The 18-year old Elliott, who was being coached by the legendary Percy Cerutty, had run 4:06.0 for the mile on this day at Olympic Park to break fellow Australian Ron Clarke’s unofficial World Junior record by .8s. Elliott went on to set World Records in the 1500 and mile and win the gold medal in the 1500-meters at the 1960 Olympics, and is considered one of the greatest milers in history. Cerutty had predicted 2-years earlier that Elliott would become a world record holder, but the youngster’s career suffered a temporary setback in a freak accident in late 1955 when a piano crushed his foot! Among the athletes who have participated in the meet are Cheryl Toussaint, Diane Dixon, Sandra Farmer-Patrick, and Dalilah Muhammad. 1979–Maryland sophomore Renaldo Nehemiah ran 7.02 to break his own World Record in the 60-yard hurdles at the CYO meet in College Park,Md.

Source: New Zealand Herald January 13, 2026 21:51 UTC