OT: World Records at The Prefontaine in Oregon!

[Blakeon18]

5000 meters: Beatrice Chebet at 13 minutes 58.6 seconds...first ever under 14 minutes by a woman.
1500 meters: Faith Kipyegon at 3 minutes 48.68 seconds....breaks her own world record.

Lots of other great times in Eugene at the meet...undoubtedly spurred on by great crowds.

Uhhh...there are significant similarities between UConn and Oregon University.. the hot
spot for hoops or track and field.

Oddity: a couple of weeks ago Faith made an unusual run to get under 4 minutes for the mile.
She "set" a world record with around 4 minutes and 6 seconds...but it won't count. It was not a race...but an exhibition.
She had several pace-makers...plus flashing lights around the track to make her aware of a 4 minute p[ace.
She said she did it to simply to try and change the mindset of women...that going under 4 minutes was a psychological
barrier.

Six seconds is still quite a margin. I wonder how many years/generations it will take for a woman to break the
4 minute mark?

While her exhibition didn't count, her time in the 1500 meters would be very comparable to her 4:06 time in the mile.

And the 1500 time IS the world record...run in a real race.

Great day for Track and Field!

 

[MooseJaw]

5000 meters: Beatrice Chebet at 13 minutes 58.6 seconds...first ever under 14 minutes by a woman.
1500 meters: Faith Kipyegon at 3 minutes 48.68 seconds....breaks her own world record.

Lots of other great times in Eugene at the meet...undoubtedly spurred on by great crowds.

Uhhh...there are significant similarities between UConn and Oregon University.. the hot
spot for hoops or track and field.

Oddity: a couple of weeks ago Faith made an unusual run to get under 4 minutes for the mile.
She "set" a world record with around 4 minutes and 6 seconds...but it won't count. It was not a race...but an exhibition.
She had several pace-makers...plus flashing lights around the track to make her aware of a 4 minute p[ace.
She said she did it to simply to try and change the mindset of women...that going under 4 minutes was a psychological
barrier.

Six seconds is still quite a margin. I wonder how many years/generations it will take for a woman to break the
4 minute mark?

While her exhibition didn't count, her time in the 1500 meters would be very comparable to her 4:06 time in the mile.

And the 1500 time IS the world record...run in a real race.

Great day for Track and Field!

Great stuff Blakeon: Loved the 2 hours yesterday on the tube. Nothing like a track meet in Oregon. Always brings back memories coaching the sport. I was most impressed with two events, one on the track one in the field events. The record breaking womans mile run was amazing to say the least. My favorite however has to be our female discus thrower. She is the slightest competitor every meet she is in, often by many lbs. and mucho girth. A past dancer, she has the fastest and most consistent spin and release I have seen. Looking forward to the Nationals and World Championship coming up.

 

[nwhoopfan]

The end of the men's mile was incredible. Two guys pulled away immediately and they led the whole way. Down the stretch Laros from Netherlands had an incredible kick. I saw he was going to overtake one guy for second, but in a photo finish he won the race. Good drama.

 

[Blakeon18]

Love to see the comments of folks who love track and field!

Slight [very slight] quibble: The men and women did not have a mile race....'twas a
metric mile. The number of excellent performances in the field events was HIGH.

BTW: in 1980...yikes...45 years ago...I got to go to the Olympic trials in Eugene...always watched all day and into the evening. That was the Olympics that Jimmy Carter refused to send out teams to the Olympics in Russia due to their
invasion of Afghanistan. So...the Eugene trials were in effect OUR Olympics. It was a wonderful atmosphere every day....a super knowledgeable crowd.

 

[MooseJaw]

The end of the men's mile was incredible. Two guys pulled away immediately and they led the whole way. Down the stretch Laros from Netherlands had an incredible kick. I saw he was going to overtake one guy for second, but in a photo finish he won the race. Good drama.

good drama for sure, unfortunate that our guy got beat by 100th of a second, if I remember correctly. Hope it spurs our guys to be just a bit better. It was a great race, a little disappointed with Cole's race, I didn't think he would have such a below average race.

 

[topogigio]

The end of the men's mile was incredible. Two guys pulled away immediately and they led the whole way. Down the stretch Laros from Netherlands had an incredible kick. I saw he was going to overtake one guy for second, but in a photo finish he won the race. Good drama.

