Walker set to avenge 800 metres heat defeat

Press, 29 July 1976, Page 14

Walker set to avenge 800 metres heat defeat

By

RON PALENSKI, NZPA

staff correspondent

Montreal

rhe gold medal favourite. John Walker, should get his own back on the British runner, Frank Clement. in the heats of the 1500 metres at the Games tomorrow morning X.Z. time l . The heats for the classic event of the (James were announced yesterday, with Walker drawn in heat three, the same as the Scotsman. Clement.

prived Walker of a place in the 800 metres semi-j final? last Friday, hut it should be a different store this week. Clement, who has a best 1500 m time of 3mtn 38sec, is not up to Walker’s class, over the metric mile. Others in the same heat are two of today’s steeplechase final-. ists, the world record-holder,! Anders Garderud, of Sweden, and Bronislaw Malinowski, of Poland. Also in the same heat is the Australian champion. Graham Crouch, who was fifth in the epic Christchurch 1500 metres final in 3mtn 34.25ec. The full field in Walker’s heat is:— Clement, Gar-

derud. Shiik<i>r ui )zhaibani bia). Walker. Paul I Craig (Canada), Agguast As- i Igeirsson (Iceland), Francis i Gonzalez (France). Crouch . and Malinowski. The first three in each of the five heats, plus the three 1 fastest losers, qualify for Friday’s semi-finals. Rick Wohlhuter. of the [ |U.S., beaten favourite in the ' 800 metres at the week-end, r has drawn the fourth heat, and up against him are the 1 ’BOO silver medallist, Ivo van If ■ ! Damme, of Belgium, and i ,! Paul-Heinz Wellmann, of . West Germany, who has the 1 fourth-fast est 1500 m time dthis year. Walker’s best for the yearn ilis 3min 34 2sec, which he, ran at Stockholm on July 5. ; , Another favoured West! German Thomas Wessing-H ihage (3min 36.1 sec this • year) is in heat two against .

Britain’s fast-finishing Steve Ovett and Michael Durkin (U.S.), who ran 3min 36sec ; in the American Amateur Athletic Union championships in June. Rod Dixon, of New Zealand who starts in today’s ,5000 metres heats, was originally nominated for the 1500 m as well, but his name was not among the entries (which closed yesterday. Dixon had said in London last month he would concentrate solely on the longer race. The fields for the other heats are.— Heat one: Ruben Sorensen (Denmark), Janos Zemen ((Hungary), Matt Centrowitz (United States), Evert Hoving (Netherlands), Marc I Nevens (Belgium), Ake ’Svensson (Sweden), Helder Baiona de Jesus (Portugal), Antti Loikkanen Finland).

Heat two: Wessinghage. Durkin, Francisco Menocal (Nicaragua), Ovett, Fernando Pacheco Mamede (Portugal), Markku Laine (Finland), Herman Mignon (Belgium), Gheorge Ghipu (Romania), Gunther Hasler (Liechtenstein). Heat four: Emmanuel Saint-Hilaire (Haiti), Woh- ; Ihuter, Van Damme, Wellmann. Nial O’Shaughnessy (Ireland), Antonio Colon (Puerto Rico), Carlo Grippo ■ (Italy), Peter Spir (Canada), Ulf Hogberg (Sweden). Heat five: Rolf Gysin (Switzerland), Luis Medina i (Cuba), David Moorcroft . (Britain), Eamonn Coghlan : (Ireland), Lars Kaupang (Norway), Spilios Zaxaro- : poulos (Greece), Karl Fles- ! chen (West Germany), Dave Hill (Canada), Muhammad ■ Siddique (Pakistan).