N.Z. training helps Moorcroft upset Bayi in 1500m

Press, 14 August 1978, Page 17

N.Z. training helps Moorcroft upset Bayi in 1500m

Three months of solid training in New Zealand last summer paid a gold medal dividend for the 25-year-old English schoolteacher. David Moorcroft, who displayed a fine disregard for world rankings and the claims of more favoured rivals in winning the 1500 m final on the closing day of the XI Commonwealth Games in Edmonton yesterday.

Moorcroft sprinted out of the final turn to overtake first John Robson (Scotland), and then the world 1500 m record-holder, Filbert Bayi (Tanzania). The others fought back but the fairhaired Englishman hung on to win by a stride. His time of 3min 35.485ec was an amazing 3sec faster than he has ever run before, a quite astonishing performance considering the race was held in steady rain and in cool conditions.

Robson, the 21-year-old Scottish record-holder for the distance, thought he had finished second, but the photo showed that Bayi had got there ahead of him — by one hundredth of a second. Bayi recorded 3min 35.595ec, Robson 3min 35.605ec.

Another Scotsman, Frank Clement, was fourth, a further six-hundredths of a second behind, and Wilson Waigwa (Kenya), who held top ranking for the event, had to be content with fifth well behind the other four. “I just feel very happy,” Moorcroft said later. “It hasn’t really started to sink in yet. I can hardly remember it. Everything is just a blur.” Pressed for his account of the race, he said that the pace was so fast that he was “going flat out just to keep up” as the race entered its critical stage. “After I heard the call of Imin 53sec after the first half, I was afraid to listen for the 1200 m time. Coming off the top bend, I just kicked and away I went. Something took me through. “I had to go very wide to

get around John (Robson) because he was trying to go around Filbert (Bayi).” Moorcroft spent three months in Hamilton last season and taught at St Paul’s Collegiate. “Thank those kids for all their letters. They were fantastic. I really appreciated them.” Moorcroft is so pleased with the way he has developed with his New Zealandstyle training that he intends to continue in a bid to repeat his gold medal performance at the Moscow Olympics. He will spend next summer in New Zealand and will run in the international track series planned for January.

However, his next main target is just three weeks away -— the European championships in Prague. One of Moorcroft’s reasons for staying in New Zealand was to try to cure a back injury which had handicapped "him. “I thought that by training in the warmth of a New Zealand summer it might get a better chance to heal. It worked. It was excellent for training, too, and the people of Hamilton were great to me. I missed the English cross-country season but the advantages out-weighed the disadvantages.” The defeat of Bayi all but shattered the almost legendary aura which has surrounded him and the injured New Zealand Olympic champion, John Walker. “It is time there was no more talk of Walker and Bayi,” Bayi said afterwards. “Anybody can win a race.”

As expected, the unorthodox Bayi dictated the terms, as always, from the front. He led through the first lap in 57.67 s from Kipsubai Koskei (Kenya), and Waigwa (Kenya). At 800 m, he was still ahead. The time was an impressive Imin 55.2. At his

heels was the fast-striding Waigwa with Robson and Moorcroft tucked in behind.

The _nd of the third lap came up in 2min 53.9 s with Bayi still in front, but Waigwa was feeling the strain and he had dropped back slightly. Robson was second and Moorcroft third.

Down the back straight for the final time, Bayi stretched out, but there was no shaking Robson or Moorcroft. Clement was also right there. Bayi sprinted off the turn. Robson pulled out and strained for the speed necessary to edge past. Then Moorcroft, the man who was not even ranked among the

top five in the Commonwealth, drifted wide and burst past the other two. He quickly gained the metre advantage he needed and held it to the finish. Robson seemed to have the silver medal until Bayi, with a final desperate surge snatched it from his right on the line.

It was a magnificent race between a group of very evenly matched and very talented 1500 m runners. The only thing missing was the powerful figure of John Walker. With Walker not in the field, it is, somehow, difficult to accept that Moorcroft is the Commonwealth champion.

Rod Dixon (New Zealand), who looked good in his qualifying heat on Saturday, was never prominent, finally finishing eighth. “I wanted to be aggressive but today was an anti-cli-max. Thursday knocked the stuffing out of me,” he said.

r From ROD DEW 1 L in Edmonton J