Mile Record Holder A Sporting Rebel

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31407, 28 June 1967, Page 15

Mile Record Holder A Sporting Rebel

(BY H. J. MORTLOCK) r FHE Press, and particularx ly the British Press, love nothing better than a sporting rebel. Miss D. Fraser and F. S. Trueman, to name but two, have admirably filled acres of column inches Because of their differences with officialdom.

Professional soccer players, too, always make for “good stories” for they are continually at loggerheads with officials. The latest “rebel” the British Press has gladly seized upon and turned into a hero, or in this case a heroine, is Anne Smith, a 25-year-old physical educa-

tion mistress at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Hammersmith, London. Miss Smith first became big news because she was banned last October from competing in international events until January 1, 1968. Her crime was walking out of last year’s European athletic championships in Budapest without a satisfactory explanation. Miss Smith is happily now better news, for recently she twice broke the world mile record and the 1500 metres record held by New Zealand’s Mrs M. A. Stephen.

Her mile time of 4min 37sec is a major breakthrough in an event which until recently was treated as something of a joke. The men’s record has come down lOsec in nearly 25 years to J. Ryun’s present 3min 51.3 sec.

The women’s mile, thanks to Miss Smith, has dropped 32.8 sec in 14 years since Miss A. Oliver raised polite male smiles with smin 9.8 sec in 1953.

Miss Smith says she is well capable of 4min 35sec and possibly 4min 30sec. But because of the ban she is restricted, for this year at least, to race against weak domestic opposition and she may never be given the chance to realise her true potential. And since there is no 1500 metres on the Olympic programme in Mexico City there is no incentive to run the mile, next year other than for record purposes.

Miss Smith says: “When I was in Budapest, when I was suspended and then after my disqualification at Enfield (for being ‘coach-

ed’ during a cross-country race) I felt like packing athletics in for good.

“But then the next day I was suddenly determined to train even harder. My aim in 1968 is to get my place back as number one halfmiler, but will it be harder without international competition? That I just do not know. “Regardless of what has happened in the last 10 months or so I still love running. Even suspensions, disqualifications and rows with officials cannot stop me enjoying it” Miss Smith first appeared as a British international in 1963 when she finished third in a match half-mile against West Germany. Two months later she met G. Pirie, who himself was fiercely critical of athletics officialdom. Within 12 months Pirie’s coaching had reduced Miss Smith’s half-mile time by ssec to 2min s.3sec—she has since run 2min 4sec—and she was beaten only once. In the Tokyo Olympic 800 metres final, in which Mrs Stephen finished third, Miss Smith finished last. She does not like to be reminded of the race, nor of the Commonwealth Games final in Kingston last year when she came third. After that race she is reported to have walked sadly off the track and said: “If only Gordon had been here.” Pirie indeed has an important influence on his pupil’s running. Miss Smith says: “Basically I am a lazy person. Training with Gordon and Shirley Pirie gives me incentives.”

One only hopes that Miss Smith, unlike Pirie, can prove herself as good a competitor as she is against the clock. At the moment she still has a little way to go.