Double Sub-50 400H recalls Bob Bornkessel
of Kansas (49.8h at Lake Tahoe in 1968)
by Ken Stone, on the t-and-f mailing list
Kudos to USATF for affirming the monumental 400 hurdle race by
Kerron Clement, a high school junior (!) from La Porte, Texas. His
49.77 at the Junior Olympics finally erases the legendary 49.8 (hand-timed)
altitude mark by Shawnee Mission North's Bob Bornkessel at South
Lake Tahoe during the final Olympic Trials of August 1968.
[Editor's Note: Bornkessel's record was actually beaten by
Kenneth Ferguson a week earlier when he ran 49.38 at the World Junior
Championships in Jamaica.]
Even though preps rarely run 400 hurdles, a sub-50 is still scary
fast. Four preps have broken 4 minutes for the mile. Only three
have gone sub-50.
Clement edged Kenneth Ferguson of Detroit, who also broke 50 at
Harry A. Burke High School (my alma mater and scene of my legendary
fifth-place 120 highs race of 14.4 in the 1972 Nebraska State Meet).
But what of the former record holder?
Bornkessel, a stocky hurdler, went on to compete for Kansas, also
my alma mater. He was a senior when I was a freshman. Sadly, BB
didn't show the same brilliance in Lawrence that he did at Echo
Summit. Bob is now safety training manager at the University of
Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan., and also coaches at
a local high school.
I wrote him recently for his reaction to the new sub-50s and to
understand why he didn't live up to people's expectations in college.
Bornkessel's comments:
On why it's taken so long to see another sub-50:
"First, very few high school athletes run the race often.
Only a few states run it in their state meets. Even though everyone
runs the 300 hurdles, the race is completely different. The 300
hurdles can still be approached as a sprint race -- I adjusted from
running 180yd lows to 300 hurdles. I had to hold back during the
400 hurdles to be able to get over the last hurdle.
"Second, there is the psychological 'hurdle' to deal with.
Knowing how much it hurts to run a 300 race and considering going
1/3 farther may be difficult for a young athlete. I think many athletes
today are afraid to fail. They have been taken care by their coaches
and haven't learned how to fail. I went into the situation knowing
that I had nothing to lose. No one had any expectations of me. I
ran as fast as I could for as long as I could without fear of losing."
On how he managed sub-50 as a teen:
"The environment in 1968 was unique. Altitude (which I don't
think helped the time), six meets in a row against the best hurdlers
in the world, working out daily with these athletes, and working
out under the best coaches in the US for six weeks. I have told
may people that competitively, `You do what you have to.'
"What I had to do" at the Olympic Trials was to beat
10 of the best 17 400 meter runners in the world. That year the
Olympic Committee sent the top 10 athletes in each event to Lake
Tahoe to train and adapt to high altitude.
"Each weekend we had meets. Consider having national class
track meets for six straight weeks. It did wonders for our times,
but in the end (at the Olympics) it hurt the three that made the
team. They peaked at the Trials. The three who made the team all
tied or broke the world record. My time was eight-tenths off the
old record and was 10th among our the group. After all, how many
high school kids have had a chance to compete with the national
champion and world record holder for six consecutive weeks, work
out with the best in their event, and see how hard they train?
"In a way, I am surprised it lasted so long. The race went
through huge change during the Edwin Moses years. In '68, everyone
used a 15-step pattern. Even the taller runners. Now almost all
use a 13. Basically, now the brakes are off! Also, it used to be
that a good differential (difference between the 400m time and 400m
hurdle time) was 3 seconds. That means that a great high school
400 meter runner who also can hurdle should be able to run 49 or
better. I was lucky that my natural stride length was perfect --
my differential was 1.8 when I ran 49.8."
And what about his KU falloff?
"I did run a 49.7 (KU GIVES HIM CREDIT ONLY FOR 50.4 AT 1972
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS, WITH KU RECORD OF 49.5 SET BY NOLAN CROMWELL
IN 1975) and held the KU record for a while. I could think of all
kinds of excuses (college life is much different than living at
home with your parents), but the main reason was conditioning. I
probably never achieved the conditioning I had in the summer of
'68."
Bob dreams of running hurdles in the M50 age group, but has to
overcome knee problems. Nolan Cromwell, a coach with the NFL Seahawks,
told a friend of mine two years ago that his football injuries negate
a masters comeback.
Stay tuned. The Bob Bornkessel Story is still being written.
Ken Stone
(KU track walk-on 1972, kicked-off 1974)
http://www.masterstrack.com
Omaha 2002
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