How do you explain ?...about Randy WILLIAMS.

[79.]

How can you explain this long-jumper's 38 years-old 8M34 WJR ?...
Seems to me it isn't an extraordinary performance, even for a junior Olympic champion.

[kuha]

Probably some relation to this:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=41328

[jhc68]

LIttle guy, big talent, early maturity.

[gh]

What's really amazing is that Lewis, Powell, Myricks, Pedroso & Saladino all passed through the chain after he did.

[DG]

There where some close calls though:
Lewis had a 8m35 jump in 1980 with a 2.2 wind
Kareem Streete-Thompson had a windaided jump of 8m40 when he was just 18yrs old (3.x wind though) and a 8m39 2.x wind a year later.
Pedroso was born about 2 wks too soon (12/17) otherwise the record would be 8m53 (he also had a windaided 8m79 that year)
Luis Bueno of cuba had a 8m25 jump while only 17.

And the latest hope Eusebio Caceres came short with 8m27 (next year he will be a senior)

[26mi235]

Was he the guy who won the Olympic Games LJ when he was a freshman but in the four years of the BIG (sorry Marlow) MEET, USC - UCLA, he never won the long jump?

[Double R Bar]

Yes, that was Randy Williams. He had just turned 19 (August 23) when he won the Olympic gold medal (September 9). The Munich long jump final marked the first time that the United States had all three long jumpers place in the final since the London Olympics of 1948.
1. Randy Williams, 3. Arnie Robinson, and 5. Preston Carrington.

[dj]

Was he the guy who won the Olympic Games LJ when he was a freshman but in the four years of the BIG (sorry Marlow) MEET, USC - UCLA, he never won the long jump?

And without looking, someone name the four different jumpers who won the meet in those years.

[Conor Dary]

I remember Willie Banks was a hero one year. I don't remember if it was the LJ.

[Double R Bar]

I went to most of those meets so I should know them. I do remember Finn Bendixen (my grandfather was from Norway). I would guess Willie Banks and James McAlister, but no idea for number four. I do remember that Randy Williams won the Pac-8 championships.

[dj]

McAlister ('73), Bendixen ('72), and Banks ('75) are correct.

One to go.

[dukehjsteve]

Lest anyone think Randy Williams was just a flash in the pan in 1972, don't forget that he took the Silver 4 years later in Montreal, as Robinson improved from his Munich Bronze to Montreal Gold.

[Double R Bar]

I always thought James McAlister had more long jump talent than did Randy Williams.

[cigar95]

McAlister ('73), Bendixen ('72), and Banks ('75) are correct.

One to go.

Dave, I'm guessing either Jerry Herndon (Bruin) or Gerald Hardeman (Trojan)

Not that I couldn't just go down to the garage and look it up, but where's the fun in that?

[Double R Bar]

Jerry Herndon was the California state high school long jump champion in 1973. He had placed second in 1972. In 1974 James Lofton (went to the same high school as did Barbara Billingsley) won the California state long jump championship. Which athlete placed eighth in that 1974 long jump and eleven years later broke the world record in an Olympic track and field event?

[cigar95]

At the risk of veering off-topic, Willie was a horizontal jumper who was a HS senior in '74, and he did break the WR in the TJ eleven years after this. So if he isn't the correct answer, I'll be shocked.

[dj]

McAlister ('73), Bendixen ('72), and Banks ('75) are correct.

One to go.

Dave, I'm guessing either Jerry Herndon (Bruin) or Gerald Hardeman (Trojan)

Not that I couldn't just go down to the garage and look it up, but where's the fun in that?

I always had difficulty remembering which guy was Herndon and which was Hardeman, until I was first asked this question. And the key was that Williams was beaten in four successive years, each time by a different Bruin.

So the 4th guy was Herndon!

[Double R Bar]

I do remember Herndon as a Bruin, but had forgot that he was one of the four to beat Randy.

Yes, it was Willie Banks that went on to set a world record in the triple jump in 1985 (Indianapolis).

[jhc68]

There is a lot of long jump talent in those 1970's Bruin/Trojan dual meets when you factor in Henry Hines and Larry Doubley as well.

[cigar95]

As a follow-up to this, am I remembering correctly that despite never winning the dual meet, Williams won the Pac-8 all four of those years?

I also have a vague memory that Williams' longest jump ever was a windy mark to win one of those Pac-8 titles.

Now the historians will let me know just how badly faded my memory is becoming . . . . . .


Another aside about Williams - He was listed for many years with a wind-aided high school mark that would have been a national record had it been legal. Set in the '71 State Meet, I think. A few years ago, Jack Shepard discovered some new evidence that convinced him to recognize it as a legal mark. (Sorry, I can't recall what that evidence was - I should ask him just to get it straight in my memory.) But this re-classification didn't last long, as it has been back on the windy list in his book for several years now.