best WR run ever witnessed

OK, I'm officially jealous.

Said Aouita's record 3,000 when he first broke 7:30. He simply thrashed himself over the last lap, with his eyes rolling back in his head. Awesome race effort.

My favorite: Michael Johnson 19.32 Atlanta 96

Well there is only I recall seeing live - Michael Johnson's 400m WR at Seville (World Champs '99). There might have been some field WR's there but this one stuck out the most. Actually I think his semi in the 400m was more impressive than his WR in the final. He shut it down, I mean really shut it down from around 50m to go to the point he was jogging and still ran 43.75. Everyone in the stands in the home straight were creeped out by how easy and ridiculous he made it look. We all thought if he kept it going it could have been 43.0 or 43.1. I think everyone knew something good was going to happen in the final.

HOLD UP!

Since when was Oklahoma City the 'middle of nowhere?' Oh, and what track was it?

portsea wrote:

having been fortunate to have seen numerous wr's over the years- kristiansen 10km, morceli rieti mile, geb vs. komen 5km, coghlan indoor 2km, coe at 3.47 in oslo, aouita first sub 7.30, johnson 19.32 in atlanta

You saw all these in person? wow!!

I havent seen any in person. The best i've seen on the TV is KK's London run. He did it in tremendous style beating a stacked field in anything but 'perfect conditions'. He showed great patience that day allowing the 10k specialists get away and leaving it so late to put his head down. He disproved the old saw about running a good marathon is about being is great 10k shape.

MJ 200m was quite haunting though - it was like 'David v Goliath' with Goliath winning in the first round. It was otherworldly like watching a conjuror move objects about. How'd he do that? How'd he do that? What makes it more surreal is that he never even tried to regain that form again. Thats class!

Hammerin Hank lift #715 over the left field wall in Atlanta.

Thought those two fans were going to stab him when they ran on to the field. Hank handled it with class.

One race that sticks out in my mind is seeing Aouita JUST MISS the 7:30 barrier in Cologne, I think 1987. He kept running those 60s but couldn't get under and was stomping around afterwards, so pissed off... He was later quoted, "I think Rono did something very special with this record."

Same summer, Kingdom over 110HH, wearing a gold rolex and smashing through (not over) every hurdle.

As for Haley, he knocked my socks off by busting open a DMR at Penn with a 400m carry (43 low?). You don't often see a DMR won on the 400 leg.

I saw Kipketer run his first WR in Zurich in '97. I very unofficially (froma the far standing room only section had him go through the 400m in 48.5-49. Absolutely awesome. I saw him finish the WR off a few weeks later in Cologne. That didn't suck either!

Allied Drive wrote:

One race that sticks out in my mind is seeing Aouita JUST MISS the 7:30 barrier in Cologne, I think 1987. He kept running those 60s but couldn't get under and was stomping around afterwards, so pissed off... He was later quoted, "I think Rono did something very special with this record."

Same summer, Kingdom over 110HH, wearing a gold rolex and smashing through (not over) every hurdle.

Your memory fails you. Kingdom set his WR in the summer of '89. Same year Aouita ran his 7:29.46.

Hmmm ... I was standing about ten feet away from David Ogrin when he hit 2272 golf balls in one hour, breaking the previous world record. Best I can do in the WR category.

Whats the criteria for hitting a golf ball. how far? what direction? same starting spot?

Sounds easy!

Each ball had to travel at least 100 yards and come to rest within a 30 degree arc. They had it marked off so that balls that went outside of this range didn't count. There were at least 100 balls that didn't get counted for this reason.

In 82 or 83 (I can't remember which now) I saw the world record for the Western roll HJ set at the Empire state games. That was one of the coolest things I have seen. I think it was 7-6 or so.

Watching Lynn Jennings set the indoor 5000 record at the Dartmouth Relays. I stood next to her coach, John Babbington, and watched him call her splits: he kept telling her she one one second slower than she actually was!

Maybe B/c it is the only one I have ever witnessed live, but also because it was such a large step of forward progress. Anyway, Paula's 2:17 in Chicago. Absolutley amazing. The energy from the crowd was completely electrifying. This is why I normally drive to Chicago, sleep in my car and watch the race, instead of taking the notion to run it.

[quote]Allied Drive wrote:

He was later quoted, "I think Rono did something very special with this record."

[quote]

I would be inclined to agree! How many non-drugged runners have beaten Rono's 3K record. Any guesses?

skylon wrote:

Said Aouita's record 3,000 when he first broke 7:30. He simply thrashed himself over the last lap, with his eyes rolling back in his head. Awesome race effort.

This race was on TBS Olympic Gold and was AWESOME! I still remember watching Aquita killing himself the last lap - truly incredible.

Of course, MJ looked like he was driving a truck in the Atlanta 200.

Carl Lewis jumping 30 ft in Indianapolis in 1983. The red flag went up, they raked the sand, and then checked the plasticine and there was no mark. The perfect jump. Of course he was out of his gourd on drugs that year -- face like a balloon all blowed up -- but it was a hell of a wonderous thing to see a man fly.