Forgotten White Athletes?

the recent Duplantis V Warholm 100m match race reminded me of the first I remember of such things.
Late 70s and Brendan Foster (1500m 3.37, 5000m 13.14) challenged Geoff Capes, British and world strongman champion and 21.64m Shot Putter to a sprint over 200.

Capes weighed 145+kg and stood 6'5 at his peak at the time and beat Foster with a 23.7 run. His best 100m was 11.20.
Some of these giant throwers move really quickly.
And he was a decorated police officer - so the bad guys could neither outmuscle him or outrun him LOL.
Lost his chance for promotion after annoying Margret Thatcher by insisting Brit athletes should go (and did go) to the Moscow Olympic Games
 
A name I just ran across that I had forgotten about and who I don't think has been mentioned on this thread is Eamonn Coghlan, the Irishman who was a three time Olympian, held the world record for the indoor mile and was also a world champion in the 5,000 meters.

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I just stumbled upon this relay from 2018 tonight. It's no top class meet (by world terms) but it shows 2 of our favourites running 1,2 in finishing. It shows Guliyev's closing speed that he almost caught Tortu

 
John Teeters retired way too early. I often wonder just how good he could have been if he stuck with athletics. Heck even as a football player he would be a nightmare to try and stop. Thanks for the memories John Teeters. One of the most explosive sprinters I've seen!

www.news9.com

Former OSU Sprinter John Teeters Qualifies For 100m Semifinals At U.S. Olympic Trials

<p>Edmond native and former Oklahoma State sprinter John Teeters qualified for the 100m semifinals at the U.S. Olympic Trials with a time of 10.00 seconds.</p>
www.news9.com www.news9.com
 
White Lightning said:
John Teeters retired way too early. I often wonder just how good he could have been if he stuck with athletics. Heck even as a football player he would be a nightmare to try and stop. Thanks for the memories John Teeters. One of the most explosive sprinters I've seen!

www.news9.com

Former OSU Sprinter John Teeters Qualifies For 100m Semifinals At U.S. Olympic Trials

<p>Edmond native and former Oklahoma State sprinter John Teeters qualified for the 100m semifinals at the U.S. Olympic Trials with a time of 10.00 seconds.</p>
www.news9.com www.news9.com
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It makes no sense. Also Cole Beck had no interest in being a track and field star, he’d rather be a scrub on the football team. And Boling switches to 400m. Wtf is going on?
 
freedom1 said:
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I had the pleasure of being there that day.
Light rain and a blustery wind (the track is very close to the coast) which gave us that +4.2 wind in the final. What a shame because 20 year old Tim really looked our first sub 10 possibility here in 1989. Beautiful sprinter!
They had him kicking that leg out in front a la FloJo before grounding to claw back more powerfully but in the end his knees starting getting hurt. His legal best never passed 10.26 in Tonsberg although he was a great 2nd leg runner in our then world number 8 ever (time 38.17) 4x100 team in 1995.

 
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Yes, he looked really, really good here - a beautiful sprinter as you said. And only 20 yrs old!
I would have expected better than 10.26 from him; too bad about his knee issues.

Nice relay run by the Aussies. It seems like Marsh took his gas off the pedal a bit....I wonder....maybe they could have been close to 38 flat.
 
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38 flat ... yes, but in those days it was hard to get around to chase those electronic times. You had to run a lot to get the opportunities to run fast times and we are too far distant.
Marsh was also a beautiful mover .... 2 weeks after this run he won the Monaco 100 beating Christie, Bailey, Drummond etc from lane 1 where he just quietly went about his business unnnoticed.
 
So how come Tim Jackson didn't progress as one might have expected given this race at 20 years old? You mentioned something about his knees . . . ?
 
Don Wassall said:
What happened to him?
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He started getting injuries, starting by working really hard (too hard perhaps?) for the Commonwealth Games in Auckland 2 months later. He ran OK in the final there but not at the level shown here. As so often with our guys, University studies took a lot of his time too so he started to concentrate on relays. We had a good team in 1995 in Gothenburg.

Marsh, after this relay run and then his 100m Monaco win went to the U.S to train with Manley Waller's all black squad .... was fastest guy there apparently according to training partner Slip Watkins (10.15/20.40 guy).... but his achilles turned to mush in the Penn relays (i believe) around January 1996 when he was confident of low 10s form.
Never the same again unfortunately - couldn't get that snapped achilles out of his mind -never broke 10.30 again even as he battled to make the Sydney Olympics team 4 years later.
My favourite sprinter simply not only for his smooth style but also for his determination and never say die attitude.
Went to the States with his girlfriend and used whatever they could find as furniture (cement blocks from a building site for their dining table) all so he could follow his dream
 
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jacknyc said:
So how come Tim Jackson didn't progress as one might have expected given this race at 20 years old? You mentioned something about his knees . . . ?
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yes, the injuries started coming, the studies at Uni took much of his time (I sometimes spoke to his dad who owned a pharmacy up near my work place) and I think he fitted enough training time and effort in to be a good relay team member.
 
Great jump by Kravets. I believe she was also a long jumper...?
Jonathan Edwards also set a WR in the triple jump at the 1995 WC in Gothenburg.
Unfortunately don't see too many white women triple jumping these days.
 
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