No world records were set, but the record crowd of 14,221 at Hayward Field Sunday were treated to an American record in the men’s pole vault and eight total meet records.
Brad Walker stole the show with his new American record of 19 feet, 9 3/4 inches, breaking Jeff Hartwig’s eight-year-old mark by half an inch. Walker took two attempts at a new world record of 20-2 1/2, but was unable to clear the bar.
“I’ve never heard cheering like I heard at my second attempt at the world record,” he said in a press release. “It startled me. It’s overwhelming. But I’ll take that any day of the week. It was great.”
His effort earned him the first Maria Mutola Outstanding Athlete Award, which was presented to him by Mutola at the conclusion of the meet, right after she won her 16th-straight Pre Classic race.
The two morning races, set up as world record attempts for Kenenisa Bekele in the men’s 10,000m and Meseret Defar in the women’s 5,000m, both came up short in the end, but produced meet and field records.
Running in near-perfect conditions, Bekele stayed within striking range of the record until about two laps to go, but fell short of the goal of 26 minutes, 17.53 seconds. His time of 26:25.97 shattered the previous meet and field records and was the fourth-fastest 10,000m ever run.
Abdi Abdirahman finished seventh in 27:16.99, also just missing the American record of 27:13.98.
Defar fell off record pace earlier, but still crossed the line in 14:38.73, almost a half-minute better than Mary Slaney’s meet and field records from 1985.
Alfred Yego won the men’s 800m in a field-record 1:44.01. Former Duck Matt Scherer was seventh in a personal best time of 1:46.11.
In the women’s hammer throw, 2007 world champion Betty Heidler of Germany and Ivana Brkljacic of Croatia dueled to the final throw, with Heidler coming out on top by eight inches, 242-7 to 241-11. Britney Henry, an All-American at Oregon, was fourth at 222-6.
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