Irishman beats injury to win decathlon

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33444, 28 January 1974, Page 8

Irishman beats injury to win decathlon

i By

R. O. DEW)

\ A 27-year-oid lecturer in philosophy. Mike Bull, of Northern Ireland, overcame injury'and adversity to win the testing Commonwealth Games decathlon title in a close and exciting contest which ended at Queen Elizabeth II Park early last evening.

Bulk who had to have his right elbow packed in ice before he could compete in the javelin throw, finished with 7417 points — just 130 ahead of the runner-up, Barry King, of England. Third place m an event of rapidlv changing fortunes went to the 20-year-old Australian. Robert Lethbridge, iwho leap-frogged two places 'after his outstanding run of tain 30se.c in the final event | iof the decathlon, the 1500 m. I Immediately after the two-1 ■day contest, Bull announced’ that he had completed in hislast decathlon. In future, he wants to concentrate exclu-i sively on the pole vault, an' event in which he won the; gold medal at the Edinburgh ; Games. “I have never considered: myself a decathlete,” he; said. “I am a pole vaulter.; Ji only competed in the! decathlon for Buster Me-1 1 Siiane. He thought 1 could' win it.”

BACK INJURY McShane was Bull’s coach iuntil he was killed in a road i accident last year. He was |also tlir mentor of Mary Peters, who won Northern ;Ireland’s other gold medal ini i the pentathlon on Friday. A week ago, Bull was almost, prepared to accept that he would be unable to compete at all. The sixth j vertebra in his back "popped out of place,” and he could not walk properly for three days. He was told by his physiotherapist that he could not possibly compete. However, he decided to enter the contest.

Now, with another gold medal in his trophy cabinet, ■he is looking forward to the ; defence of his pole-vault I title. The qualifying rounds ■of this will be held tomorrow, i with the final on Thursday.

I Bull, with a best vault of 17ft 3in. is one of the favourites. | The decathlon was one of the closest and keenest fought in living memory, the final outcome depending very much on the outcome of the 1500 m. Before this, Bull had a rather insecure lead of 114 points over the. secondranked Commonwealth competitor, Dave Kidner. Bull knew that he had to finish the 1500 m 17sec in front of Kidner and 25sec ahead of I the third-placed man, Sanitesi ■ Latu, of Tonga, to win the; title. But he need not have;

[worried. Al! four of the {leading contenders were in ithe same heat; and it soon I [became apparent that Kidner! [had exhausted virtually all [his reserves. King won the] [race, and Bull finished’ second, but Kidner was last, [well behind. Latu also lost al [grand chance of a medal.; [finishing in slow time, justl [ahead of Kidner.

I One of . the big shocks of [the contest was the with- [ drawal of the man who heads ■ the Commonwealth rankings, I Stewart McCallum, of ScotHand, after the pole vault. McCallum failed to clear his initial height of three metres, [and there was no point in [him continuing. Until then, McCallum had

[been in with a chance of a [medal, at least. In the early [stages, he was the man ail eyes were on. He led the contest from Bull after the opening event, the 100 m, and extended it further in the long jump. But in the third event, Bull came to the fore in the shot put to lead from the New Zealand champion, Mene Mene, and King while McCallum crashed to sixth. Bull maintained his lead throughout the rest of the first day with Latu, Kidner, McCallum and Mene all ap-j plying pressure. Overnight, I Bull led with 3859 points, [ just 16 points clear of Mc-| Callum with Lethbridge in; third place with 3796 points.' Next was Latu, the surprise performer of the contest, with 3788, King with 3770, Mene with 3766, and Kidner with 3713.

McCallum was fastest in the 110 m hurdles, the first event yesterday, which carried him back to the lead from Bull and Latu. However, his triumph was short-lived. Bull was in front again after the discus, and the Scotsman had plummeted to fifth.

Bull was clearly relying on the pole vault to give him his

.[winning points. He did not [[enter the contest until all his '[fellow contestants had fallen hout. He started at 4.60 m and [eventually cleared 5m (16ft 'loin), a height rather less than [he had hoped for. "It was almost imoossible to vault today because of the wind. 1 was starting to get worried,” he said. Then, while warming up for the javelin throw, Bull; suffered a recurrence of an old elbow injury. The elbow was put in ice, and he was able to compete. "I was really scared when I messed up my first two throws—my legs were really trembling,” Bull said. Nevertheless, on his final throw he recorded his personal best of 43.54 m (142 ft lOin) to stay ahead of the field. Mene, after a very promising start, faded a little towards the end of the contest. But he had the satisfaction of a personal best score of | 6993 points—a new Canter-1 bury record.