-After hitting the last hurdle, Harry Hillman (53.0) held off Frank Waller (53.2e)

estimated). 3^rd was George Poage (58.4e), the first black athlete to win an Olympic medal in track & field.

Men’s Shot Put—19-year old Ralph Rose, all 6’-6”, 236 (1.98/107kg) of him, won the Shot Put with a throw of (48-7  ¼

[14.81]), which equaled his pre-IAAF World Record. Winning silver and bronze were Wesley Coe (47-3 [14.40]) and Leon Feuerbach (43-10  ½ [13.37]), who apparently is not related to former World Record holder Al Feuerbach.

Standing High Jump—Ray Ewry (5-3 [1.60]) won his 2^nd gold medal of the Games (already won the standing LJ), 2.Joseph

Stadler (4-9 [1.45]), 3.Lawson Robertson (4-9 [1.45]).

Medalists: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_at_the_1904_Summer_Olympics

1909–Running on a 368m track in a Stockholm velodrome, Sweden’s Thure Johansson improved the Marathon best to 2:40:34.2.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thure_Johansson_(athlete)

WR Progression: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marathon_world_record_progression

1924–Paavo Nurmi ran 30:06.2 in Kuopio, Finland, to regain the World Record for 10,000-meters from fellow Finn Ville “Willie” Ritola (30:23.2)

WR Progression: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men’s_10,000_metres_world_record_progression

1960—American Bill Nieder was trailing 2-time defending champion Parry O’Brien in the Shot Put on the opening day of competition at the Rome Olympics when he locked up the gold medal with an Olympic Record of 64-6  3/4 (19.68) in the 5th round. O’Brien took the silver with his best toss of 62-8  1/2 (19.11) while Dallas Long completed the U.S. sweep with a throw of 62-4  ½ (19.01). Long would win Olympic gold in Tokyo in 1964.

The Soviet Union’s Vera Krepkina (20-10  ¾ [6.37]) won the Women’s Long Jump over Poland’s Elżbieta Krzesińska (20-7 [6.27]), the defending champion, and East Germany’s Hildren Claus (20-4  ½…