Kidd Was Master – Others Looked Like His Pupils

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29989, 26 November 1962, Page 9

Kidd Was Master - Others Looked Like His Pupils

"The Press" Special Service PERTH, Nov. 25. A young Zatopek was seen at the Perry Lakes Stadium yesterday when the 19-year-old Canadian, Bruce Kidd won the Empire Games six miles decisively from one of the finest fields available in the world. He won it so easily as to suggest that, a youngster

though he is, it was he that was the master and the rest of this fine field the pupils. Just as H. Jerome, the world record-holder, gave drama to the 100 yards by fading with a leg injury, so too the six miles provided tragedy. The man concerned was W. D. Baillie, of New Zealand, who had trained with only one goal for the last seven months, of proving himself in these Games.

Nursing Injury He spent the last week nursing a pulled groin muscle and when the six mile men lined up he was wearing a huge wad of plaster which, as he pressed it into place, could be seen to stretch right up to his waist. Kidd was prepared for the heat, with a white-peaked cap. So, too, was A. B. Magee, who wore his singlet of the Rome Olympic marathon in which he had cut large holes for ventilation. When the runners moved off into the sinking sun at 5.15 p.m. the temperature was 95 degrees—all it served to do was moderate the pace. The Australians began to campaign in the front and prepare the race for D. D. Power to lay his challenge. Baillie and Magee, with Kidd between them, settled in behind, and the mile was reached without incident in the good time of 4min 40sec. In the next lap Baillie moved optimistically into third place and ran wedged between the four Australians for the next mile. After three miles, even though Kidd had been stung into making a forward move, a bunch of 10 had regrouped themselves. Baillie, however, now looked to be under strain. Starting down the home straight in the thirteenth lap, he suddenly swung off the track. He walked into the middle of the ground and then lay down with his head buried in hia arms, heartbroken. A stretcher party went to

his aid but he rolled and crawled away from them. They folded up their stretche rand left him alone. A lone photographer made a tentative appraisal and then abandoned the subject—and the six-mile field circled relentlessly. At the start of the fifth mile the Englishman, M. Batty, tried his legs with a burst to the front. It served only to jolt Power, the titleholder, into action, and away he went to a roar from the crowd. Stranded and Beaten

Kidd was three yards behind; the rest were stranded and beaten. For Magee, A. Anentia (Kenya), J. L. Merriman (Wales), M. Hyman (England), and Batty, there was only a gruelling struggle; for Power and Kidd there was the race for victory.

As the two went into the last mile Power was easing the pace slightly. Kidd let a lap of 74sec pass—the slowest of the race—and a couple more nearly as slow, then coming into the straight with two and a-quarter laps left, he gathered himself and lunged forward. A gap opened with shocking speed. In the length of that straight he opened up 10 yards on Power. Leaning the wrong way on the bends, with his head on one side and his hands jerking spasmodically, Kidd gave the impression of a child running away in distress,, but the man he was running away from was the Empire Games champion and the Olympic bronze medallist.

Kidd tore through the last half-mile. He was 70 yards ahead down the back straight on the last lap. Coming out of the bend he clamped his cap down more firmly on his head and went flapping down the straight, 50 yards clear of a gallant Power. Kidd had run the last halfmile in 2min 11.6 sec to set a time of 28min 26.6eec which beat Power’s Games record by 21sec. He then went straight on to run a very fluent lap of honour. It appeared that the race made no serious demands on him and that he will challenge M. G. Halberg in the three miles tomorrow. Explosive Sprint Miss D. Porter, in qualifying for the final of the women's 100 yards, showed explosive fire in the semifinal. She was flanked by Mrs B. Moore (England) and Miss J. Bennett (Australia), who has been defeating Miss B. Cuthbert recently. .Miss Porter pinned her ears back after an average start and fought her way through fiercely to be clear by 50 yards and only a pace behind the winner, Miss B. Cox. When P. G. Snell won his semi-final by five yards, he glanced first right, then left, and then turned and looked behind him. No doubt he will benefit from the two runs before tomorrow's final, yet the way he ran the race, the unimpressive time and the total ease of G. Kerr's victory in the other semi-final, suggests that there may be a great battle in the final.