From Walt Murphy. Shared with permission (with minor editing). Walt produces an info-rich daily ”This Day in T&F” newsletter. Contact him at waltmurphy44@gmail.com if you’d like to join his distribution list.
1954
Vladimir Kuts took down Emil Zatopek’s 5K world record, set just 3 months before, with a 13:56.6. It was a golden era for 5K running with the world record getting broken 5 times in 13 months, with 3 of those by Vladimir. Another Soviet, Mikhail Krivonosov also broke the Hammer Throw record that day.
1964
Bob Schul, who will celebrate his 84th birthday next month, crushed a strong 2 mile World Record by Michel Jazy, with a 8:26.4. Finishing a distant 2nd was Billy Mills in 8:45.6. Later that year Bob Schul (5K) and Billy Mills (10K) would each win Olympic Gold medals in Tokyo.
1982
Bob Roggy set his 3rd American Record of the year in the “old implement” javelin in 314-4 feet (95.20m). Because stadiums could barely contain throws of this distance the javelin was “de-flighted” a few years later.
1984
Johnny Gray was on fire in 1984! On this August 29th Johnny set his 4th (!) American Record of the year in the 800 meters in 1:42.96. He’d drop it one more time the next year to 1:42.6 – a time that would not be touched by an American for 34 years (when Donovan Brazier eclipsed it by .3 seconds in 2019).
1986
The European Championship in 1986 produced 4 world records with one WR tie on this day: Heike Dreshsler in the 200m (21.71). The other WRs in this meet were Fatima Whitbread in the javelin (77.44), Marina Stepanova in 400H (53.32), and Yuriy Syedikh in the hammer (86.74).
1991
Greg Foster won his 3rd consecutive World Championship in the 110H on this day in 1991. The race with Jack Pierce was so close that it took awhile to sort out who won. Foster was super gracious after he was confirmed the winner stating, “As far as I’m concerned, we finished in a dead-heat and we’re both gold medalists. I would have been just as happy with 2nd.”
1993
Czech Jan Zelezny set his 4th of 5 lifetime world records in the javelin with a toss of 95.66 in Sheffield, England.
1999
The U.S. lineup of Jon Drummond, Brian Lewis, Tim Montgomery, and Maurice Greene won the Men’s 4×100 on the final day of the World Championship in Seville, Spain. Greene went home with three gold medals having also won the 100m and 200m.
Also notable is that the first (and only?) North Korean to win a World T&F title happened that day when Jong Song-Ok won the women’s marathon in 2:26.59.
2003
Dwight Phillips won his first of 4 (!) World Championship titles in the long jump on this day in 2003. Imagine staying at the top of the world in ’03, ’05, ’09 and ’11, with an Olympic gold mixed in ’04.
2004
Meb Keflezighi closed out the 2004 Athens Olympics with a sweet silver medal in the marathon. This added to a banner Olympic marathon year for Team USA, with Meb’s medal coming one week after Denna Kastor’s bronze medal. Stefano Baldini finished 34 seconds ahead of Meb in 2:10:29.
2010
The undisputed 800m GOAT David Rudisha ran an amazing World Record time of 1:41.01 in Rieti, Italy on this day.
2011
Like Dwight Phillips 8 years before on this day, Valerie Adams managed to win 4 World titles in her career. This day in 2011 was her 3rd of the 4 titles in the shot put. She also has two Olympic Gold medals in her trophy case.
2015
Ashton Eaton not only won his 2nd World title in the Decathlon on this day in the Bird’s Nest in Beijing, he scored 9045 to break his own World Record. He had to dig deep, running the 2nd fastest 1500m of his career (4:17.5) to squeeze under the record.
Whew. Can’t wait to see what future August 29ths will bring!
