Marathon triumph incentive to club-level runners

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33448, 1 February 1974, Page 28

Marathon triumph incentive to club-level runners

It was tremendous to see the 24-year-old English runner, lan Thompson, coming into the stadium after running a great race to win the marathon, in only his second run in this gruelling event. His racing form is perfect— two races, two firsts, and a new personal best each time.

Until a few months ago he was an ordinary club athlete, but he was goaded by his teammates into running in the English championships at Harlow because they wanted to win the teams’ race. They did.

It must be a great incentive to the normal club athlete when he realises that Thompson does only about 90 miles a week in training. In the English championships, he was completely unknown, and hoped to finish in the’ first 20. But he had a runaway victory, which everybody said was just a flash in the pan. Even in New Zealand, the newspapers didn’t bother to interview him, or when talking about pre-race favourites. even mention him. But now, with his fast run of 2hr 9min 12sec, he becomes the second fastest, marathon runner behind Derek Clayton, of Australia, with the world best time of 2hr Bmin 33.65ec. Girl of Games Yesterday in the stadium, [we saw one of the star woman athletes of these days. Raelene Boyle of Australia is obviously the girl of the Games, because I think she will win a third gold medal. But coming up to run her close second is the 21-year-old Nigerian. Modupe Oshikoya.

She won a gold medal in th'- long jump, adding to the bronze she won in the 100 metres hurdles race earlier in the afternoon and the silver from the penthathlon, completed on the first day. The Nigerian team now hopes that she will accept an American scholarship. I am sure that, with expert coaching and hot. competition, she will be a good prospect for medals at the

Olympic Games in Montreal, particularly in the pentathlon and the long jump. Tait’s victory In the men’s discus, there was a great victory by Robin Tait, who threw a personal best and Commonwealth Games record of 63.08 m in the third round. He then proceeded to do a great ‘‘pschying” job on the other competitors by sitting out the rest of the competition, and inviting them to beat him. It seemed risky at first, particularly as Bill Tancred,

of England, has a personal best in excess of Tait’s throw. But his plan worked, and Tancred was not able to pull a big one out. This was a popular victory for the likeable New Zealander, who has been one of the main stalwarts, with Les Mills, of field events in the last few years. It was a great inspiration for young New Zealand athletes. The heats for the 1500 metres women’s final on Saturday showed us that Glenda Reiser, of Canada, who ran the first heat in the very fast time of 4min 10.8 sec is the strong favourite for the final. The only opposition will come from Sue Hayden, of New Zealand, and Sabina Chevichi, of Kenya. Miss Hayden won the silver and Miss Chevichi the bronze in the 800 metres races last Tuesday. 1500 m final The men’s 1500 metres heats were not quite as revealing, and gave no pointers as to any red-hot favourite for the final. Filbert Bayi, (Tanzania), the second-fastest Commonwealth Games 1500 metres runner, led off at a fast pace, but not as fast as he usually goes. However, his finishing time was very fast—3min 38.2 sec. Rod Dixon, of New Zealand, looked in the best shape

of the others. But John Walker, also of New Zealand, Mike Boit and Ben Jipcho, of Kenya, and Brendan Foster and John Kirkbride, of England, looked easy qualifiers. In the final, I am sure we will see an even better race than the 800 metres. Bayi will go out to run the others into the ground by covering the first 800 metres in about Imin 53sec. The following runners will then have to decide just how far they can afford to let him go before they start to pull him back over the last 400 metres.

If conditions are perfect, the world record is in danger. I am sure we will see Bayi being chased in the final straight by my favourite, Dixon, from Jipcho, Walker, and Boit.