Dixon disregarded coach’s advice

Press, 6 August 1976, Page 24

Dixon disregarded coach’s advice

By

KEVIN McMENAMIN

Disregarding his coach’s advice may have cost Rod Dixon a medal in the 5000 m at the Montreal Olympics.

The athletics section manager in the New Zealand team (Mr David Leech) said on his return home to Christchurch yesterday that Dixon had not followed the instructions of his coach (Mr Arch Jelly), who told him “to go like hell 250 m out.” Instead Dixon waited until much later — too late, in Mr Leech’s opinion. Yet even if Dixon had made his move earlier he might not have headed the gold medal winner, Lasse Viren, or- even outsprinted the silver medallist, Dick Quax, said Mr Leech. But it was doubtful if the West German, Klaus-Peter Hilden-

brand, who just pipped Dixon for the bronze, would have been still there. Mr Leech said it was debatable whether Quax should have run in the 10,000 m heats. He was genuinely sick, suffering from vomiting and diarrhoea (it was officially described as viral enteritis) and could not possibly do himself justice. But at the same time Mr Leech believes that the race was of some psychological assistance in preparing Quax for the 5000 m. It was also to John Walker’s advantage that he ran in the 800 m heats, said Mr Leech, before discounting any suggestion that Walker had used the 800 m purely as a bu’Jd-up for the 1500 m. “He was serious about the 800 m, but made an error of judgment in running the first 400 m too slowly. He did not have the sprint of his rivals.” Th* 1500 m final was a

marvellous experience, said Mr Leech. “We had no doubts that John could win, but no race at that level of competition is ever a pushover — and so it proved.” Walker, he said, had weathered the pressures, especially from the international press, very well. Euan Robertson’s run for sixth in the 3000 m steeplechase was another great effort, particularly as he had to give of his best in Europe in order to win a place in the team, said Mr Leech. The gigantic advances made in the last 12 months by European women athletes made it very difficult for the New Zealand middle-distance runners, Anne Garrett and Diane Zorn, said Mr Leech. But Miss Garrett had benefited greatly from her European tour before the Games and she had broken her New Zealand 1500 m record at Montreal.

Of the nominated New Zealand athletes who missed selection, Mr Leech singled out Barbara Beable as the unluckiest. On performances, she would have been about tenth in the pentathlon.

He did not think the Canterbury marathon runner, Tony Good, would have done any better than Jack Foster, who finished seventeenth, although on times Good might not have been far behind Foster. Mr Leech knew no more than what he had read about suggestions that Viren had practised “blood doping”. Viren, he said, was undoubtedly the “iron man” of the Games and if one rumour Mr Leech heard is true he might also be tagged the' “golden man”, in more ways than one.

The rumour was to the effect that Viren received $70,000 from a shoe manufacturer for "a shoe-waving

act” after he had won the 10,000 m. Mr Leech said drug-taking by athletes (in all sports) had not been the topic of conversation at Montreal that it had been at past Games, possibly because there were “hotter” issues. The taking of random drug tests — Walker and Robertson were New Zealanders tested — had obviously had some effect and as far as he knew no test proved positive, said Mr Leech. However, it was suspected that athletes who used steroids had “gone off them” in sufficient time to avoid detection. The Christchurch smallbore shooter, lan Ballinger, also returned home yesterday. Ballinger, who finished nineteenth, said he thought he had shot well in wind conditions that made the outcome something of a lottery. He has no thoughts of retirement.