W. BAILLIE HAS WON NATIONAL TITLES AT FIVE DISTANCES

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29330, 8 October 1960, Page 5

W. BAILLIE HAS WON NATIONAL TITLES AT FIVE DISTANCES

YVErHOUT doubt one of the ' finest athletes New Zealand has had. Bill Baillie has been acclaimed at various times as the country’s most versatile runner and a superficial study of his achievements appears to confirm this. No-one can rival Baillie’s claim of having won national titles at five different distances. Baillie gained his first title as a junior when he won the halfmile in 1953 in 2min. He followed this in the next two years by taking the senior titles at the same distance in Imin 56.45ec and Imin 54.35ec. In 1956, he took the three-mile title in 14min 3sec at Lancaster ’Park. Australia Later that year Baillie went to Australia, where he performed with credit at a variety of distances, gaining the distinction in 1957 of representing Australia in the match against the New Zealand harrier team. In this event he was third behind Murray Halberg and Australia’s D. Power. Baillie returned to the New Zealand scene with a win in the national mile championship in 4min s.3sec in 1958. In the next two years he won the six-mile title in 29min 4.2 sec (the fastest time yet recorded for the championship) and 29min 30.4 sec. This year Baillie was prevented from winning further titles, and possibly gaining Olympic selection. by illness. He was back to his best to add the senior harrier championship to his list of titles in most convincing fashion. For the future, Baillie has as his target the marathon title, an achievement, it would give him the distinction of being the first

athlete to have held all the New Zealand running titles from the half-mile upward. Notwithstanding such an imposing array of titles, and other athletic accomplishments, by Baillie the claims made for him of being New Zealand’s most versatile runner are not sd easy to maintain in the light of actual performance as measured by the stop watch. Here Baillie must bow to a rival—and friend—Murray Halberg. Superior Both have almost comparable times at the half-mile, but at present Halberg’s performances are much superior for the intermediate distances up to six miles. Should Halberg ever turn his attention seriously to the marathon there is little doubt of a first-class performance in that too. Then there was the versatile Doug Harris, whose ability as a half-miler placed him among the best at the distance in the world. Harris showed a surprising range of ability, also, but at the opposite end of the scale to Baillie, with first class performances from the 100 yards up.

Harris began his career during the war years, when competition was limited and national titles abandoned. Harris’s accomplishments at the upper extreme included the winning of the Auckland cross-country championship—only later to be disqualified on a technicality. Had Harris’s career not been cut short as the result of a spike injury to his Achilles tendon it is almost certain more would have been heard of him as a miler of international repute.