Coach’s loyalty sorely tested

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33446, 30 January 1974, Page 8

Coach’s loyalty sorely tested

As John Nicholson was winning Australia’s second cycling gold medal, in the sprint, a 40 - year - old Welshman was watching with mixed feelings.

Ted Gray, for the last three years the Jamaican coach, had his sole charge, Xavier Mirander, tiding against Nicholson and his first duty, as he said later, was obviously to him. But Gray is also Nicholson’s handler and has guided him to his successes in the last four years.

“I did have mixed feelings In one sense." said Gray, "and John appreciated this ”

EXPERIENCE TELLS

Nicholson first achieved prominence in 1970 when he won the Commonwealth Games sprint title and was fourth in the world championships; Gray was at his elbow then. He was also guiding Nicholson at the 1972 Olympics—when he was second—and again at last year’s world championships.

Mirander also rode at Munich, but in the road race. These Games are Mirander’s first international races as a sorinter and his inexperience showed in the second and fnal matching against Nicholson.

He had led out at the first matching and Nicholson’s strength in the straight gave nim an easy win. Nicholson had ridden most of his sprints from the back, but in the race which gave him the gold medal, he chose to lead out. And when he jumped, Mirantfer was caught dozing on his laddie. There was more medal •access for the small Carib-

bean contingent when lan Atherly beat Greg Williams (Australia! in straight heats for third, to repeat the placing of another Trinidadian, Leslie King, in 1970. A minor and surprising addition to the programme was a single race to decide the seedings from fifth to eighth. However. Ernie Crutchlow (England) scratched in order to concentrate on the tandem events todav and the surprising winner of the three-man match was Paul Medhurst (New Zealand), who had had a great deal of trouble even reaching the quarter-finals. Greg Barnes (Australia) won sixth seeding and the topranked New Zealander. Brvce Preston, only a disappointing seventh. Finally a note of clarification on the status of Mirander. a 23-year-old sergeant in the United States Air Force, based in George, California. He is not, says his coach, absent without leave; there had been a misunderstanding of the dates for the Games.