MORE WORLD RECORDS ON THE WAY? Walker only on threshold of athletic career, says coach

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34047, 10 January 1976, Page 4

MORE WORLD RECORDS ON THE WAY? Walker only on threshold of athletic career, says coach

(By

JOHN DREW)

The Queen’s New Year 0.8. E. award has come as an appropriate birthday present for New Zealand’s lion hearted young 1 king of world milers. John Walker. He will be 24 on Monday. Walker, still on the threshold of his career, is, according to his coach. Mr Arch Jelley. ready to storm forward to even greater achievements. Yet its not so long ago that the now confident and articulate Walker was a small town runner from Manurewa who was too unsure of himself to run in Auckland “in front of the big city boys.” Only three years ago he was still a reluctant starter in his first big race. And the athlete friend who coaxed him from the stand r ad to find him borrowed gear, including running shoes, to get him to the starting line. Mr Jelley. who has coached several leading New Zealand athletes, including Neville Scott and lan Studd, is now regarded ■as one of the world's top coaches. The world has now heard much of the great John Walker but little or nothing has been told of the remarkable achievements of his coach. Arch Jelley is a running coach in every meaning of the phrase

For nine years Mr Jelley successively represented the Otago. West CoastNorth Island and Wellington provinces on track and across country He raced all track distances from the half- nile to six miles. He won the Wellington six mile championship and the W.C.N.I. three mile championship. as well as gaming fourth placing in the New Zealand cross-country championships.

Mr Jelley was a surveyor before serving as a

nav.gator in submarines during the war. That phase over, he tpok a university degree as a part time student and began a new career for himself as a teacher . and then as an athletics coach. A'though he was a late starter as a serious athetics coach, his greatest pupil. Walker, was also a -lie starter as a serious athlete. "1 first got to know John Walker through a mutual friend. Graham Douglas, who won the marathon bronze medal in aoout 1969 I coached Graham for many years and I think John had spoaen to him about coaching and that sort of thing “I think Graham believed that Walker was quite a good prospect and he said 'if you ever get keen, you want to go and have a talk to Arch Jelley about it.’ ” Walker was only’ 19 and had done no serious training up to that time when he wrote asking Mr Jelley to coach him.

“I remember about two years before Walker came to me I trained a guy up here called Murray Mahony who lived near Walker, and he was quite a good

runner. One day, Murray said ‘you know I am not a bad runner but there is a big boy up my way at the Manurewa club. If he ever did a bit of training, he would absolutely eat me.’ "1 just shrugged it aside because I had heard stories oefore of guys who would be good if they did any training. That would have been about 1968.

“Before he came to me, he used to run a bit at Manurew’a bur he was too scared to come to Auckland and run at the Mount Smart stadium in front of the big city boys. He thought he was not good enough. 1 think one of his friends put his name down and when he came in and had a win he was very suprised. He had just left school and was working as a pay clerk.”

‘When he came to me he had never done the long type training. He had done some of the things put forward by Arthur Lydiard. His training has been a mixture, really. It has been tailor-made to suit him. Parr is what Arthur Lydiard advocates. "In the first • three months 1 had him. I could see that, compared with other athletes I had coached, including Neville Scott, he was immeasurably superior in every way. Even though he had not done much iong. hard stuff, he was far better than they had ever been. ‘ 1 remember on January 1, 1972, said Mr Jelley, at 1 auranga when John ’ was there for a bit of a holiday and was sitting in the grandstand. The big name iu athletics up there at the time was the New Zealand international. Dick Quax. "Quax had been specially invited for the 800 metres and someone said to John: ’Why don't you go and have a run Thar w'as half an hour before the race “John said: ‘Oh, you know’ 1 am a bit tired and I have already done some training and, anyway, I haven't orougnt any gear ' But a friend said: ‘never mind, we will lend you

some gear'. His best half before that was 1 min 53 sec but he went out and ran 1 min 50 sec and beat Quax. His confidence had built up with his performance. He had a very good temperament. He had a very strong tough character. He could talk fast and was articulate. He was just naturally like that, Mr Jelley said.

