DecFan wrote:Three of my moments - including my top 2! - were listed by me alone. In each case there were personal factors that made these moments particularly special:
Jenner 76 decathlon: Because an American was the favorite, the entire decathlon was covered well by US TV. I was 20 at the time - a distance runner, but a fan of the entire sport. However, I had never followed a complete decathlon. I was entranced with the ebb and flow of the multis. It was a few more decades before the decathlon became my favorite of all track events, but the '76 decathlon was the beginning. BTW, there's a pretty decent summary of that '76 decathlon on youtube.
You weren't the only one, i have no idea how he sneaked in here
I wish. It would have been awesome to have O'Callaghan in '36, but alas, that was not to be.
He was there in '32, though, which is the moment in question here. I'm not entirely sure why I like that moment so much, let alone really able to sufficiently explain it... but there it is, and if everything in life were easily explained then life would be rather boring
O'Callaghan was easily the most talented thrower of that generation, but he was also busy being a doctor and competing in any number of other events and sports. In short, he was a true amateur athlete. His main rival was our guy, Ville Pörhölä, the SP champion from 1920. Pörhölä opened the final convincingly with 51.27 in the first round, with USA's Zaremba in second at just north of 50. O'Callaghan, it transpired, had barely practiced hammer throw at all and his first throw was essentially warming up and trying to recall how the thing was supposed to go, to the point where he only used two turns. (Even back in 1932, using only two turns was seen as an obsolete technique.) Pörhölä improved to 52.27 in round 2 - better than O'Callaghan's winning mark from the previous Games - but the Irishman, too, started feeling more at home and turned the power level up a couple notches, throwing 52.21 to move within 6 cm of the lead. With such a rapid learning curve you could be sure he had more in him, but the death blow didn't come yet; round three passed without O'Callaghan improving.
By the final three rounds O'Callaghan was throwing with full power, but that wasn't quite enough to do the trick, either; both his fourth and fifth throws were just below 52. You can imagine how the audience - or the few Finns in it, at any rate - felt at that point: it certainly doesn't look as if our guy can improve, and O'Callaghan keeps hammering at a frighteningly high level... but Ville Pörhölä is still in the lead, and O'Callaghan just has the one throw left. If the previous five weren't enough, why should this one be? - it's been a hot day, such big men get tired fast, nobody else is improving either. All the best marks are from the early rounds. Our boy could win this. Our boy could win gold, by six centimetres.
Patrick O'Callaghan... slowly he enters the circle for the last, final time, spinning the hammer about. Does he enjoy keeping us jumpy so much he's never going to throw? Now he finally seems to be going... one, two, three turns, perfectly executed at an ever-increasing speed, and here flies the hammer in a beautiful high arc, well past the leading mark. Oh well.
But I like the competition this way, much more than if O'Callaghan hadn't won, even if it meant a lost gold for Finland. It's a better competition this way, and O'Callaghan deserved to win; this is the script the movie guys would have written if the competition hadn't been real. Which it, happily, was
It belongs up there. The whole competition does (we went 1-2-3-4, after all, securing that triumph by half a centimetre!), but especially Myyrä.
In the warm-up, Myyrä was lying on the grass as a stray throw from USA's James Lincoln hit him in the arm. The other arm, luckily enough, but getting speared never does your throwing much good, even if your throwing arm wasn't hit. He somehow managed to struggle through the first three rounds and qualify for the final three, with Urho Peltonen (who'd been his main rival through the 1910s) leading with a very nice 63.605.
Thankfully, the system back then divided the competition into two halves, with a few hours' break between them, and Myyrä got medical attention during the break. He came back rejuvenated and won with a near-WR 65.78. Enough said.
mump boy wrote: 18 points Paavo Nurmi XC win 24
That one, also, definitely belongs. He smashed everybody and everything, including the conditions. To me, this was the one that showed just how far ahead of his time and competition he was - more so than running WRs in both 1500 and 5000 within little more than an hour before the Olympics or successfully repeating the same double (sans WRs) in Paris.
The conditions and the heat were inhuman. Around 40°C in shadow... much of the course was not in shadow. Nurmi ran at almost his normal pace and beat Ville Ritola by about a minute and a half. Yes, this would be the same Ritola who had broken the 10K world record in those same games in Nurmi's absence.
