The US-USSR-All-Stars world track and field meet took place on Saturday, July 3, 1971 in Berkeley at Edwards Stadium of the University of California.
Very recently, on 30 May 1971, John Akii-Bua had commendably reduced the African 400m hurdles record to 49.7 seconds in Kampala and thus gained a reasonably significant level of attention. But there was some skepticism about the weather and track conditions, given that the event was contested on a somewhat unknown and unrecognized African track. Yet at Berkeley, 21-year-old police officer Akii was considered a top contender for the gold medal. The other two favorites were Wes Williams, considered one of the top contenders for the USA, and Vyacheslav Skomorokhov of Russia. Williams had finished second at the recent AAU national championships in the 440-yard hurdles (which is four yards more than the metric lap) in an impressive 49.3; while Skomorokhov, who finished fifth at the 1968 Olympics, had a personal best of 49.1 over the intermediate hurdles.
Finally Akii-Bua from Uganda representing the world won (50.1), second was Jim Seymour from University of Washington (USA), fifth was Wes Williams (51.0) from USA, followed by Yuriy Zorin (USSR) with 53.3.
The observations of Akii-Bua (AP 1971: 19) are mentioned.
“I’ve been practicing hurdles with both legs… right… and left. I think one-legged jumpers aren’t versatile enough… I don’t have any set plans to run that many steps in between the hurdles. I just I get over them when I get there.”
In the men’s 4x400m relay, the United States team triumphed (Edesel Garrison, Frederick Newhouse, Tommie Turner, Darwin Bond) (3:02.9); the World team (Alfred Daley, John Akii-Bua, Laighton Priestley, Garth Case) was second (3:08.4); while the USSR team (Boris Savchuk, Yuriy Zorin, Dimitriy Stuklaov, Semyon Kocher) was last.
Judith Ayaa from Uganda, representing the World, participated in the women’s 4x400m relay. This time, she won the USSR team (3:36.0). The Soviet runners were Lyudmila Findgenova, Lyudmila Aksenova, Natalya Chistyakova and Nadyezhda Kolesnikova. The sophomore in 3:38.1 was Team USA (Esther Stroy, Gwen Norman, Cheryl Toussaint, and Jarvis Scott). Finishing third in 3:44.1 was the World All-Stars team of Ayaa, Penny Werther, Allison Ross-Edwards and Yvonne Sanders.
Highlights of the international track and field competition included the setting of a new world record in the high jump (7 feet, 6.25 inches) by Pat Matzdorf of the University of Wisconsin (USA); and a new national record in the 5000m (13:30.4) for American Steve Prefontaine (University of Oregon).
Overall on points, the USA won, the USSR placed second, and the World All-Stars team was third.
Works Cited
AP (July 14, 1971) “For American-Russian track duel: American runners weren’t ready,” in “Odessa American.”