Walt Murphy's News and Results
Service
(c)Copyright 2006-all rights reserved. May not be reprinted or retransmitted
without permission.
Lauryn Williams, the 2004 Olympic silver medalist and 2005 World Champion in the
100 meters, flew up from chilly Miami (54d) to an even chillier New York to
attend the weekly meeting of the NY Track Writers, which is held every Monday
during the indoor season at Da Tommaso Restaurant in Manhattan.
Williams was in town on Monday to help promote the
99th
Millrose Games (Feb.3),
where she will compete in the 60-meters against an oustanding field that
includes Jamaica's Veronica Campbell, who was ranked #1 in the world in 2005,
Lisa Barber (WR-#5), Angela Daigle-Bowen (2005 U.S. Indoor Champion), Angela
Williams, and Debbie Ferguson, one of the Bahamas' "Golden Girls", who is
Williams's training partner.
After answering the usual track-related questions from the writers(see excerpts
below), the diminutive Williams was joking about her height, saying that
"drinking milk is helping me grow". The NY Times's Frank Litsky, the president
of the Writers group, then told a height-related story about Franklin Jacobs,
the 5'-8" high jumper from Fairleigh Dickinson who set a world record of 7-7
1/4, a record 23-1/4" above his head, at the 1978 Millrose Games.
Jacobs came to a Track Writers lunch, which was then held at Mamma Leone's, and
the subject of his size came up. Some had questioned the accuracy of his
reported height, so, to settle the matter once and for all, Bob Hersh and Jim
Dunaway placed Jacobs against a wall of the restaurant, pulled out a tape, and
confirmed that he was indeed 5'-8" tall. Breathing a sigh of relief was the FDU
Sports Information Director, Jay Horwitz (the long-time PR person for the NY
Mets), who had gotten a lot of press coverage for Jacobs because of the height
differential. "I was afraid they were going to find out he was 5'-10"", said a
relieved Horwitz.
Back to Monday's lunch. When a copy of Track and Field News's 2005 Annual issue
was produced, showing Williams's height as 5-1 3/4, she said, "No way!". At
that, Millrose meet director David Katz, a member of the IAAF Technical
Committee, pulled out the measuring tape that he seems to carry with him
wherever he goes. Williams, after taking her shoes off, was placed against a
mirrored wall, and, with the assistance of Ray Flynn, Williams's agent, Katz
determined that the ofiicial height was....5-3 1/4! (Since she left her socks
on, 5'-3" might be more accurate). Williams was delighted and the NY Track
Writers scored another victory for investigative journalism.(-:
Since this is my first attempt at this, I'm hoping you all are able to download
the attached photos that I took to document Williams's busy day (after lunch,
she traveled uptown to the Armory, where the Martin Luther King H.S. Relays were
being held). Please let me know if you have any problems.
1.David Katz marks Lauryn Williams's height on the mirror at DaTommaso Restaurant. Looking on is Ray Flynn, Williams's agent. Flynn, a veteran of many Wanamaker Miles, still holds the Irish outdoor mile record (3:49.77) and is the 6th fastest indoor miler in history (3:51.20).
2.Williams is all smiles as Katz makes it official--5'-3 1/4"!
3.Williams greets fans at the ML King Relays at NY's Armory
4.More Armory Fans
5.Williams Presents Awards to the team from Hillsborough(NJ), winners of the Boys DMR
6.More fans--In the background is the Armory's brand new shot put/weight throw cage
7.The Armory's Norb Sander, Lauryn Williams, Ray Flynn
Excerpts from Monday's interview with Williams and a conference call with
Veronica Campbell can be found at:
http://usatf.org/news/view.aspx?DUid=USATF_2006_01_16_15_16_19
Here are some sample answers from Williams, one of the sports great young
ambassadors
Q: You do a lot with the Be A Champion program, and other work with kids.
A: I'm doing what I can. Of course you always want publicity for yourself, but
publicity for the sport is important. When I wake up in the morning, it's not
how can I get more famous, it's what can I do to make the sport better? Why not
do what you can to make the world better and to make the sport better?
My motto is hard work knows no limit. And I always tell kids that no matter what
your circumstances, don't use that as an excuse. Work hard. When I was growing
up, my mom was working hard for me, and I was working hard in school. When I got
a report card, I made a bet with a lot of her friends on what my grades would
be. I'd get, like, $5 for an A ... and give money back for a D or F. I did this
with about 10 of her friends, and I got straight As.
Q: In addition to your work with Be A Champion, you also donated a uniform for
charity auction through the IAAF, and you recently gave $10,000 to needy
families in Miami. Please talk about your charity work.
A: People always say they want to give. It's easy to talk about it, but then the
time passes and you don't do anything. I was in church, and we were talking
about the spirit of giving. I had passed people at the grocery store who didn't
have enough money to pay for everything. And I've seen people without shoes on
their feet. I found out there were still misplaced people in Miami from
Hurricane Wilma. I thought, there's got to be something I can do. So I teamed up
with 105.1 FM, and we came up with a way to give $10,000 to 20 families. People
emailed me - I read each one myself, and got about 100 emails. The stories were
horrible. I picked 20 families.
I also volunteer at Arcola Elementary School and am learning how to "sign". Six
are hard of hearing and one is deaf. And I'm a spokesperson for Fun4Kidz.org