Word: gourdin
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...meet boasts an elite history filled with world champions, record-breaking performances, and track and field legends. Herb Elliot, Roger Bannister, Harold Abrahams, and Lord Burghley all competed for the British while William Schick Jr., ’05, Aggrey Awori ’65, Wendell Mottley, and Ned Gourdin ’21—who set a world record (25’3”) in the long jump at the 1921 contest—all represented the United States. Roger Bannister—who won the mile in 4:11.9 for Oxford-Cambridge in the 1949 contest?...
...delivered a leap only one inch less than last summer's 24 feet. 10 inch flight at the British nationals. Udo now stands closer to Harvard's oldest track and field record--25 feet, 3 inches set 60 years ago in a world record jump by Edward Gourdin--than anyone has in years...
...York Times showed most of its interest in Gourdin the day he set the record, running a big, colorful story on the event. Excerpts are printed below...
Though the meet outcome had already been decided, "interest was still at fever heat. There seemed to be a tenseness in the hot atmosphere that forecast an impending performance of great moment." The 1000 spectators "seemed to sense that Gourdin was about to make history-that he was about to hurl his body to a record...
...Then as a great, oppressive silence fell over the spectators, Gourdin started, his spikes swishing through the air. They flashed in the sunlight and his powerful strides had carried him to the edge of the jumping pit. He had measured his stride perfectly, and he did not have to falter or shorten or lengthen it. Then he bunched his strong body together, and, as he leaped high and far, it looked as if he were a human projectile fired from some unseen and unheard...