World Championships Day 7: An American Record, and old friends

Every day begins with a 0530 conference call, as I’m working a full schedule during the meet. So no late nights for Nicky Boy. At least on weeknights, but Friday nite will be different, because i definitely need a night out. 

Here’s my early morning view, walking from the (air conditioned) apartment to the dorm. This would be more difficult if there wasn’t a 16 oz latté in my hand. 

Key words: ‘Air conditioned.’ Like most of the country, we’re pushing heat wave status, and the dorms are without cooling. Good investment on my part to find a place that lets me sleep comfortably. 

Problems with my work laptop at 0500, and the Help Desk isn’t open yet. So i use the on-call line for immediate support…..and I get voicemail. Grrrrrrrrrrr………..

Tonite is the men’s 200m final….sorry, I forgot the words ‘much anticipated,’ as this will be a shootout at the OK Corral (only because ‘15th and Agate’ doesn’t sound as sharp). Young lad Erriyon Knighton, all of 18 years old soaking wet, owns the 4th fastest time in history. He’s a quiet, non-demonstrative sort, just showing up with his lunch pail and punching the time clock. His main rival is Noah Lyles, a veteran at 25 years old, and quite a showboat. Lots of posturing, playing to the crowd, attention seeking. Lyles gets the crowd riled up, all right. 

At the qualifying meet for Worlds, Lyles snuck past Knighton at the wire and immediately started the ‘me, me, me’ garbage. And of course NBC (TV, not me) fed into that during the post-race interviews, so Knighton cut his discussion short and bailed, with steam coming out of his ears. 

I know ‘karma’ and ‘schadenfreude’ have two different meanings, but man oh man, i hope Erriyon destroys the field (and Lyles) tonite. 

Couple days ago, I talked about the Dance Cam. These two Detroit guys came back for Act 2!!

A few pix before the meet started…

Some nice kicks: 

This does not appear to be Dirk….

I seem to be fairly dehydrated today, not sure why. So, the remedy…

A few guys in the crowd ask me what my protein shake is….I say it’s a diet drink, low calorie. 

Stadium announcer Geoff Wightman is maybe the best known celebrity of the meet, having watched his son win a world championship while Dad had to maintain his professional/impartial composure. I’ll give him a pass on any outbursts he might have uttered. 

Electric day on the track: 

Men’s 5000m semi-final….Woody Kincaid takes an early tumble in front of me, and I believe someone else caused the fall. Very quickly, he’s 40m down on the leaders, and sporting a whole lot of road rash. The deal is that the first five in each semi to finish are automatically advanced to the final, and then the next five fastest overall are advanced as well. I’m hopeful that Woody will file an appeal, since the fall seemed to be not his fault….regardless, Woody gets mad and goes full burner to get one of the time qualifiers; the boy has a brisk final lap. He just misses the last qualifying slot, so hopefully the referee will slot him into the final. Rough day for him. 

Same in the women’s 800 heats. A runner from Australia is seemingly clipped from behind and goes down hard, a face first dive into the mondo track surface. She gets up VERY slow and wobbles across the finish line….if SHE isn’t advanced, there is no justice in the world. 

Women’s 200m final; Shericka Jackson runs possibly the fastest time ever in leading a Jamaican 1-2 finish, with a beaming Dina Asher-Smith grabbing the bronze. 

Now, the aforementioned mens’s 200…..I notice Erriyon is quietly focused, same for world #1 (and Cheesehead) Kenny Bednarek. Who is not quiet? Noah Lyles. He takes a run out or two and whips the crowd into a frenzy. I’m SMH. 

Then what happens? He destroys the turn, destroys the straight, and ties Michael Johnson’s American Record of 19.32 while not being challenged. After he stops, he stares at the timer with a look that says, ‘Seriously? You’re gonna call that a tie?’

And then the timer clicks backward a notch. 19.31!!!!! The track roars its approval, and Noah shreds his jersey in response. Meanwhile, I cannot confirm whether Michael Johnson filed an appeal. 

It ain’t bragging if you can back it up. 

Kenny and Erriyon finish off a 1-2-3 American sweep, with Erriyon becoming the youngest ever WC sprint medalist. Not bad, given that he graduated high school last month. 

And that’s an American clean sweep of both sprints, another first. Fast twitch fiber seems to be the rage again in the US. 

On my walk to the apartment after the meet, Track Town Pizza was the place to be….I never got the memo…

The Cadence Club is some ridiculously expensive marketing ploy….for a mere $2,000, get a finish line ticket and fancy food on the turf field. I notice the area is sparsely populated, go figure. 

You may know that I am a track history fanatic, have been since age 10. I grew up with names like Bones Dillard, Horace Ashenfelter, and Lee Evans imprinted in my brain. I’m always looking for links to the past. 

At every Hayward Field meet, I see chief clerk Wade Bell. He ran the 800 for Bill Bowerman in the late 60’s, and was also a sub-4 minute miler back in the era of sloppy cinder tracks. He later became Bowerman’s personal CPA…..Wade was an odds-on favorite for a podium finish at the Mexico City Olympics, but Montezuma’s Revenge took him down in the heats. 

Yesterday, as I’m walking out of the stadium, I see this scene, and I nearly cry. 

That’s Wade embracing 1968 200m bronze medalist John Carlos. Given their body language, that might have been the first time they’ve seen each other since the Mexico Games. 

Long story short: John and 200m winner Tommie Smith (also in attendance here) did the Black Power Salute on the podium and were thrown out of the Olympic Village. Somebody told them in advance, “Don’t do it, you won’t be able to get a job.” Teammate and WR holder Lee Evans said in response, “We can’t get a job now, so what’s the difference?”

The man who won silver in Mexico City, an Australian named Peter Norman, was 100% supportive of John and Tommy on the victory stand. That earned Peter his own banishment Down Under for years….at his funeral, John and Tommy were pallbearers, friends until the end. 

I’m glad I have this blog to remember days like today. 

Day 6: Cuff, Link, and Butkus

Day 5: Errant Photographers, and a kid who finally listened to Dad

Day 4: Don’t you hate it when your clothes don’t fit (and errant photographers)

Day 3: Marathons, Dance Cams, and not enough caffeine

Day 2: Celebrity Day at the Track

Day 1: Preview