The race had, actually, shown up in mump's list already. Somebody (not me) nominated Heikki Liimatainen, presumably for being one of those fifteen despite his body's desire to quit - just because there was also a team race involved, we needed a third guy to finish besides Nurmi and Ritola and everyone else in the FInnish team failed to make it anywhere near the finish... he struggled home in 12th place, completely groggy but at least on his legs and still somewhat conscious, even if he wasn't entirely sure where or in what direction the finish line was. Yes, that was also a good moment, a great moment of spirit - but in those conditions, pretty much everybody needed to summon up some serious mental reserves to make it to the finish. Except, that is, for the winner.
This quote really sums his form up:
"Only fifteen of the 38 runners made it to the finish line. A good many of the competitors were still in hospital the day after, but Nurmi spent his time rather better, winning another gold medal." -- Martti Jukola
This, too, was me. Amazing competition with brilliant quality.
Špotáková opened with 69.22, which would have been good enough for gold in almost any competition... but here it wasn't even good enough for lead after round 1, as Abakumova turned up in superb form out of nowhere and shot the javelin to 69+ twice in a row. Then she actually improved to a nutty 70.78, putting her 2nd on the all-time list. All this despite the conditions... I can't help remembering the rain. Špotáková had a solid series but her throws were getting shorter and shorter as the last round approached. This didn't make me happy, as she was easily the one I wanted to win; I tend to like Czech javelin throwers, and anyway, she was My Pick. Doing well in the prediction contests knocks all other considerations into a cocked hat, right?
Špotáková's last throw... looks good as it's flying high, high, high... the Finnish commentator screaming as he apparently feels the same way as me... me opening my mouth to do the same... the javelin landing almost at the WR line... me jumping up and pumping my fist... still feel moved by it.
Finally, as the cherry on top, one of the very few interviews I can ever recall enjoying.
mump boy wrote:As there are so many of them i've left the description brief, i'll leave it to you to elaborate
I'm loving this, and looking forward to the next posting! I chose the 76 Steeple ... Garderud & Malinowski both breaking the WR, with Baumgartl right there until the last hurdle. Similar to Rudisha in the London 800, it was the best in the world laying it all on the line at a WR pace on the biggest stage of all. I only wonder how it might have unfolded had the Kenyans been there.
From another thread, I looked up the London m800. As I read the results, it looks like every athlete in the final got a PR. That has to count for a lot. The most visible race of their lives with the best competition in the world. Result? new WR with everyone having their best race ever. That has to be unique and wonderful.
mump boy wrote: 20 points Hannes Kolehmainen v Jean Bouin 5k 20 [sic]
The attentive reader will surely have guessed by now that this was one of mine. I will not give a detailed description of that race for the rather simple reason I can't do it any justice; it needs Homer, or Shakespeare, or Martti Jukola.
By 1912, Kolehmainen and Bouin had been the world's top distance runners for a couple years already, with the former having beaten the latter over 7500 metres in Berlin. Perhaps this was why Bouin (who was the amateur WR holder at 10K) decided to only do the 5K in Stockholm, while Kolehmainen went for the 10K/5K double. (The 10K had heats that year, and there weren't that many rest days. As in, there were no rest days at all: 10K heats, 10K final, 5K heats, 5K final, on four consecutive days. So Bouin got a real advantage from not doubling.)
Bouin won his heat in a very easy 15:05.0 - for reference, the best time yet at a corresponding distance (Shrubb's 3-mile WR) was worth about 14:50 - while Kolehmainen ran 15:38.9 in his race, understandably looking a bit tired. At least he wasn't pressed.
In the final, Kolehmainen was among the early leaders and by 1500 metres, he and Bouin were moving apart from the rest. By the half-way point Bouin was in the lead and the gap to the main pack was rapidly becoming insurmountable. (The splits in that race were almost even. It is often stated that the early pace was slow, but that was largely an illusion caused by two facts: 1) the ease with which Kolehmainen and Bouin left the rest of the group behind once they made their move, and 2) the fact that in those times it was quite common to go out fast and hope to hang on somehow; negative or even splits weren't very typical, so it was slowish compared to other races of the time. While the pace did pick up when Bouin took the lead, it wasn't really that big a change, nor did it last long.)
