1968 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships

1968 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships
1968 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships
Dates	June 19-21, August 14-18
Host city	Sacramento, California; Aurora, Colorado; United States
Venue	Hughes Stadium, Sacramento City College; Aurora Public School Stadium
	← 1967 1969 → ;

Hughes Stadium

The 1968 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships men's competition took place between June 19-21 at Hughes Stadium on the campus of Sacramento City College in Sacramento, California. The women's division held their championships separately almost two months later, combined with the Girls Track and Field Championships at Aurora Public School Stadium in Aurora, Colorado.^[1] The 20K race walk took place in Long Beach, California on June 29.

The anticipation of the 1968 Summer Olympics affected the choice of Aurora due to the high altitude. The late August date because the entire track and field calendar shifted later due to the late October dates for the Olympics. Being an Olympic year, all races were run in meters.

It was at this meet, on the evening of June 20, 1968, when three men, Jim Hines, Ronnie Ray Smith and Charlie Greene, bettered the (hand timed) world record in the 100 metres (and several others were very close), is famous amongst track and field historians as the "Night of Speed."^[2]^[3] Hand timing was the official timing system for track and field worldwide for another 9 years. During that time, the record was equalled a further 11 times by six additional individuals but was never beaten.

Results[]

Men track events[]

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 meters	Charles Greene	10.0w	Jim Hines	10.0w	Lennox Miller Jamaica Roger Bambuck France Ronnie Ray Smith	10.1w

Semi-finals[]

Semi-final 1 (Wind +0.8 mps)

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Jim Hines	United States	9.9 (10.03)	WR
2	Ronnie Ray Smith	United States	9.9 (10.14)	WR
3	Mel Pender	United States	10.0	=existing WR
4	Larry Questad	United States	10.0	=existing WR
6		United States	10.0	=existing WR
6		United States	10.0	=existing WR

Semi-final 2 (Wind +0.9 mps)

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Charlie Greene	United States	9.9 (10.10)	WR
2	Lennox Miller	Jamaica	10.0	=existing WR
3	Roger Bambuck	France	10.0	=existing WR

Heats[]

Heat 1 (Wind +2.8 mps)

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Jim Hines	United States	9.8w
2	Ronnie Ray Smith	United States	10.0w

Heat 2 (Wind +2.8 mps)

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Mel Pender	United States	10.0w

Heat 3 (Wind +2.7 mps)

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Lennox Miller	Jamaica	10.0w
2	Bill Gaines	United States	10.0w

Heat 4 (Wind +2.0 mps)

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Charlie Greene	United States	10.0	=WR
2	Roger Bambuck	France	10.0	=WR

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
200 meters	Tommie Smith	20.3 CR	John Carlos	20.4	Ronnie Ray Smith	20.6
400 meters	Lee Evans	45.0 CR	Vince Matthews	45.0 CR	Wayne Collett	45.4
800 meters	Wade Bell	1:45.5 CR	Mark Winzenried	1:46.5	Byron Dyce Jamaica	1:46.5 1:46.6
1500 meters	John Mason	3:43.1	Roscoe Divine	3:43.4		3:44.0
5000 meters	Bob Day	13:50.4 CR	Bob Finlay Canada	13:53.4 13:56.0	Van Nelson	13:56.8
10,000 meters	Tracy Smith	28:47.0 CR		28:56.6	Van Nelson	28:57.6
110 meters hurdles	Earl McCullouch	13.64		13.68		13.80
400 meters hurdles	Ron Whitney	49.6 CR	Gary Knoke Australia	49.8 50.3		50.3
3000 meters steeplechase	George Young	8:30.6 NR		8:35.4	Conrad Nightingale	8:38.4
3000 meters racewalk		12:37.9	Ron Laird	12:40.6	Larry Young	12:49.4
20 kilometres race walk	Ron Laird	1:33:00.0	Larry Young	1:33:05.2		1:33:24.4

Men field events[]

