Maddaford may make his mark at Mexico

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31769, 28 August 1968, Page 15

Maddaford may make his mark at Mexico

TUST how New Zealand’s M leading athletes will measure up to the world’s best at Mexico City in October is difficult to judge. A comparison of current performances indicates that only one or two have even the remotest chance of winning a medal but this

only gives part of the picture.

Determination, ability to rise to the occasion and the fact the New Zealand’s athletic season has long been finished are only a few of the points which have to be taken into account The New Zealand team obviously lacks world-renowned personalities; athletes who are expected to do well. But there is certainly as much potential as there ever was.

One member of the team who seems to have all the qualities required to make an Olympic champion is R. M. Maddaford, the diminutive Auckland runner who recently added the national cross-country title to the three-miles track championship he won so well at Dunedin earlier this year.

Maddaford, and his Auckland rival, E. Maguire, are currently the only New Zealand athletes to head the world ranking lists in any event Their joint time of 27m 22sec for six miles, recorded on Auckland’s Lovelock track last April, has not been bettered even by Australia’s multiple world record-holder, R W. Clarke, this year. Maddaford, has plenty of stamina and "if his best mile time of fractionally more than 4min is any indication, he is not short of basic speed either. Perhaps most important of all, the coach in the background guiding Maddaford’s destiny is none other than the 1964 800 and 1500 metres Olympic champion, P. G. Snell. Maddaford is only 21, and apart from a trip to Australia with the New Zealand team last season, he has had little firstclass overseas competition. This is where Snell’s great experience becomes so valuable.

He has been able to tell his young protege of all the obvious pitfalls. Snell has been something more than an ordinary coach too. He accompanies Maddaford on many of his training runs and imparts his knowledge by example as well as explanation. When the New Zealand three-miles champion begins his speed work with repetition quarters, Snell is usually there too and often completes an even more strenuous programme than his pupil. All Maddaford’s training schedules have been developed by Snell. They probably owe their basic origin to Mr A. L. Lydiard, who coached Snell and M. G. Halberg to Olympic stardom, but the refinements are Snell’s.

“Peter is a very deep thinker about running and reasons out all my training moves very thoroughly,” Maddaford commented recently. In spite of the influence of the greatest runner in Olympic history, Maddaford is not another Snell. He is slightly built and does not even run as Snell did. And of course the events he will be contesting are different. He has been entered for the 5000 and 10,000 metres at Mexico City, although there is a strong possibility that he will concentrate on the 10,000 metres when he gets there.

However, he has the same Inner strength that made Snell such a great champion. The dedication, the sincerity and the quiet confidence are all there. It is clear that Maddaford is not going to Mexico just for experience. Given the right breaks, he could provide some of his more experienced opponents with a major surprise.