Kolehmainen shadowed Bouin the rest of the way, making several attempts to pass him over the last couple laps, but Bouin always answered them, never letting him past. Bouin made his final move in the last curve, opening a small gap... but not quite enough. Kolehmainen still has energy left and starts closing the gap... closing the gap... closing the gap... the audience shivers like a devil-possessed man reading Dostoyevsky... with 50 metres to go, the two heroes are abreast... Bouin makes an attempt to keep Kolehmainen behind him by moving outwards, but this fails; nevertheless, he too is still fighting and has enough reserves left for one final spurt... then he sees his rival a few but important inches ahead... he seems to be choking... Kolehmainen breaks the tape smiling, always smiling.
The times were 14:36.6 and 14:36.7, the first at any longer distance to really outshine the records of the old professionals.
Dave wrote:From another thread, I looked up the London m800. As I read the results, it looks like every athlete in the final got a PR. That has to count for a lot. The most visible race of their lives with the best competition in the world. Result? new WR with everyone having their best race ever. That has to be unique and wonderful.
Not every one ... Kaki did not. Still has to be unprecedented PR level though.
mump boy wrote:I'm glad i realised this now and not when we got top 10 !! Even so i'm NEVER doing this again, i'm not cut out for it
Of course you're cut out for it. I love hearing the stories behind the count. Getting locked out of your flat, dropped computer in the lake, lost pieces of paper. It's comic genius
mump boy wrote:Even so i'm NEVER doing this again, i'm not cut out for it
Can't stop... it's your methods that makes the thread(s) so entertaining and enduring. You've made the shoes too big to fill for anyone else to try to replicate your efforts.
Dave wrote:From another thread, I looked up the London m800. As I read the results, it looks like every athlete in the final got a PR. That has to count for a lot. The most visible race of their lives with the best competition in the world. Result? new WR with everyone having their best race ever. That has to be unique and wonderful.
Not every one ... Kaki did not. Still has to be unprecedented PR level though.
This was mine. I initially had it somewhere in the middle of my list, but I kept bumping it higher as my list of 20 was rounding out. Part of an event being a personal favorite has a lot to do with your own frame of mind at the time of the performance. I remember the first three nights of the 2008 games at the stadium had been a real crapfest for the US team except for Shalane Flanagan's bronze in the 10,000. This was in contrast to the incredibly upbeat, fun time I had in Eugene for the trials a month earlier. So, on the fourth night in Beijing, out come the women discus throwers very early in the session. There wasn't a whole lot else going on in the stadium, so it was easy to focus on the event in the early rounds. Also, I had a good seat on the upper level for discus watching. I remember Brown Trafton's first throw was out there. It looked like a good result to me, and she went into the lead. The rest of the competition was then a waiting game to see when she would be passed because an American woman couldn't possibly win the discus, could she? I remember hoping that she could hang on for a bronze because that would be a great achievement for US women's throwing. Yet she stayed in the lead. No one even came close through the first three rounds including Brown Trafton herself. By the end of the 4th round still no one was close, and I remember thinking that she could actually pull it off. The 5th round came and went. As the throwers took their last attempts in the final round, I concluded that she certainly had a medal, but could someone knock her off of the top step of the podium? I watched her in my binoculars after each throw to see if I could see I could see any hint of emotion. As it turned out, she was pretty stoic throughout the 6th round. Even as she clinched bronze, then silver, then finally gold. She took her final throw and then ran over to the stands, got a flag and took a victory lap like it was another day at the office. It seems like I was more excited than she was. For me, it was unexpected, unbelievable, and unforgettably tense. Hence, my number 5 overall moment.
DecFan wrote:Three of my moments - including my top 2! - were listed by me alone. In each case there were personal factors that made these moments particularly special:
My number 1: Geb vs Tergat and the Kenyan team in '96. Mump pm'ed me to make sure I meant '96 rather than 2000. The last 200m of the Sydney race are fantastic - but the '96 race was for me a beauty start to finish - in part because I was there, and in part because my time of living in Kenya was still recent. I had good seats, was with my wife and two oldest children, and before the race explained to them and the people around us Geb's strengths, Tergat's strengths, and the likely team tactics of the Kenyans. Then the Kenyans and Geb both played their cards exactly right. Tergat threw in a 61 with 2k to go, and only Geb went with him. When Geb spurted with 1 lap to go, he gained a few yards, but Tergat clawed a few feet back, and from our vantage point it looked like he might be able to close the gap. In the end the results were not as close as Sydney, but for me the race was a marvel.
