BAYI’S INCREDIBLE RUN WAS GAMES GREATEST FEAT

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33450, 4 February 1974, Page 7

BAYI’S INCREDIBLE RUN WAS GAMES GREATEST FEAT

By

R. O. DEW)

•’lf I had been challenged, 1 could have gone faster. I saved a little bit for the last 100 metres.”

And with that statement, the brilliant 20-year-old | 'Tanzanian runner, Filbert Bayi, summed up his world! record-breaking 1500 metres in the final individual! track event of the tenth Commonwealth Games on Saturday afternoon.

Bayi’s winning time of p 3min 32.25ec clipped 1 nine-tenths of a second off the previous world’s ] best—set by the Ameri-j can, Jim Ryun, at Los; Angeles nearly seven years ago. And it was also an improvement of 2.4 sec over his own previous fastest run for the distance. It was a memorable and courageous performance. Standing sft 9in, and weighing slightly more than 9 stone, Bayi looks anything ' but a colossus of the track. But in leading the race from start to finish, he left no doubt about the great reserves of stamina contained| within his slight frame. I He was magnificent; his] performance was incredible, j Now he is confident that; he can further reduce the] world record. “I know that if I 1 had to, I could have run' 3min 29sec or 3min 30sec] today.” Before the race, he had! only remote thoughts about breaking the world record.] “I hoped to win, but I] didn’t expect to have to] break the world record to! do it,” he added. The runner-up. 22-year-old John Walker, of New Zealand, also went under the

existing world record with It ]his time of 3min 33.1 sec, and J .Ben Jipcho, of Kenya, who s padded a bronze to the two s ]gold medals he had already ' ;won, recorded 3min 33.25ec ■ —a tenth of a second out- j side Ryun’s world mark. t New Zealand’s Olympic i< bronze medallist over 1500'1 metres, Rodney Dixon was] well placed with 200 metres!! remaining, but he could not 1 quite match the finishing!! bursts of Bayi, Walker and]: Jipcho, and had to be con-11 tent with fourth. Yet, Dixon had much to]i satisfy him. His time of 3min : I 33.95ec was a personal best J and placed him fifth among! the fastest 1500 metres J runners in track history. ij Of those ranked above! him, only Ryun did not com-1 ; pete in Saturday’s race. ]. Further evidence suggest-]' ing that this was the-, i greatest 1500 metres race to ] I be run was provided by the .performance of the Austra- , ilian, Graeme Crouch. His ] time of 3min 34.25ec broke • the Australian record held I by that great Olympic cham- . ‘pion, Herb Elliott, and was J faster than anybody had! imanaged over this distance . I last year. : And yet Crouch was only j fifth. Even further down the finishing order, at seventh, Brendan Foster (England) ] set a United Kingdom record! ' of 3min 37.65ec. For Walker, this was an I even bigger break-through' than his bronze medal in the] 800 metres. It was only his third international race’over 1500 metres and he is clearly regarding it as a | stepping stone to even 'greater things. I “I would like to race Bayi s! again and next time things s will be different,” he pro- - mised. ‘‘The places will be reversed and I will take the : world record.” J Walker will not have to - wait long for his chance. He I is planning a trip to Europe - later this year and Bayi will - ] be there too. - But before this, the powers! fully-built New Zealander has other things to think about. I He leaves next week for s America where he will spend Djabout two weeks and a half t racing on the indoor circuit, t “I have had a lot of runyjning but if 1 take a rest I -1 will get injured when I start II training hard again. As soon las winter comes 1 must get ijout of New Zealand and s | away from the cold,” he said. -' Asked how he felt about d! breaking a world record and still finishing second, Walker

replied: "How can 1 feel un-| s happy when I have run 5.8 i ~ sec faster than before, won a silver medal and beaten the world record?” Walker felt that if he had run the race slightly differ-! ently, he might have won and .claimed the world record for] ■himself. ! “My aim was to mark Rod .Dixon. I was tucked in be-! hind him and at 250 metres Ihe did not move as quickly p |as I thought he would — in y fact, he didn’t move at all. |, “When I realised he was ii I not going to challenge, I had n to run around him. I was a i fraction too slow.” 1! Jipcho, w'ho twice was t ! boxed in, also thought that 1 Ihe could have won the race, j, .“Somebody almost knocked s Ime down in the first lap and c II feel that if I hadn’t been E ; boxed in on the last lap I 1 would have run faster. But I cannot complain. I enjoyed t running in the race.” I He predicted that Walker, and Dixon would be capable I of lowering the world milelf record to 3min 48sec. The race itself followed a „ predictable pattern. Bayi, an Army aircraft technician, who had already won widespread fame for his frontrunning tactics, went straight into the lead. After only 300 metres he was 10 metres 1 ahead of Jipcho, Mike Boit 1 (Kenya) and Dixon, with the , rest of the field in close con- , itact. 1 Bayi was well clear at the ; 1 lend of the first lap. run in ] . 154.55ec, and when 800 metres ■ .'was passed in Imin 52sec, it ; ; was clear that a new world • record was a possibility. ■ ; At the 1200-meter mark, , t Bayi appeared to be flagging ; i slightly and his leading mar- ;■ gin was slightly reduced.! 1 But his time at this stage, 5 2min 50.2 sec. was still inside . a world record schedule. Excitement mounted as > Dixon moved into second place down the back straight 5 on the final lap. Walker 2 went with him and Jipcho g settled into fourth. I At the end of the straight, Jipcho sprinted past the New . Zealand pair. But the battle s was far from over. Walker immediately went around r Jipcho. Dixon followed him, iland this closely-packed trio fl closed on Bayi. Walker came off the bend . j into the finishing straight II just three metres behind 11 Bayi. The Tanzanian glanced a over his shoulder, realised t the danger, and threw in one j final effort. It was enough to I. take him to the finish still t three metres clear of the New d Zealander. r Jipcho. boxed in at the

apex of the final bend, accelerated around Dixon at the entrance to the finishing straight and just managed to hold on for the bronze medal. Bayi continued on to his lap of honour. He was met by his team-mate, Nyambui Mjaya, as he trotted into the i straight in front of the grand-

stand. Mjaya pointed excitedly to the time flashing on the results board and clasped his countryman by the hand. It was a simple gesture but it set the seal in what was undoubtedly the greatest individual performance of the Games. ’ Bayi had run the last 200 I metres in 22.9. Walker had ■ been .even faster, at 22.75ec.; “1 am very happy.” Bayi; I said. “The weather for me; ‘was nice. But that was a. tough race.” He said that, two weeks ago he had been : ‘troubled by a cold and was; worried that it might ad-| jversely affect him. I In his youth, Bayi used to, run to school and back —a; ; distance of about eight miles > leach day. But the decision to I take up athletics seriously I came to him “just like a ] dream.” Some clue to his tremendous stamina was given when he explained that he came from a tiny village named; Karatu, 7000 ft up the slopes, of Mount Kilimanjaro. Walker’s performance vin- ! dicated the faith his coach. Arch Jelley. had in him. “For a year he has been telling me 1 could break the world record.” Walker said. “I never believed him, but today he was proved right.”