Unknown Tanzanian beats Canada’s hero in marathon

Press, 14 August 1978, Page 18

Unknown Tanzanian beats Canada’s hero in marathon

A slim 21-year-old who is still attending secondary school, Gidemas Shahanga (Tanzania), provided one of the biggest upsets of the XI Commonwealth Games when he overcame a field of very accomplished distance specialists in the marathon, held on an out-and-home course in Edmonton on Saturday (N.Z. time).

Shahanga, the eldest of a family of 12 children, was well back in the race in the early stages before carving through the field in the second half of the 42.19 km (26 miles 385yds) race. He was in sight of the Commonwealth Stadium when he raced past Jerome Drayton (Canada) to take the lead. i He entered the stadium; some 200 m clear of Drayton I to be greeted with the most| enthusiastic reception accorded any competitor at the Games. Shahanga crossed the, finish in 2h 15min 39.765, a modest time by recent world I standards but one which no-; body else could match on; the day. Drayton was second in 2h! 16min 13.465, and Paul Ban-! non, a Scotsman representing Canada, claimed the bronze medal with 2h 16min; 51.615. Fourth place went to Kevin Ryan (New Zealand) 1 in 2h 17min 15.255. He ran' well, was with the leaders! most of the distance, and: was very unlucky not to win, a medal. Ryan and Bannon' broke up the field at the 25km mark and it then! seemed that one of these two would win the gold medal. However, another kilometre further on Ryan began suffering from stomach! cramps. They stayed with him for the next 10km and he was forced to slacken his

pace. gi “The stomach cramps cost ® me a medal,” he said after- “ wards. "It was a solid run but not as good as I had expected. My legs felt a little dead.” 1 * Now Ryan is turning his| B attention to an international: g marathon in New York in i ] October and is planning an-i o other attempt to win the 1 ,,, famed Boston Marathon next April. Then he will concen-r trate all his efforts in win- 0 mng selection for the Mos- fl cow Olympic Games. L, Ryan was as surprised asiw everybody else at the man-In ner in which Shahanga came, 5! through the field. “I did not 21 think that anybody who was lai not up with the pace would)

come through as fast as he did.” The big field of 35 which lined up in the stadium contained 21 runners who had run the marathon distance in 2h 15min 30s. Conditions were warm but not uncom-

fortable, as had been feared earlier in the day. Fast: times seemed likely. That) they did not eventuate could be attributed to the Edmon-| ton altitude of 2500 ft, rather! than the 21 deg C tempera-i ture the race was run in. A bunch of eight runners; quickly settled in at the) head of the field. This consisted of Ryan, Shivnath | Singh (India), who held sec-1 ond ranking in the Com-1 monwealth behind Ryan,: Bannon. Drayton, James: Dingwall (Scotland), Thomas Ruto (Kenya), David Chettle I (Australia) and Richard Ma- | buza (Swaziland), who was the bronze medallist in the, Christchurch Games four. years earlier. I This group passed through the skm mark in 16min 2s, and the 10km mark in 31min 525. At 15km, Dingwall tried Ito go on his own. He went through in 47min 47s but Ryan and the remaining members of the earlier

sroup let him go. Ryan, iannon. Singh, Drayton and iuto ran through the mark n 47min 50s. Mabuza and Shettle slipped back. At the turning point at tanao, Dingwall was back n the bunch with Singh, 3annon, Drayton and Ryan. 3ut for the first time a 1.77 m figure in Tanzanian colours was starting to nake his mark. He was now just 2min behind the leaders. Ryan and Bannon went sut together shortly before :he 25km mark and were x>th looking strong. They .vent through the 25km mark together in Ih 19min 595. Singh was next in Ih 20min. followed by Dingwall ind Drayton. By 30km, Bannon had a

28s lead over Ryan, by then troubled with stomach cramps, and Drayton was a further 13s behind. Mabuza was fourth, but Shahanga had moved up to fifth. Five kilometres later, Bannon was 19s clear of Drayton, who was running strongly in second place. Ryan was third and Shahanga fourth. Greg Hannon (Northern Ireland) had also made up ground to fill fifth place ahead of Mabuza and the New Zealand champion, Paul Ballinger. Singh was obviously in difficulties. He dropped back and finally became one of the five who did not finish. Shahanga picked off Ryan at the 36km mark and Drayton took the lead from Bannon, who was tiring. At ;40km, Shahanga was second, I just 13s behind Drayton. It appeared that a close finish I was likely, although the Canadian’s place seemed safe enough. The crowd waited expectantly for Drayton to run through the marathon gate into the stadium. Instead, it was the ebony figure of Shahanga which loped strongly into view. He had completed half his final circuit of the track before Drayton, obviously disappointed, made his appearance. Bannon kept going to finish third ahead of Ryan.

Dingwall, who had helped make the early pace, was eighteenth. Of all the finishers, none looked fresher than Shahanga. He ran a lively victory circuit waving to the crowd and received a standing ovation. It was only the third marathon he had run and only the second of any importance. His win gave Tanzania only its second athletics gold medal at Commonwealth level. He explained later, in his halting English, that he did not expect to win. “I told myself I

was going to fight to get a medal. At the turn I was sixth and it was then that I knew I was going to make it.” His coach, Elias Sulus, did most of the talking at the news conference after the race. He explained that Sha« ,hanga had started running in 1974 and had not decided to try the marathon until two years ago. "Give him time and I think he will do better than he did today,” he said. Shahanga clearly owes part of his success to the environment he was raised in. He was bom in Katesh in the northern area of Tanzania. It is about 3000 m above sea level. If the marathon introduced a new international star, it also represented another disappointment in the career of Drayton. He has had trouble with a hamstring injury and was a doubtful starter. The injury severely restricted his stride. Even so, he looked a likely winner only a short distance from the finish. “I knew Shahanga was coming up even before I caught Bannon. He just went past me like a train. There was nothing I could do,” he said.

T From ROD DEW T L in Edmonton J