Geb vs Tergat et al was amazing, eh? It was just outside my top 20. Same as you, I was there ... my seat was above the athletes' seats, looking down the final straight from above the first turn. Remember how many people left before the start of the race?! It had been a full day already, with MJ in the 400 and Carl Lewis with his 4th in a row in the LJ, and I guess many of the folks thought there was nothing compelling left in the 10K. How they were wrong!!! But that meant those who remained were the true fanatics, and they (we) turned the stadium into a Deep South version of the Bislett distance races writ large.
The race itself was sublime ... and the last 6 laps will be seared in my memory till the day I die. Not even Salah Hissou could hang with Tergat's break. And when Geb took off with 450 to go, you could see that Tergat never gave up. Then to watch him slowly close the gap, WOW!!! But Geb would not be denied. And to think, it was all done in the lingering heat & humidity of late July Atlanta.
It seemed no one wanted to leave after the race, as if there was some kind of magic in the stadium. I stood in line at the buses for 20-30 minutes, with the others who had remained, and replayed the race again and again.
Thanks again mump, for starting the thread, collating the results, and listing them bit by bit. This is awesome!
Of course Tasha is mine. I will try to keep it concise. Her bronze holds more meaning than any medal on that stand! In 04 we got pregnant and blew a very solid chance at stardom and that podium. She received undue criticism from some surprising corners, and harsh criticism. Yet, she was encouraged by unforeseen sources which led to her refocusing, and finding a higher reason to comeback. Yes she wanted to prove the doubters wrong (they said she would never comeback), but she always searched for more than vengence or glory, what she found was she was an inspiration to people. Other women and children alike looked up to her now. Her journey started with an appearance at the 05 3A's to show the CW selectors she was alive. 3 weeks of proper training and she ran 57 secs. By March of 06 she was the CWG bronze. Made the Euro final and we set our sights onward. In 07 she made the final in Osaka running her second fastest time ever. Beijing was on deck. 08 started with a trio of 800s, her first ever. 2:06 let us know our base training was paying off. By the summer we were battling a hot hamstring, and sore achilles. Not exactly the dream season it looked like 3 months prior. At trials she lost! PSD had burst on the scene but more importantly Tasha ran a dead race. Thank you UKA and BOA!!! A trip to the doctors and the discovery of a recent viral infection helped explain the performance and sway the selectors. She was 2 seconds ahead PSD and the only woman with the A standard. Selection assured we set about the business of running fast to set up Beijing. Another hurdle, her hamstring. It stayed hot, never allowing her to complete a full session and forcing us to cancel 3 races. We were going to the Games cold turkey! A brilliant camp in Macau and we were anxiously ready. Long story short, 3 season best later, capped by a pr and a bronze all was worth it. The decision to have Jaden, the move to skip the prep races, all came to one shining moment. Yeah, it is personal but still a great story nonetheless. Well I think so but hey I am biased!
This, too, was me. Amazing competition with brilliant quality.
Damn. I, too, would have nominated Spotakova's win in my top 20, but for some reason it did not occur to me when I (too hastily) collected my list.
Here is the winning throw, with the non-Czech commentator showing rather strong exitement and saying, among other things: "never ever has there been a javelin competition like this."
I nominated Vasala, but what I actually meant was the combination of Viren's 5000m and Vasala's 1500m wins within half an hour, which was an unforgettable moment for an eight-year-old Finnish boy. It was almost part of my basic feeling of childhood security: in distance running, the Finn always wins. Alas, this principle did not hold true in subsequent decades.
Patriotic nepotism at its worst. I recall as a 9 year old huddling around the family radio listening to the live commentary from Rome with my father. The yelling in the kitchen twice in less than 1 hour. I didn't really understand what was going on except that 2 New Zealanders were beating the world and one was the national hero Murray Halberg. At that time it was not only the Rome commentators, but also hardly anyone in NZ had ever heard of Peter Snell.
4 years on it was of course a bit different as the whole world expected Snell to win easily and he did. Again we had to listen to the radio has there was no such thing as live TV. We had TV but is was limited to 1 channel which was on for about 4 hours a day and hardly anyone had one.
