RECORD BID BY LANDY

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27963, 9 May 1956, Page 4

RECORD BID BY LANDY

ATHLETICS

MILE RACE AT FRESNO

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) SAN FRANCISCO, May 7. John Landy has decided to make his second United States assault on his world mile record at Fresno next Saturday without doing any more hard training.

Tired, but more than ever determined to lower his 3min 58sec mark, the Australian champion flew to San Francisco from- Los Angeles last night “to have as much rest as possible.”

Landy. beaten by Jim Bailey at the Los Angeles Coliseum last Saturday, when his fellow Australian came home in 3min 58.6 sec and beat him by a stride, said:

“That race was my hard work-out, and I am going to take things easy now. If I rest I can get my weight back to 10s 1 61b instead of the lOst 41b I weighed at Los Angeles, and those 21b might mean a 3min 56sec or 3min 57sec time at Fresno.”

Landy is staying at the home of Mr Pete Rozelle, the Australian’s tour manager, 20 miles outside San Francisco. He will not leave for Fresno. 160 miles south-east of San Francisco, until Thursday.

The temperature there has been near 80deg.' for the last week—lOdeg hotter than Landy experienced in Los Angeles—and he wants to avoid the heat.

For the next three days he is planning only to jog on the grass at. Stanford University. “I have done enough hard work since I arrived in the United States,” said Landy, “and I do not expect to improve my condition any more that way. The only change in my condition will come through having another week to become acclimatised. After all. I was only in America six days before mv first race. That was hardly enough.” Landy described his upset defeat by Bailey as a “one in a million chance." He said: “I thought I had that, race won when Ron Delany went out in front at the start. He was the man I had to heat, and I never worried much about Bailey. Bailey ran 7sec better than his previous best, and broke 4rnin for the first time. When anyone does that it is a one in a million chance.”