KEINO FAVOURED FOR TWO GOLD MEDALS African Challenge Again Highlight To Games

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32351, 17 July 1970, Page 15

KEINO FAVOURED FOR TWO GOLD MEDALS African Challenge Again Highlight To Games

(N.Z.P. .4. -Reuter—Copyright) EDINBURGH. The sophisticated Anglo-Saxon nations resume a classic struggle against the thrusting tide of African talent when the 1970 Commonwealth Games athletics and boxing programmes begin tomorrow.

African athletes and boxers, formerly the poor relations of track and field and of the ring, challenged and beat the best in Jamaica in 1966. Now, a question mark hangs over the prospects of the African surge, particularly on the track, maintaining its momentum.

There is a strong feel- 1 ing in Edinburgh that j the Africans have reached a plateau in < their athletics develop-1 ment and many observ- I ers point to a decrease in , world-beating perform- | ances in the two years < since the 1968 Olympic 1 Games. But win or lose, from tomor- i row the best runners, jump- i ers and throwers from more , than 40 nations of the Com- i monwealth will come to grips at the heart of the newly- 1 built, £2.3 million Meadow- 1 bank sports complex. World Reputation , In a seven-day track and I i field programme of 36 men’s i and women's events, the main I spotlight will fall on only a ; handful of glamour events. The race of the games is like-1 ly to be the 5000 metres final tomorrow week. < The Kenyan, K. Keino, fav-

■ ourite also for the 1500 metres gold medal three days earlier, will seek to consolidate his reputation as the world’s greatest middle-distance runner and, possibly, the world’s greatest competitor. Keino, the 1966 Commonwealth victor over one and three miles and the 1968 Olympic champion over 1500 metres, appears to have too much basic speed to be held by his opponents, in the 1500 metres. However, the 5000 metres will present Keino with a tougher problem and some formidable opposition. The Englishman, R. Taylor, unpredictable, but the fastest man in the Commonwealth this year, at 13min 26.25ec, and the European champion, I. Stewart, of Scotland, should be strong enough to challenge hard behind the 30-year-old Kenyan at the bell. But Keino has been challenged before—and won. Yet,- for sheer fascination and personalities, the 10,000 metres might well be a race second to none. Whatever else, the event will bring together

two giants of the track, R. Clarke, of Australia, and the man who came from nowhere to beat him in Jamaica—and went on to become an Olympic champion—N. Temu, of Kenya. To Retire Clarke, at his peak, was a man of almost unbelievable consistency. His machine-like front running won him 19 world records in his international career, of which he still holds five. But Clarke has beaten only one er emy—the clock. In Jamaica <nd in Mexico City he displayed a lack of competitive drive, and he will retire, at 33, soon after the Edinburgh Games, his search for a gold medal probably still unfulfilled. If C larke is on his way out, a fellow Australian, K. O’Brien, is hammering his way into the record books. O’Brien is odds-on favourite for the 3000 metres steeplechase after recently trimming the world record to Bmin 22sec. If the weather turns warm —an unlikely prospect at present—African and Caribbean sprinters could exclude all but the Australians, P. Norman and G. Eddy, from the medals haul in the 100, 200 and 400 metres. Julian Hopeful

Eleswhere, the Australian world record-holder and Olympic champion, R. Doubell, should have enough class to take the 800 metres, while the marathon will be a toss up between another Australian, D. Clayton, the European champion, R. Hill (England), the defending champion, J. Alder (Scotland), and J. L. Julian (New Zealand). I As usual, England, Australia, New Zealand and Canada are likely to divide up the women’s medals between them.

The outstanding women athletes are the Canadian, D. Brill, who is within range of the world high jump record, and the Australians, P Kilborn, M. Caird, R. Boyle and J. Lamy in the sprints and hurdles. An exception will undoubt-

edly be the women’s 400 metres in which the European indoor champion, M. Neufvilie, who lives in England, will run for Jamaica. Titles Defended African and British boxers, who took all but one of the gold medals in 1966, look certain to dominate the competition again. In Jamaica, Africa won six, England two and Northern Ireland one of the 10 titles. Only the New Zealand heavy-weight, W. Kini, prevented a clean sweep by Africans and Britons. This time, with the introduction of light fly-weight increasing the weight divisions to 11, the same countries are favoured to take top honours. Five of the six Africahs who won gold medals in Jamaica will again be in action here, although not all are defending their titles. S. Shittu (Ghana), flyweight champion in 1966, has moved into the bantamweight division, and the lightweight titleholder, A. Andeh (Nigeria), will be bidding for the light welter-weight crown. Games authorities have laid stress on the Scottish—not British—character of the Games and will assemble massed pipe and drum bands as well as hundreds of Scottish dancers for a 40-minute display during the opening ceremony.

The opening will be performed at 5.36 p.m. (4.36 a.m. Friday, New Zealand time) by the Duke of Edinburgh after reading a special message from the Queen. The competitors will march into the arena led by Jamaica as host country for the previous Games, after the displays have ended.