Big Val -well, as expected, she delivered for NZ and I watched it live on TV. I reckon she will win 4 in a row - as long as the drug testers keep up their good work and keep the drag queen of Belarus in her cave.
14 - 14 - 1968 - Saneeyev winning the TJ Perhaps the greatest TJ competition in history. As a budding 17 year old TJer doing 46 feet something (just over 14 m) this was simply an awesome competition. Saneeyev was my #1 heroin those days.
LopenUupunut wrote:Barbra Spotakova win over Abukamova JT 08. . . . Amazing competition with brilliant quality. . . . Špotáková had a solid series but her throws were getting shorter and shorter as the last round approached. This didn't make me happy, as she was easily the one I wanted to win; I tend to like Czech javelin throwers, and anyway, she was My Pick. Doing well in the prediction contests knocks all other considerations into a cocked hat, right?
This last line deserves a TAFNY!
LopenUupunut wrote:Špotáková's last throw... looks good as it's flying high, high, high... the Finnish commentator screaming as he apparently feels the same way as me... me opening my mouth to do the same... the javelin landing almost at the WR line... me jumping up and pumping my fist... still feel moved by it.
This vies with the '83 Helsinki WJT as the most memorable javelin competition I've witnessed (on TV). A great moment of tension, and out of this world performances. In retrospect, this deserved my top 20.
Mump Boy I have 8 of mine down now; all lonesome choices that no one else liked.
Anyway,can you check my number one 20 pointer choice as I think you may have overlooked that as I would be surprised if anyone else chose that scenario.
Shoot. I also completely forgot about Spotakova vs. Abakumova in Beijing. I do think most people shared your sentiment in wanting Barbora to win, Lopen.
Nobody picked Jesse Owen's quadruple gold in Berlin. You can see film clips of all four golds on youtube. The guy was graceful and effortless. I thought someone would put that in the top twenty. If you're interested, Jeremy Schaap (sp?)'s book on him and the Berlin Olympics is great and available in audiobook format if you have bad eyes like me. It's called Triumph. It's really, really good, which is why I'm biased towards Owens.
edit: oops, i understand now, thanks for the clarification, I'm an idiot, lol
Last edited by athleticshushmail on Tue Jan 15, 2013 6:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
athleticshushmail wrote:Nobody picked Jesse Owen's quadruple gold in Berlin. You can see film clips of all four golds on youtube. The guy was graceful and effortless. I thought someone would put that in the top twenty. If you're interested, Jeremy Schaap (sp?)'s book on him and the Berlin Olympics is great and available in audiobook format if you have bad eyes like me. It's called Triumph. It's really, really good, which is why I'm biased towards Owens.
I am positive it will come up with more than one person picking it. So far, it was just one person's picks, like Tuariki's New Zealanders, Lopen Uupunut's Finns and my Czechs and Slovaks, LOL.
Anyway,can you check my number one 20 pointer choice as I think you may have overlooked that as I would be surprised if anyone else chose that scenario.
I've already posted it and you commented on it but in the wrong place
Three more of mine have come up - 1980 women's 4x1, Marita Koch 80, Johnny Peacock 12.
1980 women's 4x1 - this was a barrier breaking race with a new world record and a UK record in 3rd place. I was pleased that Marlies Gohr got a Moscow gold after the Soviet attempts to deny her victory in the individual 100, and particularly pleased that Sonia Lannaman got a bronze for her great relay anchor, which took the UK clear of Bulgaria and France. In retrospect the GDR time though was even more impressive as they employed very safe technique, particularly at the end of the second leg where Barbel Wockel passed Ingrid Auerswalk before passing the baton!
Marita Koch 1980 - 1979 was my first season watching athletics and the athlete who most impressed me was Marita Koch, with her fantastic world records and incredible margins of victory. I remember being surprised she didn't set a new world record, but she ran the second fastest time ever to claim her gold. I was also surprised Kratochvilova finished within a second of her - but it was the start of an all-time great rivalry. It's just a shame about the 84 boycott, because I'm sure Marita would have won a few more gold and set a few world records in LA and been the female star of the Games.
Johnny Peacock Paralympics 2012 - watching a packed stadium chant "Peacock, Peacock" before the start of the 100 was a wonderful moment. It was a definite sign that Paralympians could be heroes. From a human standpoint, the success of the 2012 Paralympics was more important than the "normal" Games themselves, in my opinion. Johnny was under immense pressure but contained it, charged to gold and then showed a very human reaction after he crossed the line!
