Aries Merritt and Kevin Mayer (© AFP / Getty Images)
The pairs of running spikes in which Aries Merritt and Kevin Mayer respectively established the current world records for the 110m hurdles and the decathlon are on display at the MOWA Track & Field Heritage Exhibition Oregon22 in Portland, Oregon.
The Museum of World Athletics (MOWA) exhibition which is the first of two heritage displays in Oregon ahead of the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 (15-24 July), was opened two months ago this week and is located in Pioneer Place shopping mall in downtown Portland.
Destroying the record
Aries Merritt flew to the 12.80 world record for 110m hurdles in Brussels on 7 September 2012, improving the previous global mark by an incredible 0.07.
“I felt I could set a record,” Merritt said after the race. “But just destroying it (the world record) like that, I never imagined it would happen that way.”
Merritt’s spikes are displayed adjacent to the 1997 World Championships 110m hurdles winning shoes of compatriot Allen Johnson, the 1996 Olympic and four-time world champion.
Two shelves above Johnson’s spikes are the singlet and shoes of Gail Devers from the 2004 World Indoor Championships in Budapest where she took 60m gold and 60m hurdles silver.
‘We live for moments like this’
France’s Kevin Mayer set the current decathlon world record of 9126 in Talence on 16 September 2018, an improvement of 81 points.
Mayer’s shoes on display in Portland are from the 1500m, just one pair from a variety of items of footwear he used over the two days, with his world record helped by personal bests in three events.
“I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time,” said Mayer after becoming the first French man to hold the decathlon world record. “We live for moments like this that are simply incredible. I couldn’t cry. I don’t have any more tears left because I was crying so much before the 1500m.”
Metres away from Mayer’s spikes are the US tracksuit jacket of Bill Toomey, the 1968 Olympic decathlon champion and world record-breaker in 1969. Nearby in another display cabinet is the Athens 2004 Olympic Games heptathlon winning singlet of Sweden’s Carolina Kluft.
The world record artefacts of Merritt and Mayer are among the MOWA’s exhibition in Oregon of singlets, running shoes, equipment and trophies from more than 60 all-time greats of track and field athletics, representing more than 25 countries across all six continental areas.
The Portland exhibit will be open to the public until the end of the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 on 24 July. A second MOWA exhibition in the University of Oregon in Eugene, where the 2000 athletes will be accommodated during the championships, opens on 23 June, less than a month before the championships, and will also close on 24 July.
Chris Turner for World Athletics Heritage
