Tisha Waller, an Atlanta grade-school teacher, gave a lesson in high jumping.
Performing in front of a crowd that included co-workers, her 5th-grade students and their parents, the 27-year-old Waller set an American women’s indoor record of 6 feet 7 inches Saturday at the USA Championships in the Georgia Dome.
On Waller’s third attempt, she broke the record of 6-6 3/4 set by Coleen Sommer in 1982. The world indoor record is 6-9 1/2 by Germany’s Heike Henkel.
The identical Harrison twins–Alvin and Calvin– finished 1-2 in the 400 with the two fastest times in the world this year. Alvin, a gold medalist on the 1996 Olympic 1,600-meter relay team, led all the way in winning in 45.05 seconds. Calvin was less than 2 meters back in 45.18.
Suzy Hamilton earned her first women’s mile title since 1991, winning in 4:34.16.
– Purdue senior Randy Miller cleared 18- 1/2 to win the pole vault at the Big Ten indoor meet in West Lafayette, Ind. Minnesota, which has never won the team title, and Michigan each have 24 points heading into Sunday’s final events.
– Britain’s Ashia Hansen set an indoor world record with a triple jump of 49-9 to take the gold in the women’s final at the European indoor championships in Valencia, Spain.