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
High Jump		2.11 m (6 ft 11 in)	Otis Burrell	2.11 m (6 ft 11 in)		2.11 m (6 ft 11 in)
Pole vault	Dick Railsback	5.19 m (17 ft 1⁄4 in)		5.08 m (16 ft 8 in)	Casey Carrigan	5.08 m (16 ft 8 in)
Long jump	Bob Beamon	8.33 m (27 ft 3+3⁄4 in) CR	Ralph Boston	8.12 m (26 ft 7+1⁄2 in)	Charles Mays	7.91 m (25 ft 11+1⁄4 in)
Triple jump	Art Walker	16.39 m (53 ft 9+1⁄4 in) CR	Dave Smith	16.24 m (53 ft 3+1⁄4 in)	Charles Craig	16.19 m (53 ft 1+1⁄4 in)
Shot put	Randy Matson	20.55 m (67 ft 5 in) CR	Dave Maggard	19.92 m (65 ft 4+1⁄4 in)	George Woods	19.56 m (64 ft 2 in)
Discus Throw	Jay Silvester	62.10 m (203 ft 8 in)	Al Oerter	59.28 m (194 ft 5 in)	Tim Vollmer	56.89 m (186 ft 7 in)
Hammer Throw	Ed Burke	66.14 m (216 ft 11 in)	George Frenn	65.50 m (214 ft 10 in)	Hal Connolly	65.25 m (214 ft 0 in)
Javelin Throw	Frank Covelli	82.14 m (269 ft 5 in)	Gary Stenlund	79.93 m (262 ft 2 in)	Mark Murro	77.49 m (254 ft 2 in)
Decathlon	Bill Toomey	8037		7370	Dick Emberger	7263

Women track events[]

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 meters	Margaret Bailes	11.1	Wyomia Tyus	11.3	Chi Cheng Taiwan Mildrette Netter	11.3 11.4
200 meters	Wyomia Tyus	23.5	Margaret Bailes	23.7	Mildrette Netter	24.1
400 meters	Jarvis Scott	52.9		54.6		54.6
800 meters	Doris Brown	2:05.1	Madeline Manning	2:07.6		2:07.8
1500 meters		4:46.5		4:47.3		4:49.3
80 meters hurdles	Mamie Rallins	10.6	Chi Cheng Taiwan Patty Van Wolvelaere	10.7 11.0	Judy Dyer	11.2

Women field events[]

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
High jump		1.67 m (5 ft 5+1⁄2 in)	Eleanor Montgomery	1.67 m (5 ft 5+1⁄2 in)	Sharon Callahan	1.67 m (5 ft 5+1⁄2 in)
Long jump	Willye White	6.38 m (20 ft 11 in)	Martha Watson	6.25 m (20 ft 6 in)	Chi Cheng Taiwan Barbara Brown	6.08 m (19 ft 11+1⁄4 in) 5.90 m (19 ft 4+1⁄4 in)
Shot put	Maren Seidler	15.33 m (50 ft 3+1⁄2 in)	Lynn Graham	14.32 m (46 ft 11+3⁄4 in)		14.06 m (46 ft 1+1⁄2 in)
Discus Throw	Olga Connolly	52.07 m (170 ft 10 in)	Carol Moseke	49.02 m (160 ft 9 in)		48.39 m (158 ft 9 in)
Javelin Throw	Barbara Friedrich	54.51 m (178 ft 10 in)	RaNae Bair	50.65 m (166 ft 2 in)	Louise Gerrish	49.27 m (161 ft 7 in)
Pentathlon	Chi Cheng Taiwan Patricia Daniels-Winslow	4823 4481		4327		4319

References[]

^ https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/set-for-national-meet-charlotte-hawkins-of-the-colorado-news-photo/162373522#/set-for-national-meet-charlotte-hawkins-of-the-colorado-olympic-club-picture-id162373522
^ http://www.cricketcollectables.net/the-night-of-speed-signed-print.html
^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-09-22. Retrieved 2014-04-11.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

Results from T&FN
results

[1] ttps://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/set-for-national-meet-charlotte-hawkins-of-the-colorado-news-photo/162373522#/set-for-national-meet-charlotte-hawkins-of-the-colorado-olympic-club-picture-id162373522

[2] ttp://www.cricketcollectables.net/the-night-of-speed-signed-print.html

[3] "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-09-22. Retrieved 2014-04-11.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

[1]

[2]

[3]

v t USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships
1888–1979 Amateur Athletic Union	1923 1928 1932 1950 1957 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979
1980–1992 The Athletics Congress	1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992
1993–onwards USA Track & Field	1993 1994 1995 1997 1998 1999 2001 2002 2003 2005 2006 2007 2009 2010 2011 2013 2014 2015 2017 2018 2019
US Olympic Trials	1928 1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020