Day 5 - July 19th - Got a text from out of the blue by a former Bomber Tracklete Pat Grimsley (87) and he had an extra ticket and invited me to go games with he and his family. I took him up on it and ended up staying the rest of the week. My nephew's son (an Oregon Duck) had a lease on a Condo that was sitting empty and they let me stay there. What a week it was! Saw 3 world records set at Hayward field and some really great track and field drama. Today I watched Sydney McLaughlin dominate her prelims, watched a Ukrainian woman get the silver in the high jump, and watched two world record holders and Olympic gold medalists from Norway fail to win gold. A British lad upended Ingebritson from Norway's dominance of the 1500m and Norway's Warholm placed out of the medals in 400IH after his Olympic exploits from a year ago. This was a start of a tremendous week ahead.
Day 6 - July 20th - Two finals today Valerie Allman was heavily favored to repeat as Olympic gold but it was not to be. She struggled to get bronze as the Chinese thrower took the gold. The US also got shut out of the medals in the 3K Steeplechase.
Day 7 - July 21st - Lots of heats today and the finals in the 200m for the men and women. The women from Jamaica nearly made it another sweep in the 200m taking first and second. The USA men did make it a sweep and Noah Lyles set a new American record bettering Michael Johnson's world and American record before Usain Bolt arrived on the scene.
Day 8 - July 22nd - The highlight of the day was watching the second world record set in a month by 400mH specialist Sydney McLaughlin. Michael Norman won gold in the open 400m, and winger won silver in the javelin on her last throw. The 4x100 relay semifinals were a bit strange. Several teams used a safe two handed baton hand off (never seen that before) setting up high drama for the next day.
Day 9 - July 23rd - High drama in the 4x100m Relays. The USA women upset the Jamaican Team by about 6 inches Jenna Prandini's 3rd leg corner was the difference beating the 100m gold medalist and gave TT Terry enough room on the anchor to win for America. The men weren't so lucky. The US got the baton a good 12 inches before the eventual winners - Canada at the 2nd to 3rd exchange but had a very soft handoff on the 4th leg and that was the difference for taking 2nd place. Alison Felix surprised everyone as she ran 2nd leg in the semifinals of the 4x400 relay. This was her final lap in competition for clearly the best American sprinter of all time.
Day 10 July 24th - the final day saw team Usa win the medal count. More importantly two world records were set. One, by Tobi Amusan from Nigeria in the semifinals of the 100 Hurdles with a time of 12.12. the other record was broken in the most dramatic fashion. the 4x400 relays had just ended and all eyes were on the pole vault when Mondo Duplantis put an EXCLAMATION point on the games by setting a new world record of 6.21m or 20'4.5".
Miscellaneous - and then some....
Check the two videos below. It's the same pass, I'm in the bombardier's seat filming graduation someone else is filming the plane flying over at the same time. The students at Richland High School Class of "21" spent their class money to have one of the 12 remaining and flying B-17 Bombers fly over their graduation. I was asked if I wanted to fly in it and film it. The videos below document this event.