Bayi evasive over clash

Press, 25 February 1977, Page 28

Bayi evasive over clash

NZPA New York Sooner or later, the question had to he asked, the way it is asked everywhere he competes. But Filbert Bayi is learning that the finish line doesn’t stop with him.

So when someone finally asked the 23-year-old Tanzanian runner when he and John Walker, the world’s two greatest milers, finally would settle up, Bayi smiled and decided it was time for some fresh tactics.

"What 1 know, everybody knows,” the world 1500 metres record-holder told the weekly luncheon of the Track Writers’ Association of New York yesterday, without breaking verbal stride. “What everybody knows, 1 don’t know.”

Bayi was trying to be cordial, in much the same deceptively smooth style that he uses to destroy rivals in a race. He takes off like a rabbit and finishes like a thoroughbred. - Mr Rafael Kubaga, the president of the Tanzanian Amateur Athletic Association, was more blunt. . "The situation with the Kiwis is the same as it was during the Olympics,” Mr Kubaga said, referring ter the African boycott against New Zealand’s sports relations with South Africa.

Recent reports have hinted at an easing in the African sports boycott against New Zealand. But it may be some time before Walker and Bayi meet again in a race. African countries appear divided over the question, and Tanzania, one of the first to withdraw from the Montreal, Olympics, may be one of the last to accept any compromise. So Bayi is left to set his own pace, as he probably will in the mile on Friday night at the National Amateur Athletic Union indoor championships at Madison Square Garden. And when Bayi runs, who needs pacemakers?

The subject of so-called tactical "rabbits” surfaced during a discussion of Walker's most recent mile in the San Diego Indoor Games last Friday night. Bayi watched the race on tele l vision and was distressed over a runner dropping out after setting the early pace. “I don’t like pacemakers,” said Bayi, whose front-run-ning tactics revolutionised racing strategy in the mile. “My feeling is if you’re going to run in front like that, at the pace, then be prepared to stay there. It’s not fair to the rest erf the runners to set a record pace for just a few. How can you keep a pace for someone else? If I run, t keep the pace for myself.” The International Amateur Athletic Federation had threatened to disallow record performances where “rabbits” were involved, but never enforced the rule

I even after Walker set the I world record in the mile i 3 min 49.45ec) two years ago. People wrote to Bayi, who had run 3:51 earlier that year, and told him Walker had the benefit of a paceI maker in the race. Althougn he dislikes the priciple, Bayi opposes a formal rule on rabbits because, he sa:d, "One day, 1 will be one of the rabbits ” Bayi won the A.A.U mile ilast year in 3:56.1, a Garden [record. He said he was not las far along in his training programme this year, particularly with adjustments I for travel and the United , States’ unusually cold weather. But he is coming off a victorious 3:57.2 effort |in Louisville two weeks ago I "One never knows with Filbert," Erasto Zambi, his | coach, said. “It should be much better on Friday than Ihis first race at the Garden ' (third in the Millrose 'Games). And maybe it will be fast.”