Walker decides against more world records

Press, 24 August 1976, Page 34

Walker decides against more world records

By

RON PALENSKI,

NZPA staff correspondent

Gateshead John Walker will be returning to New Zealand next month with just the two world records he has col lected so far.

Walker, aged 24, has been planning on attacking Filbert Bayi’s world 1-500 metres record in Europe this year, but said after winning a mile race at Gateshead yesterday that he would have to call off the attempt.

"I’ll promise you this,” he I said. “Next year I’ll be > gome for that record as well as the two mile record." ; Walker’s mile in 3min| 59.95ec yesterday was his| seventeenth race since ieav-i ing New Zealand in June and he admitted to feeling a little tired — “although I’ve picked up a bit in the past week.”

After his world 2000 metres record in Oslo on June 30, Walker said he would go back to break Bayi’s mark, but said yesterday “I’ll be going back to Oslo but you can forget the world record.”

He said he had not trained seriously since Montreal and has not been on a running track — except for races —

since several days before his Olympic final.

“To break the record now I’d really have to train for it and it’s not the right time,” Walker said.

Despite his physically-des-troying programme this year — he has already run seven races since Montreal — Walker said he was still hoping for fast times at Oslo (on September 4) and Cologne three days earlier.

The Oslo meeting is still in some doubt and Walker said if it was called off, he would try for a fast mile in his last overseas race of the year, at London’s Crystal Palace track on September 17.

Bayi is booked to run at the same track next Monday and Walker said he would still like to run against the Tanzanian champion. “I reckon a race between the two of us would be great at this stage,” he said, “although Filbert unfortunately hasn’t been able to get much running lately.” At the star* of Walker’s i mile race, yesterday Sebastian Coe (England) shot into | the lead and opened up a ! gap of 20 metres, to be

joined a lap later by countryman David Moorcroft, seventh behind Walker in the Montreal 1500 metres. Walker, with West German Thomas Wessinghage on his shoulder, stayed in the main bunch, making no attempt to match the two Englishmen. At the bell, they had increased their lea 1 to 30 metres and the capacity crowd of 13,000 was thinking Walker had no chance. At the 200 metres mark, he went into top gear, left Wessinghage standing and passed Coe before the home straight was reached Thirty metres later, taking the full force of the strong wind, he caught Moorcroft and won easing up. Other highlights of the meeting were local hero Brendan Foster’s win over two miles in Bmin 36.25ec — 23sec outside his own world record — Cambridge policeman Geoff Capes’ winning the shot putt and Briton Alan Pascoe taking the 400 metres hurdles. Foster beat the wind and the Olympic multi-champion, Lasse Viren, of Finland, for his win, Capes threw 21.20 m

which would have given him the Montreal gold, and Pascoe beat the American Jim Bolding, the Games 400 metres hurdles favourite until he could not make the American team.

The former New Zealand cross-country captain, Brian Rose, was a surprise runner. On holiday in Britain, he ran in a 5000 metres race — his first for 18 months. Under those conditions, he performed well enough, finishing ninth in 14mi n 47.45ec. The African boycott of New Zealanders, which began more than a month ago at Montreal has finally caught up with the brilliant Kenyan half-miler, Mike Boit.

Boit, who on Friday night went within sevenhundredths of a second of breaking the world 800 metres record, was to have run yesterday at the Gateshead Games but Walker’s presence forced his last-min-ute withdrawal. It was the first time since Montreal that Boit had taken any notice of the boycott. Since the Games, he hds run at Philadelphia, Edinburgh, Zurich and West Berlin — all meetings at which the New Zealanders also ran. Boit’s withdrawal from the Gateshead meeting in the heart of North-east England’s “Geordie Country” was prompted by Kenyan National Sports Council officials saying on Friday that Boit’s continuing participation in meetings involving New Zealanders was viewed seriously in Kenya. The Gateshead promoters received a telegram from Boit saying he would not be coming. Instead, he ran at a meeting in Innsbruck, Austria. .

Meanwhile, in Edinburgh, Dick Quax and Rod Dixon, of New Zealand, won their events with ease in the Highland Games athletics meeting yesterday. Quax made all his own running to take the 5000 metres in 14min 4.4 sec, and Dixon turned in a fast final lap to take the mile in a slow 4:04.67.