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Lead Stories: Sunday, November 23, 2008

Masters athletes set records galore at Pole Vault Summit

Posted January 10th, 2008 at 5:24 PM by Martha Jones

Section: News & Results, Track & Field

Masters athletes shredded the record books over the weekend as a half-dozen competitors set a total of eight world indoor records at the 18th annual National Pole Vault Summit in Reno, Nevada.

Some 60 Masters men and women as old as 72 were among 2,400 athletes racing down a dozen elevated runways arrayed like spokes of a bicycle at Reno’s Livestock Events Center.

In the elite men’s division Friday, American record holder Jeff Hartwig led the way — becoming the first over-40 jumper to clear 18 feet in legitimate competition. Jumping 5.50 meters/18 feet .50 inch, Hartwig broke a record only an hour old. In a separate competition, longtime rival Pat Manson of Colorado (who also turned 40 in late 2007), upped the listed world indoor record twice, finally to 5.36m/17-7.
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Richards, Walker and Jeter win at World Athletics Final

Posted September 24th, 2007 at 8:30 AM by Martin Kennedy

Section: News & Results, Track & Field

Sanya Richards closed out her European season in style Sunday, winning the women’s 400 in the second and final day of competition at the IAAF World Athletics Final in Stuttgart, Germany.

Richards continued in her impressive string of world-leading wins in the women’s 400. Coming off world leaders in the last three Golden League meets, Richards dropped another WL on Sunday with her time of 49.27, tying her winning time from Berlin last Sunday. Novlene Williams of Jamaica was second in 50.12; American Mary Wineberg was seventh in 50.73.

World champion Brad Walker continued his excellence in the men’s pole vault. As the only person in the field to clear 5.91m/19-5.75, Walker topped the rest of the field by 5 cm. American Jeff Hartwig placed sixth in the field with 5.70m/18-8.25.

World Outdoor bronze medalist Carmelita Jeter posted her second big win of the season, taking the women’s 100 in 11.10, with Osaka 200m gold medalist Allyson Felix second in 11.15 and World Outdoor 100m silver medalist Lauryn Williams fifth in 11.31. Jeter also won the 100 in Berlin last Sunday.
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Remaining finals packed
with Americans

Posted August 30th, 2007 at 8:03 PM by Jamal Walker

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Special Features, Live Race Coverage

In qualifying action, Americans once again advanced multiple athletes to several finals.

Team USA uniforms will fill half the lanes in Friday’s women’s 200m final. Coming off the curve strong, defending gold medalist Allyson Felix (Santa Clarita, Calif.) looked easy in winning Thursday’s first semifinal, running 22.21 to Olympic gold medalist Veronica Campbell’s 22.44. 2003 World Outdoor silver medalist Torri Edwards (Corona, Calif.) was third in 22.51 to advance as well. Sanya Richards (Austin, Texas) won Heat 2 in 22.50, with LaShaunte’a Moore (Akron, Ohio) fourth in 22.73 to advance.

Team USA’s distance runners continued to achieve more “firsts,” with three Americans qualifying for the men’s 5,000m final for the first time in World Championships history. Bernard Lagat (Tucson, Ariz.) showed no fatigue from his gold-medal performance in Wednesday night’s 1,500m final, easily advancing by placing third in Heat 1 of the 5 km semifinals in 13:46.57. In Heat 2, Matt Tegenkamp was third in 13:35.05 to automatically qualify, and Adam Goucher made in on time, placing eighth in 13:41.65.

A pair of Americans will be in Friday night’s final of the men’s 110m hurdles. Having arrived in Osaka Tuesday night as a last-minute replacement, David Payne (Cincinnati, Ohio) continued to amaze. The fourth-place finisher at the 2007 AT&T USA Outdoor Championships won the first of three men’s 110m hurdles semifinals in 13.19, earning a prime lane in Friday’s final. Leading from the gun, national champion Terrence Trammell (pictured) easily won Heat 2 in 13.23. David Oliver (Orlando, Fla.) was fourth in Heat 3 in 13.42 and did not make the final.
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USATF: 2007 AT&T USA Outdoor Champs mark phenomenal successes

Posted July 6th, 2007 at 3:20 PM by Jeanie Rebb

Section: News & Results, Track & Field

The 2007 AT&T USA Outdoor Track& Field Championships last month in Indianapolis were among the most successful in recent history.

The excitement of close finishes in the middle-distances, a packed house that provided loud encouragement to the athletes, and the fastest 100-200 double in history by Tyson Gay tell a compelling story. Television ratings, Website traffic and merchandise sales all saw significant rises over 2006. These were just a few of countless highlights.

In hard numbers, the meet measures up impressively:

0 - Number of stadium evacuations due to weather.

1 - The number of American records set (Breaux Greer, men’s javelin, 91.29m/299-6).

2 - Number of Visa Champions crowned (Tyson Gay and Tiffany Williams)

4 - Number of national television broadcasts of the meet (2 on NBC, 2 on ESPN2). NBC’s live coverage from 1-3 p.m. on Sunday, June 24, won its time slot and was the #2 sports program of the day on network television. In aggregate, TV ratings for the meet saw a 144 percent increase over 2006.
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