Drew Seeking Help Of Australian Coach

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31249, 22 December 1966, Page 15

Drew Seeking Help Of Australian Coach

The 53-year-old Christchurch road runner, J. S. Drew (St. Martins), is seeking the help of the controversial Australian athletics coach, Percy Cerutty, in his bid for faster times.

A letter containing Drew’s past record and his hopes for the future will be given to Cerutty by the Canterbury middle distance runner. T. Preece, who will be visiting Australia with the Toe H club next week.

If the response is satisfactory Drew, who was the first man in New Zealand to run 100 miles in less than 24 hours, may consider going to Australia and discussing his problems more fully with Cerutty.

“I would be interested in taking a course under him if I was given the opportunity,”

Drew said yesterday. One of Drew’s ambitions is to get nearer the times Cerutty recorded when he was 53. The Australian did a

series of times for distances from five to 50 miles, all of which provide a challenge for Drew. The Christchurch runner’s time for 100 miles is about 15min better than Cerutty’s time at the same age. This has provided him with the incentive to improve over the other distances as well. Already this season Drew has recorded his best times over several distances. Recently he covered 20 miles in 2hr 25min and 15 miles in Ihr 43 min 16sec. He attributes his recent improvement to weight-lifting. By training three days a week, he can nearly clean and jerk his own body weight of 1351 b. He has a best bench press of 1651 b and a best standing press of 1281 b. Referring to his interest in Cerutty’s training methods, Drew said he had read some of the Australian’s books about 18 months ago and became enthusiastic over the propositions in them. “It seemed to me that these ideas were the ones for me,” he said.

One of the main reason’s behind Drew’s drive for greater performances is to gather more credence for a book he intends to write about the effect of running exercise in preventing or retarding the onset or development of heart and artery degeneration. He proposes to make the book a non-profit project. “It would be unseemly for such a project to be done for gain,” he said. Preece is at present directing much of Drew’s training and together they have been placing more emphasis on speed work.