DAVIES, SNELL QUALIFY Anxious Time While Photo Examined

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30576, 20 October 1964, Page 20

DAVIES, SNELL QUALIFY Anxious Time While Photo Examined

(From

HOHMAN HARRIS.

"N«w Zealand Herald" Keporter]

TOKYO, October 19. J. L. Davies was shaking as he left the National Stadium at noon today, having learnt that he had qualified, when he had thought all was lost, for the final ot the 1500 metres on Wednesday.

And so, with P. G. Snell winning the other heat impressively in very fast time, New Zealand has, as at Melbourne in 1956, put two men into the final of this event.

In Melbourne, both M. G. Halberg and N. I. Scott won their heats but yesterday Davies scraped into third place by the smallest of margins after a last lap sprint which eliminated the fancied American, Tom O’Hara. Before the semi-finals started it was apparent that Davies had drawn the toughest field. Furthermore, the way In which his race was run suited him poorly compared with the other. Front Runner The pace in Snell’s semifinal was made incredibly strong by the Frenchman, Michel Bernard, who has a notable reputation for frontrunning—even a notorious one. He cut out the first lap in 56.8 sec, reached the halfmile in Imin 55.8 sec, and the three-quarters in 2min 55.8 sec. Snell, who lay well back early on, ran an estimated 58 sec for each of the first two laps, and 60sec for the third. Looked Easy Then he ran no harder than necessary—and it looked fairly easy—to lead the others to the tape. His

time of 3min 38.8 sec is the fastest he has run over the uncommon distance of 1500 metres, and equal to a mile in about 3min 56sec.

It equals the fastest time run by a New Zealander for 1500 metres, which had been proudly held by M. G. Halberg—although Halberg confesses to expecting to lose his position after the final on Wednesday. Happy Snell These 1500 metres are new experiences for Snell and he says he likes the distance very much. “You run around a corner in the jump from the gun and then there’s just three laps left.”

He claims the rest on Sunday after four days of hard running to have benefited him greatly, and that he was happy throughout today’s run.

New Zealand smiles had just begun to broaden to maximum capacity when they were replaced with anxiety for Davies’s chances. He allowed the bunch to proceed at a moderate to slow pace for almost three laps without either setting a stronger pace or positioning himself well near the front. The result was that when he belatedly tried to get out and around the field on the top corner of the last lap he was pushed to the rear. Burleson and company were away, and Davies had to

come wide around the field on the back straight and on the last corner—and then, with the first six men still bunched, summon a sprint for the tape. He has no real "kick” and things looked bad for him. He finished just back from Burleson and the Englishman, Alan Simpson, with two men throwing themselves at the tape on his left and another on his right Four men only could qualify. Later, he sat gloomily in the stands with the other New Zealand runners waiting for the results of the photo finish examination—and no one was able to say that he had surely qualified. Thought Fifth Davies thought he was fifth. He wondered what people in New Zealand would be saying. Everyone lamented the fact that he had not been in the other semifinal with a solid pace to suit his strength, and not his sprint. At last, the names came over the loudspeaker in Japanese. When finally the foreign phrases came to "Davies - san • Nuizeelando,” someone who had been listening carefully and counting, said to him: “You were fifth.”

Davies got straight up and walked from the stadium. Then, the lights came up on the board. In the third place was Davies.