Mills Will Be A “Real Competitor” At Tokyo

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30559, 30 September 1964, Page 19

Mills Will Be A “Real Competitor” At Tokyo

[From NORMAN HARRIS, “New Zealand Herald” Reporter] TOKYO, September 29. L. R. Mills has arrived in Tokyo from Los Angeles one day behind the New Zealand team, because he had not allowed for losing one day in crossing the international date-line. But this could possibly be about the only miscalculation Mills will make at these Olympics.

Two years and a half of living and competing with the world’s best shot putters and discus throwers has made Mills not only a much improved performer but a mature, thoughful and lucid individual. Perhaps the most interesting observation he made in an interview yesterday was

a reflection upon his own attitude in settling into the village atmosphere. “You know,” he said, “whenever I’ve got into a games village before I’ve felt as if I had to rush around to see all the others and watch how they were throwing. But this time I’m not worrying if I never see or speak to any of them.” NOW HE KNOWS Mills, of course, now knows exactly how well his opposition can perform, how well he can hope to perform, and how to train to achieve this. The big difference between this and other games, he says, is that he will be “a competitor.” “At Rome, I was not really a competitor. I was throwing about 55ft in the shot put and there were three men 62ft or better. It was as if we were in different competitions altogether. FELT DEPRESSED “It was also a little like that one of the first times I threw against Dallas Long (the world record-holder). Long threw 66|ft, and straight away I just felt depressed and said to myself, ‘what am I doing here?’ “But I learned to forget

about Long and to concentrate on beating the people around my ability. This is the way to improve, through sheer competition.” In the shot put at Tokyo, Mills will be fighting for what he knows to be a chance of a bronze medal. "Now this is the situation. It is pretty well obvious that Long will be first and Matson (another American) will be second. They are so far ahead and in the shot put it is just impossible to get sensational improvements on the day. HAS A CHANCE “But there is a gap behind them, to a group of us within a. range of about a foot (Mills’s best is 62ft Ijin.) “I know that at present I’m by no means the third best performer in the world —yet I also know that there’s such a small and fluctuating margin that if everything went right for me on the day I would be in there. “It’s a big ‘if,’ perhaps. There will be so much more tension at the Olympics, knowing that everything depends on a few throws instead of the knowledge of being able to compete again, better, the next Saturday. “But it gives me a chance to fight for. I know I’m a competitor.”