The US-USSR-World All-Stars Track and Field Meet came about on Saturday, July third 1971, in Berkeley at the Edwards Stadium of University of California.

Very lately, on May 30th 1971, John Akii-Bua had commendably reduced the four hundred meters-hurdles African file to forty nine.7 seconds in Kampala, and thereby won a fairly large degree of attention. But there has been a few skepticism about the timing and the song conditions, given that the event became contested on a somewhat unknown and unrecognized African tune. Nevertheless, in Berkeley, 21 12 months-antique policeman Akii turned into taken into consideration a main contender for the gold medal. The other two favorites were Wes Williams who became seemed as USA’s top contenders, and Russia’s Vyacheslav Skomorokhov. Williams had on the recent country wide AAU championships completed 2d inside the four hundred and forty yards-hurdles (that is 4 yards longer than the metric lap) in an outstanding 49.3; even as Skomorokhov who completed 5th in the foregone 1968 Olympics had a 49.1 personal fine inside the intermediate hurdles.

Eventually, Akii-Bua of Uganda, representing the World, won (50.1), 2d turned into University of Washington’s Jim Seymour (USA) in 50.Five, Roger Johnson (World) was third (50.Nine), Vyacheslav Skomorokhov (USSR) become fourth (50.9), 5th turned into Wes Williams (51.0) of USA, accompanied with the aid of Yuriy Zorin (USSR) in 53.Three.

Akii-Bua’s remarks are cited (AP 1971: 19).

“I were working towards hurdles with each… Right… And left leg. I think individuals who hurdle with only one leg are not versatile enough… I have no set plan to run such a lot of steps in among the hurdles. I just cross over them after I get there.”

In the men’s 4x400m relay the USA team (Edesel Garrison, Frederick Newhouse, Tommie Turner, Darwin Bond) triumphed (three:02.Nine); the World’s group (Alfred Daley, John Akii-Bua, Laighton Priestley, Garth Case) changed into second (three:08.Four); whilst the U.S. Group (Boris Savchuk, Yuriy Zorin, Dimitriy Stuklaov, Semyon Kocher) turned into remaining.

Judith Ayaa of Uganda, representing the World, participated inside the ladies’s 4x400m relay. This time, the us team won (3:36.Zero). The Soviet runners have been Lyudmila Findgenova, Lyudmila Aksenova, Natalya Chistyakova, and Nadyezhda Kolesnikova. Second an in three:38.1 turned into the united states team (Esther Stroy, Gwen Norman, Cheryl Toussaint, and Jarvis Scott). Finishing third in three:forty four.1 was the World all-Stars crew of Ayaa, Penny Werther, Allison Ross-Edwards, and Yvonne Sanders.

Major highlights on the worldwide tune meet covered the putting of a brand new international report inside the excessive soar (7 feet, 6.25 inches) through University of Wisconsin’s Pat Matzdorf (USA); and a brand new country wide file within the 5000m (13:30.Four) by USA’s Steve Prefontaine (University of Oregon).