Word: meters
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Track and field, the traditional centerpiece of Olympic festivities, showed Spartakiad at its comic worst and competitive best. In the heats of the 3,000-meter steeplechase, two runners from Guinea-Bissau came face-to-face with hurdles for the first time. The hurdles won. One of the Africans clambered over several hurdles using both hands but balked at a second encounter with the water obstacle. With the crowd egging him on, he stared at it for a moment, shook his head and walked away...
...cheers of a crowd saluting his solitary achievement. This time five runners burst in together, bunched as tightly as they had been when they started 2 hr. 12 min. earlier. The marathoners were kicking like milers; indeed, they were moving nearly as fast as the 1,500-meter finishers had an hour before. With about ten meters to go, Leonid Moseyev, 27, the Soviet and European champion, shot into first place on his final two strides. His winning time of 2:13:20 was equaled by the next two finishers; hundredths of seconds separated them, but the marathon clock could...
...brightest find of Spartakiad, both in ability and personality, was Carl Lewis, just turned 18. In only his third competition outside high school meets, the gracious, unassuming Willingboro, N.J., athlete won a gold medal for his leg in the 800-meter relay and a bronze in his specialty, the long jump. Lewis was disappointed with third place in the long jump, but Stan Vinson, 27, who won gold medals in the 400-meter dash and 1,600-meter relay, looked ahead: "I think he'll jump 29 ft. before he's 20 the way he's going...
When the competition began later that afternoon, another typically Soviet spectacle took place. In a heat of the 400-meter hurdles, the giant electronic scoreboard in Lenin Stadium flashed word that Edwin Moses of the U.S., the world's best in the event, would be wearing No. 825 and running in Lane 2. Trouble was Moses was at a track meet in Italy. The real No. 825, who belly-flopped at the last hurdle ,was Stan Vinson, an American middle-distance runner competing in the hurdles for the first time...
...other nations, not all entered their top competitors. The U.S., for instance, sent only 109 athletes, of whom only eight are top-ranked in their event. Still, the U.S. broke into the winner's circle when Karen Hawkins, 22, of St. Louis took a silver in the 200-meter dash. Then the U.S. collected four gold medals in Spartakiad's first five days: Wardell Gilbreath, 25, of Amarillo, Texas, in the 200-meter dash; John Powell, 32, of Cupertino, Calif., in the discus; Henry Marsh, 25, of Eugene, Ore., in the 3,000-meter steeplechase; and Vinson...