I didn't pick them, but Heike Drechsler 92, Peter Snell and Robert Harding were all just outside my top 20.
Drechsler finally beating JJK in a major competition and making up for being boycotted out in 84 helped establish her as the greatest long jumper ever, and her victory in 2000 confirmed that beyond doubt.
Robert Harding's celebrations were amazing, the men's discus is really competitive these days what with Malachowski, Kanter etc so to win a gold in this event is quite something. Also I had some fun kidding my best mate that he looked like Robert Harding (not quite but he's a big, well built blond too, just not on that scale!).
Peter Snell impressed me too, but I tried to limit the number of nominations I made for events before my time, because no matter how great they are, they can never have quite the effect that watching a live performance can have. But I would still say Peter Snell is the greatest 800 runner of all-time, even despite the 2012 800.
Tuariki wrote:Anyway,can you check my number one 20 pointer choice as I think you may have overlooked that as I would be surprised if anyone else chose that scenario.
I've already posted it and you commented on it but in the wrong place
Note that mump has been editing his lists as the corrections come in. The current list is as below (split to accomodate the 3000 character limit):
1 VOTE
1 point Cleaning stand on first day of dec 96 Keshorn Walcott winning JT 12 Robbie Grabatz bronze 12 w5k being crap 08 Debbie Flintoff King 400mh victory 88 Carl Lewis singing national anthem (there was no date on this and i'm not even sure it refers to OG moment in which case it may be DQ'd) Jozef Plachy 800m 5th place 68 Jack Lovelock 1500m 36 Heikki Liimatainen team XC event 24 Greg Rutherford LJ 2012
2 points Shelly Anne Fraser w100m 12 Deena Kastor bronze medal 04 Alan johnson 110h win 96 w 4x400 88 Shalagne Flanagan 10k bronze 08 Steve Hooker PV victory 08 Bob Schul 5k win 64 Percy Williams double 28
3 points wHJ Chicherova v Barret 12 Ellen Van Langan 800m win 92 Tatyana Kazankina 1500m win 80 Milt Campbell Decathlon win Eric Liddel 400m 24 Mel Sheppard v Harold Wilson 1500m 08 Robert Harting Discus 2012
4 points Paula Radcliffe 08 marathon campaign (not 04 ?? ) Carolina Kluft Hep 04 Arsi Harju SP win 00 Nedehzda Olizarenko 800m victory 80 1980 Olympic boycott Livio Berruti 200m 60 Chris Brasher steeple win 56 Adhemar Ferreira de Sliva TJ 56 Harold Abrahams 100m 24 BAH m4x400 2012
5 points Hadi Soua'an Al-Somaily 400h silver 00 Wang Junxia 5k comback 96 m10k 92 Khalid Skah dq etc w10k 92 Deratu v Elana lap of honour Gerd Wessig HJ 80 Louis Delis short marked in DT 80 w 4x400 80 Borzov Sprint Double 72 Dean Macey decathlon 4th 2000
6 points Richard Whitehead 200m victory paralympics 2012 HUN cheats 04 Carl Lewis Long jump victory 92 Mens Triple Jump cheating 80 Al Oerter DT 64 Lynn Davis LJ 64 Robert Shavlakadze HJ 60 Wilma Rudolph sprint double 60 Ed Moses 400h bronze 88
7 points Bryan Clay decathlon win 08 Roman Sebrle Decathlon win 04 Vanderlie De Lima attacked in marathon getting bronze medal Josep Pribilinic 20k walk victory first for Slovak athlete Steeplechase 76 Al Oerter DT 56 Vebjorn Rodahl 800m 2000
8 points David Weir triple paras 12 Francois Mbango Womens Triple Jump 08 John Ngugi 5k victory 88 Miklos Nemeth JT victory 76 Jiri Skobla SP 3rd 56
9 points Yuliya Zaripova steeple chase win 12 Adam Nelson SP win 04 Virgilius Alekna mens DT 00 Dan O'brien Deca 96 1960 decathlon Rafer Johnson v Yang Chuan Kwang Ritola beats Nurmi 5k 28
10 points Natalya Antyuk 400mh 12 Wyludda and Kumbernuss German throws victories 96 Lee Evans m400m 68 Don Bragg victory stand tarzan yell
11 points m4x4 04 JJK Hep 92 Tasha Danvers bronze 08 Olga and Hal Connolly romance 56 Bill Miller v Shuhei Nishida PV 32
