Fresh Approach To Running Needed At N.Z. School Level

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30576, 20 October 1964, Page 21

Fresh Approach To Running Needed At N.Z. School Level

(Special Correspondent N-Z.Aa.) TOKYO, October 19. If New Zealand is to regain its leading position in middledistance and distance running there will have to be a fresh approach at the school level, said M. G. Halberg in Tokyo today.

It was obvious from the results of the 5000 metres and 10,000 metres events at these Olympics that runners had to have speed as well as fitness to be successful, he said.

The brilliantly fast men like the Americans, Billy Mills (winner of the 10,000 metres) and Bob Schul (winner of the 5000 metres) were now dominant. The era of the great front runners like Zatopek and Kuts had gone. The Australian, Ron Clarke, had not been able to break away from the field and then had been outsprinted. Halberg said this trend would become increasingly apparent and the world records for the 5000 metres and 10,000 metres would be greatly reduced in the next few years. Not Surprised Halberg said he had not been surprised by the rise of the Americans in these events in Tokyo. When he arrived in America in 1954 he went for an easy six-mile jog. The Americans had thought him mad. But during the last 10 years they had adopted the Lydiard system of training and it was now firmly established at all levels of American athletics, right down to the schools. The results had become obvious in the last week. New Zealand no longer had the advantage of being the only country that worked on the Lydiard-type training to provide a basic strength. Athletes from North African countries, fine natural runners, would become increasingly prominent at these distances along with the Americans. Meeting Challenge How can we meet this challenge to our supremacy? Halberg undoubtedly has been giving a lot of thought to these questions since his eclipse at Meiji Park. He believes the contention that New Zealanders are not naturally fast could be a fallacy. “I think it might be more a matter of taking greater advantage of the speed that our youngsters do have,” he said. This gets back to the schools. Pupils must be allowed to adopt athletics as their sport to the exclusion of all others instead of “sandwiching it in between cricket and rugby.” Halberg has impressed everyone in Tokyo with the way he accepted his double defeat. He knows how easy it is to be dumped from a select group at the top into the heap of also-rans almost overnight. He has not made any excuses. “I did my best and it was nowhere near good enough” is about the best that can be got from him. He says there was one other factor, apart from his current form, that contributed to his failure in Tokyo but he refuses to discuss it.

Committed He scoffs at any suggestion that he will row retire. “I am committed to leading an active life and that involves running for very many years yet.” Competitively? Yes, for many years. At what level? “I will certainly be taking a full part in competition at home until the end of this year,” he said. “But whether I will be in any more, or many more, international races I wouldn’t like to say.” Discussing his races in Tokyo, Halberg said he had

been surprised that the race slowed as much as it did in the second half of the 10,000 metres, although it had still been too fast for him. There had been only one way for him to run the race, to “sit and sprint,” but he knew Clarke would realise this and would set a strong pace infront so that he could not “sit”.

Chose Target Halberg said it had been as obvious to him as it had been to many other people that he had no show of doing well in the 5000 metres if he first ran an “honest race” in the 10,000 metres. After deciding to make the 10,000 metres his aim—not his main aim, but his aim—he had purposely not run an Olympic qualifying time for the 5000 metres so that the Canterbury runner, Geoff Pyne, could be seeded for that event if the selectors decided he warranted selection. However, the selectors had decided that Halberg should also be nominated for the

5000 metres. He attributes this to their “generosity of thinking." They wanted to give him another chance in case anything went wrong in the 10,000 metres, such as his being pushed off the track or some similar happening that would prevent him from finishing. That attitude was understandable to an extent because he did have the fastest 5000 metres time in the world for the last three years and he held the Olympic title at ths distance. He has no doubts that Pyne does have the ability to reach the top in the sport Too Late Halberg said he had decided to make the 10,000 metres his aim at Tokyo mainly because oi the basic speed of runners such as S.hul and Jazy who would be competing in the 5000 metres. The closer he got to the Games the easier the 5000 metres appeared, but it was too late to change his aim then. It seemed now that he had probably made the wrong

decision, although it was right on the information available when he made it Halberg is disappointed—as disappointed as anyone would be in his position who has worked so hard for something that was proved, before 75,000 people, to be utterly beyond him. Yet he remains a great athlete, one who is going to think, and work and coach and use ev»ry fragment of his knowledge in the interests of athletics in New Zealand. In defeat he remains a champion.