Man to beat in marathon

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33435, 17 January 1974, Page 26

Man to beat in marathon

Ron Hill, of England, who set a Commonwealth record of 2hr 9 min 28sec in winning the marathon at the Edinburgh Games, considers that he is a long way from being the favourite for the 26-mile race in the Christchurch Games on January 31.

His best recent performance is 2hr 13min 22sec, a world-class performance, but one which only gained him second place in the English trials in October. The runner who beat him, by 42sec, was lan Thompson, who was running in his first marathon and was the big find of the trials. Hill said yesterday that he would not be running the Games marathon for a time. "The most important thing is a medal. You run and hope that there might be a medal at the end of it.’’ Although he is the defending champion. Hill, a trim! 9st, and aged 35, but looking 25, is ranked only fourth — behind John Farrington (Australia), Derek Clayton (Australia), and Thompson. He was the favourite for the gold medal at Munich, but now regards that as a “disaster race'? (he finished’

sixth). He trained with great dedication for it, but “I just didn’t have it on the day. My altitude training back-fired.” He was a little unhappy about the weather yesterday. “If it keeps up like this and then turns hot for the Games race. I won’t have a chance to properly acclimatise myself.”

His interest in athletics; stemmed from the fact that! he was not very good at ball sports. “When I started school I weighed less than sst. If I had tried to head a wet football, I would have suffered concussion.” TRACK RUNNER

As well as long-distance i road running, Hill has also: been prominent in cross-! country. He won the North: Country championship 20 years ago, and has since won the English title twice. He still competes, and next winter has hopes of again being selected for the England team. He is also a very capable j track runner. He has not done as much of this as he would like to. In future, he hopes to run more often on the track in events such as the 3000 m, 5000 m. and 10,000 m. But at the moment, marathons are all that matter. Hill is confident that he will be •at his peak at the right tune.