Rod Dixon fast in training

Press, 28 July 1978, Page 4

Rod Dixon fast in training

sport ]

NZPA staff correspondent Edmonton Rod Dixon looked definite medal material when he ran two tiqie trials in sweltering heat at the Commonwealth Stadium yesterday. Dixon, training on the Games track for the first time, ran the two trials each of 1600 m with a Sumin rest between—in 30deg C. heat, but still churned out Msec lap averages, times which pleased both him and his coach, Mr Arch Jelley. “In that heat and running on his own. they were very pleasing times,” Mr Jelley said. Dixon delayed his work-out by two hours so he could experience the late afternoon conditions he will encounter in his Games specialty, the 5000 m. It was a valuable delay. “By doing these trials today,” he said, “’I now know how I will have to alter my preparation for the race. I felt much better in the second trial than I did in the first—which showed that in heat like this, I’ll need a longer prerace preparation on the day.”

Dixon’s theory was proved on the first lap of the second trial, when he put in a too-fast Blsec, and he said he could have finished the last in 57-58 sec instead of keeping to the 63-64 sec average-

But he is hoping the Games 5000 m will not be run at or near world-record pace. “If Henry Rono pushes It along in this heat, several of us will be in trouble,” Dixon said.

Dixon, like the other New Zealand athletes at the stadium yesterday, was impressed with the new Games track. “It’s fine,” he said, “I couldn’t find a fault in it. I’ll have to wear slightly longer spikes, that’s all.” Yesterday was the first time the track had been open to training—an unusual occurrence before major games. Athletes are usually confined Just to training tracks, leaving the main arena for the Games themselves. A pre-Games track meeting is being organised for Saturday—an even more unusual occurrence.

The Edmonton Games could provide the first ticket sell-out at a major international games since the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Already, 450,000 tickets worth more than 3CAN4M, have been sold for the Games, which start on August 3. "We are absolutely ecstatic," Mr Jini McGregor, co-ordinator of tickets and accommodation, said.

“We have disposed of <3 per cent of our tickets—l am sure we can unload the rest before the Games start.”