“I have never had to push him into big competition. He likes racing better than training. As far as John is concerned, racing is the name of the game. He is a marvellous person to train. “He trains with different people and does not have any special training mates. He used to find it hard to keep up, especially with the marathon boys. He would just about be dying. Now he makes them die; he is so much stronger. “I have had him just on four years now and he has hardly had a holiday but he has had. injuries —- Achilles tendon and knee troubles — which have not been publicised. But when you think he is racing between 50 and 80 races a year, something has to go. “I won the Auckland Veterans’ read champs one year but I don't do any racing now because I am too busy coaching,” said Mr Jeiley. “I always run with John in his warm ups. I am down at Mount Smart Stadium four or five times a week when he is sharpening up. He is doing about 5 min 30 sec pace in his track suit in his warmups and if I am not particularly fit 1 find I have to scoot to keep up with him. In an eight-mi le spin he might run at smin pace, but will not be racing. This pace just feels to him what 6min pace used to feel to me when I was racing on the track. Mr Jeiley says that what makes Walker great is his courage, stamina and strength of mind. He is a big man at 6ft lin and nearly 13 st. “He has far more stamina than Jim Ryun or Peter Sneil but he is not basically’ as fast over 400 metres. “Ryun could do 46sec for 400 metres and Snell about 47sec but John is a 48sec man. basically. He is far tougher over longer distances. He is more of a natural miler. “Snell had to be really’ fit to run a 4min mile and I have seen him struggle to run 4min 30sec. But Walker can run 4min for the mile almost any night of the year.

"He likes a beer with the boys but does not drink much. He goes out with girls like other men of his age but he does not have any marrage plans at present — he is too busy. He is a advertising representative with a radio station in Auckland.

“His first big victory was in 1972, when he won the New Zealand 800 metres title in Imin 48.3 sec. He beat Hunter and Melville. It was a great victory and the first time he had mixed it with the big boys. He missed out for the Olympics, although he did a good time in the trials of Imin 47.65ec.

"Next year, in 1973, he won the 800 metres title pretty easily in about the same time and then he went to the Pacific Conference Games in Canada and did very well. “After that J- came the break-through when he decided to spend al! his savings and go to Europe to race. .Just before he left Canada, he entered a mile and they put him in the B grade. He was so incensed he just took off from the gun and went as fast as he could all the way, just like a time trial. He did a grand 3min 58sec: — his first serious mile. “in Scandinavia he had to fight again to get into the A grade. In his first race there over 800 he ran Imin 46.35ec — the same time Snell won in at the Rome Olympics. And guess who was second? Bayi. It was the first time they had met. John beat him fairly well. This was the first of their seven meetings, out' door, and John has won five of them. “In Scandinavia John ran his best 1500 metres in 3min 38sec, which is about a 3min 55sec mile equivalent. 1 then knew that if he did a decent build up (he was then doing only about 60 miles a week), -he would get pretty close to the world record. "John has beaten Bayi four times out of five over 800 metres. The only time Bayi beat him over 800 metres was at Christchurch when John had a chest infection. I think Walker was lucky to get second that time. Over the 1500 metres, they had got one each. Before the Commonwealth Games at the end of 1973, I wanted him to run the double at the Games. At the Games, he ran Imin. 44.95ec. but got third and Bayi was fourth. In the 1500 at the games he broke the world record but still did not win it because Bayi ran such a marvellous race for first. Later, in 1974. John went to Europe again to meet Bayi and tried different tactics. He was going to keep closer up. “Walker caught him at 800, put in a heavy sprint with 300 metres to go and Bayi threw his hand in. Bayi was rather shattered he could not catch Walker, who finished with a time of 3min 33.45ec. This was the first time that Walker showed he was superior over 1500 metres. “When they meet on the track next time I think that Walker will be too good for Bayi. Walker is stronger but Bayi has not improved in the last year.

“I don’t think there is anyone else in the world at present who could be able to make them go faster. I think they are miles above everybody else. I think they could run about 3min 47sec. for the mile.

“For the future, I think John will be the best runner in the world over any distance at least up to 10 miies. He could run tremendously fast over' any distance, really. He showed that when he ran in the world cross-country championships at Rabat in 1974.

Next month Walker will go to North America for a

short indoor racing series and will come back to New Zealand and after a short rest up will start on his build up for the Montreal Olympics in July.