12 points Valerie SP win 12 Heli Rantanen JT 96 W HJ Kostandinova v Biagiani 96 Pekka Vasala 1500m 72 Wilbur Moose Thompson Sp 48 Harri Larva v Jules Ladoumegue 1500m 28 Jonathan Edwards TJ Gold 2000 Nils Schumann 800m 2000
13 points Bridget Foster Hylton fall 100mh 12 Arnold (Strode-)Jackson vs the Americans (Abel Kiviat, Norman Taber, J.P. Jones and Mel Sheppard) in men's 1500 in Stockholm 1912 Klaus Wolfermann beats Janis Lusis by 2cm in Munich 1972
14 points Tapio Korjus JT victory 88 Victor Sanayev TJ win 68 Josef Odlozil1500m silver 56 Isi win and WR 08
15 points GDR w4x100 80 Anatoly Bonderchuk HT win 72 Peter Snell 1500m 64 Tommy Hampson v Alex Wilson 800m 36
16 points Paula Ivan 1500m victory 88 wDT Stefanie Trafton 08 m 4x100 12 Lance Deal Hammer silver 96 Bert Cameron 400m Semi injury 84 Marita Koch 400m 80 Peter Snell 800m 64 Lutz Long gives Jessie Owen advice in LJ 36 Pat O'Callaghan m HT 36
17 points Tirunesh Dibaba double 08 Denise Lewis Hep win 00 Shelly Anne Fraser 100m victory 08 Emil Zatopek congratulates Alain Mimoun after Marathon victory '56 Jonni Myyra JT 20
18 points Maria Mutola 800m 2000 Johnny Peacock 100m Para 12 Maurice Greene 100m 00 NZ double gold in 1 evening Peter Snell/Murray Halberg Paavo Nurmi XC win 24
19 points Barbra Spotakova win over Abukamova JT 08 Heike Dreschler LJ win 92 Frank Shorter Marathon Victory 72
20 Points Rinka Babka gives Al Oerter advice DT 60 Otis Davis 1960 400m Hannes Kolehmainen v Jean Bouin 5k 20 Dieter Baumann wins 5k 92 2012 Watching live the BBC announcement of the disqualification of Ostapchuk and being the first to report it on TnF message board with GH challenging me, literally a few seconds after my posting, to justify my posting 2012
This, too, was me. Amazing competition with brilliant quality.
Špotáková opened with 69.22, which would have been good enough for gold in almost any competition... but here it wasn't even good enough for lead after round 1, as Abakumova turned up in superb form out of nowhere and shot the javelin to 69+ twice in a row. Then she actually improved to a nutty 70.78, putting her 2nd on the all-time list. All this despite the conditions... I can't help remembering the rain. Špotáková had a solid series but her throws were getting shorter and shorter as the last round approached. This didn't make me happy, as she was easily the one I wanted to win; I tend to like Czech javelin throwers, and anyway, she was My Pick. Doing well in the prediction contests knocks all other considerations into a cocked hat, right?
Špotáková's last throw... looks good as it's flying high, high, high... the Finnish commentator screaming as he apparently feels the same way as me... me opening my mouth to do the same... the javelin landing almost at the WR line... me jumping up and pumping my fist... still feel moved by it.
Finally, as the cherry on top, one of the very few interviews I can ever recall enjoying.
I remember this one, amazing battle, I think I overlooked it due in part to british bias and their amazing re-match at the World championships 2011. Their duels are ones for the ages.
mump boy wrote:17 points Tirunesh Dibaba double 08
This should be one of mine. (Actually, I didn't save my picks, and now I don't remember all of them. )
Maybe some people picked the 10K race separately (I hope I am not the only one!), so I will just comment on the 5K and the importance of historic double.
As other people mentioned, the 5K race was a letdown after the epic 10K. But it was important because Defar was not in the 10K race. Defar was both the defending Olympic champion and the reigning world champion, and the second fasted woman ever in 5K. And beating her in head to head was very important in defining Dibaba's place in history. I expected Dibaba to win the gold in 10K, I was hoping she would win the gold in 5K.
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