Silvester Sails Discus 220-4" In Super Wind

Walnut, Calif., April 23-25 by Jon Hendershott

Jay Silvester came out ahead -- way ahead -- in one of the greatest displays of quality discus efforts in history with the second-longest mark ever by an American, 220-4", at the wind-blown 13th Mt. San Antonio College Relays.

Gusty blows which sometimes hit 30 mph blew the implements of a total of six discusers over 200-feet and an even dozen past 190 feet, as the jumps and straight races also benefited from the helpful tempests. Amie Robinson, sinewy NCAA long jump champ from San Diego State, flew 26-8"
as Stan Whitley and Ron Coleman also bounded beyond 26-feet, while Milan Tiff triple jumped 53-10". Don Quarrie and Chuck Smith both got 9.3 100s and Tommie White a 13.5 highs win over hefty Willie Davenport. While not helped by the wind, Randy Matson still hit 67-4, as Bruce Wilhelm and Richard Marks surpassed 65-feet for the first time.

While the longer running events suffered because of the wind, the discus throwers went aninial over it as it whistled in from the most-helpful-for-throwing right quarter. Many warm-up throws sailed well over 200-feet and some landed on the track, once or twice nearly picking off runners in races.

John Powell lit the fuse on the fireworks in the first flight as he spun the plate out to 207-1", upping his previous best from 201-6". But his lead was short-lived. Warming-up for the second flight, Silvester hit 210 and Gary Ordway kicked up chalk in lane two of the track out around 215.

Silvester's first throw was a foul and then came the bomb. After his usual three wind-up swings, he whipped through his second throw and the discus soared. Its left edge dipped slightly as the wind boosted it along. Then it lowered and divebombed down toward a white stopboard at the end of the grass landing area which usually stopped ricocheting disci. Silvester's plate hit the foot-high board and flipped over it as the 8650 on-lookers roared. From the ground below the point of impact, the throw taped out at 220-4", Silvester's, and America's, second-longest throw ever. And only Jay's 224-5" global best and Ricky Bruch's 223-3 1/2" European record are farther all-time.

"It's surprising to get one like that," Silvester, who was named field athlete of the meet, said later. "Particularly surprising today because I didn't feel precise, strong, powerful, brutal. I just banged around in there and let one go. On my last throw, I did feel powerful and smooth and I thought I had something on it. But it was low and flat and not near as far as some of the others. The 220-footer was just a nice, relaxed throw. Sure, a big wind is important for long throws; that's no secret. I think the big one would have been around 207 with no wind. I'm happy I just happened to throw farther than anyone else."

The parade behind Silvester was incredible. Ordway upped his all-time best to 208-5" from 203-10". Then came Powell with the longest third- place in discus annals and the next five placers also produced bests for their respective places: Tim Vollmer fourth at 205-11", John Van Reenen fifth at 202-10", Dick Drescher sixth at 200-6", Miles Lister seventh with 198-11" and Bill Neville eighth at 197-11". As well, Fred DeBernardi's PR 197-10" matched the collegiate best this year, thrown the same day by Joe Antunovich at Stanford. And Dave Weber's 184-8" could place him only 14th and last. Of the 14 competitors, 13 were Americans, with only Jon Cole and Doug Knop missing from this year's group of 200-footers.

Arnie Robinson long jumped farther than anyone else, surpassing 26-feet by eight inches. "It was so nice to finally get over 26-feet," he said, "even if it was wind-aided (by a 9.3-mph gust). I've been shooting for that for a long time." Stan Whitley extended to 26-6 1/2" in second with muscular Ron Coleman of the US Army third at 26-2 1/2", another windy PR. Another hefty soldier, Henry Jackson, was 3/4" shy of 26-feet as he produced a consistent series of 25-7 1/2", a legal 25-10 1/2", 25-11 1/4" and 25-10 1/2".

Coleman and Robinson commented on the effect of the wind on long jumpers. "On big guys like me or Henry Jackson (both around 6-1 and 195-lbs.), the big winds don't help us as much as the slighter jumpers," revealed Coleman. "It seems that we get a boost off the board and up into the air but once we are in the air, we tend to drop quicker because we are heavier." Robinson, at 5-11" and 165-lbs., commented, "I felt like I was really carried farther. I really charged the board after moving my steps back and I got a big lift off the board. I just really had to bomb into the take-off."

 In the triple jump, Milan Tiff bounced to 53-10" on his third leap to win, while Dave Smith fouled twice and passed his last jump.

Matson's shot win was "typical" for Randy as he salted it away with a 66-6 3/4" opener. He followed with 66-3 1/2" before punching his winning 67-4" and closed a good day's work with 66-10 1/4", 64-4, 65-8 1/4". Bruce Wilhelm hit a PR 65-3 1/2" in the second round for the runner-up slot, while Richard Marks reached 65-1/4" in the following round for his second PR raising in two weeks. Wilhelm reportedly had a measured 67-3 1/2" warm-up.

In the straightaway races, Don Quarrie and Chuck Smith both lagged early in their 100s before edging ahead for 9.3 wins. Erv Hall led the highs early but Tom White came on mid-way to hold off Willie Davenport by a tenth in 13.5. Arne Kvalheim sat on George Young's shoulder until 300-yards remained in the 5000-meters then gunned away for a 13:52.0 win, which also gained him track athlete of the meet honors.

The javelin produced a surprise as Fred Luke, ex-Washington thrower now representing the Husky Spike Club, whipped the spear 267-2" to top Bill Schmidt (262-2"), Ben Laville (252-11"), Bill Skinner (251-4") and Frank Covelli (248-9"). George Frenn's 227-9" topped Larry Hart by 27-1" in the Hal Connolly-less hammer. Jeff Bennett overcame Tom Waddell's first-day lead to win the decathlon, 7665 to Waddell's 7629, his first full decathlon since his sixth-place in the Mexico Olympics. Steve Gough matched his PR with 7604 in third.

From Track & Field News
May, 1971