That was the race of the meet. Watching the replay with one and a half laps to go, the 20 year old Dutch kid looked like he never had a shot of even placing in the top 3. His kick the last half lap was insane!

 

[Blakeon18]

My bad....the men DID run a mile race....what a finish!

 

[OldSchooler]

I know this dates me, but I was at Hayward Field in Eugene in June 1971 for the National AAU T&F Championships. This was in Bill Bowerman's hey-day as coach, and Oregon had just installed an all-weather urethane track surface. This was also back in the pre-metric -- and pre-electronic-timing -- days. I saw two world records at that meet -- Rod Milburn knocked two-tenths of a second off the record in the 120-yard high hurdles (13.0). And John Smith ran the 440 in 44.5, in what is still the world record. (Both events have since been replaced by metric equivalents.) But perhaps most memorable was the 3-mile run -- an AAU meet record of 12:58.6 (then the 4th fastest 3-miler ever run), by none other than sophomore sensation Steve Prefontaine. Four years later, he was gone.

 

[MooseJaw]

I know this dates me, but I was at Hayward Field in Eugene in June 1971 for the National AAU T&F Championships. This was in Bill Bowerman's hey-day as coach, and Oregon had just installed an all-weather urethane track surface. This was also back in the pre-metric -- and pre-electronic-timing -- days. I saw two world records at that meet -- Rod Milburn knocked two-tenths of a second off the record in the 120-yard high hurdles (13.0). And John Smith ran the 440 in 44.5, in what is still the world record. (Both events have since been replaced by metric equivalents.) But perhaps most memorable was the 3-mile run -- an AAU meet record of 12:58.6 (then the 4th fastest 3-miler ever run), by none other than sophomore sensation Steve Prefontaine. Four years later, he was gone.

Losing Steve Prefontaine was close to a national tragedy. The world of track without Steve is still felt deeply. I started coaching track a few years later, when I retired from coaching in 1999 Steve was still revered and remains a legend in the track world.

 

[Lafayette]

Losing Steve Prefontaine was close to a national tragedy. The world of track without Steve is still felt deeply. I started coaching track a few years later, when I retired from coaching in 1999 Steve was still revered and remains a legend in the track world.

My son was a freshman in HS this last year and joined X-Country and Track and Field. His specialty was 1600. His coach wanted him to train to run slowly then turn on the speed in the last 400m.

This Summer I am having him run 3 miles a day, doing the first at near sprint - however he can last at that speed, but build it up to sprint at 75% top speed for a mile by the end of this Summer. So far he is clocking a 5'13" first mile and I think he can go sub 5 min by Sophomore year.

That is how Pre trained - go out fast and finish fast.

 

[MooseJaw]

My son was a freshman in HS this last year and joined X-Country and Track and Field. His specialty was 1600. His coach wanted him to train to run slowly then turn on the speed in the last 400m.

This Summer I am having him run 3 miles a day, doing the first at near sprint - however he can last at that speed, but build it up to sprint at 75% top speed for a mile by the end of this Summer. So far he is clocking a 5'13" first mile and I think he can go sub 5 min by Sophomore year.

That is how Pre trained - go out fast and finish fast.

We think alike, I would add some 200m full sprints as well. three maybe 4 at the end of his workout. Best of luck to your son, I hope to see more about his progress as we go along. Just for fun, I was one lucky coach, I got to work with a few amazing athletes older and young the most recognized to track and Olympics fans was Jesse Owens. Jessie partnered with ARCO too run Jr. Olympics track & field meets culminating in Jr. Olympic championships. I had athletes in the meets as well as being appointed by Jessie as the field events field marshal. For me an amazing honor. I look forward to learning how your son progresses. Take care coach!

 

[MooseJaw]

I know this dates me, but I was at Hayward Field in Eugene in June 1971 for the National AAU T&F Championships. This was in Bill Bowerman's hey-day as coach, and Oregon had just installed an all-weather urethane track surface. This was also back in the pre-metric -- and pre-electronic-timing -- days. I saw two world records at that meet -- Rod Milburn knocked two-tenths of a second off the record in the 120-yard high hurdles (13.0). And John Smith ran the 440 in 44.5, in what is still the world record. (Both events have since been replaced by metric equivalents.) But perhaps most memorable was the 3-mile run -- an AAU meet record of 12:58.6 (then the 4th fastest 3-miler ever run), by none other than sophomore sensation Steve Prefontaine. Four years later, he was gone.

I'm jealous.