Australian wins glamour 1500m; 800m win for Bill Baillie

Press, 12 January 1981, Page 19

Australian wins glamour 1500m; 800m win for Bill Baillie

By

ROD DEW

More than 5000 km of training on the roads of Toowoomba, 160 km inland from Brisbane, provided a handsome dividend for Alan Bradford, of Australia, when he won the glamour M4O 1500 m title on the fourth day 7 of competition in the World Veteran Games at Queen Elizabeth II Park yesterday afternoon.

Bradford, who will be 42 this month, made his bid for victory on the final bend and sprinted clear of the tightly packed leading bunch in the finishing straight. He reached the line in 4min 2.385, comfortably ahead of the pre-race favourite, Michael Connolly, of Ireland. Connolly, the leader at the bell, had no answer to Bradford’s stunning final sprint, gaining the silver medal in 4min 2.955. The bronze medal went to a second Australian, S. Griffiths, in 4min 3.955. A structural engineer, Bradford has been running since he was 16. But this is his first season in veteran c (petition. He has been following a training schedule of more than 140 km a week, based on a programme prepared by the New Zealand coach, Arthur Lydiard. “He is a grand master, that fellow’.’’ Bradford said. Throughout the race he watched Connolly, whom he regarded ats the man to beat. “I thought that if I stayed with him, I would be able to use my sprint to beat him at the finish. I planned to come off the bend and go hard and fast down the straight. It worked perfectly,” Bradford said. The M5O 1500 m final proved a triumph for Derek Turnbull, of New Zealand, who was within half a second of the world record with his gold medal run of 4min 15.515. However, the golden moment for most New Zealand spectators was the superb win in the M 45 800 m by Bill Baillie, of Auckland, known in his 'prime in the 1950 s and 1960 s as New Zealand’s “iron man” of the track. Now 46, Baillie ran hard all the way. He was with the leading bunch from the start and at the end of the first lap moved smoothly into the lead. Down the back straight for the final time he stretched the field, shoulders hunched and legs pumping

powerfully. For many it was as if he had never been away from the track. Round the final bend, Baillie was 5m ahead. Tom Roberts, of Australia, sprinted hard off the bend and gained a metre or two but at the finish Baillie was still clear. His time in the very hot conditions, 2min 2.35, was creditable. Roberts, who is from Ballarat in Victoria, was second in 2min 3.1 s and Piet Mayoor, of the Netherlands, third in 2min 3.85. For Roberts it was a case of the same again. He was runner-up in the M4O 800 m in the jVorld Veteran Games at Toronto four years ago, was second again in the M4O 800 m at Hanover in 1978, and second yet again in Christchurch. But he still ' has hopes of breaking his 1 gold medal drought before ' he returns home. “I have the ’ 1500 m on Tuesday and I am ‘ going for gold,” he said. ! Baillie, who last represen- ! ted New Zealand in the Commonwealth Games at Ja- , maica in 1966, was very pleased with his ■ win, . achieved on a limited preparation. “I pushed mv training too hard a little early : and came up nursing a few injuries,” he said. “So I decided to take a break and 1 come down to Christchurch fresh. I was mentally pre- ' ted New Zealand in the ! pared, but not physically.” Baillie decided to force the * pace from an early stage, ' making a long hard run of it ’ rather than relying on his 1 sprint at the finish. “I ran 1 as hard as I could and if I had been beaten I would have been quite content that I had done my best. I am ■ very pleased it worked out the way I planned,” he said. I A sub four-minute miler in his prime — his best was i 3min 59.4 s at Wanganui in i 1963 — Baillie represented ( New Zealand at five major' international games — the Commonwealth Games at * Vancouver in 1954, Cardiff in' l

1958, Perth in 1962, Jamaica in 1966, and the Olympic Games at Tokyo in 1964, where he was sixth in the 5000 m. He has contested only one previous veteran meeting, the New Zealand championships four years, ago, and has no plans for competing seriously again for a year or two at least. He wants to enjoy the sports in which his three children take part and that leaves no time for him. “I like to keep in good condition and I hope to make a serious comeback when I am 50,” Baillie said. Two world records fell'in the men’s 800 m events yesterday. Frank Evans, an Englishman now living permanently in New Zealand, won the M 55 grade with a splendid run of 2min 8.665. Cass Kernahan, of Christchurch, who did much of the pace-mak-ing, could not answer Evans’ powerful sprint off the final turn, but hung on well to take the silver medal in 2min 10.11 s. Both finished faster than the listed world record of 2min 11.95, set by John Gilmour, of Australia, five years ago. However, Gilmour refused to be removed from the record books over this distance. He won the M6O 800 m final in 2min 16.98 s from his fellow-countryman. George McGrath, who . recorded 2min 17.545. Both easily beat the world record of 2min 19.95, set by Ray Gordon, of the United States, In 1978. Over all, it was a golden day for Gilmour, who also won the M6O 5000 m in 16min 51.25, improving on his own world record of 16min 54.95. The runner-up was again McGrath, but this time his 17min 41.42 s was outside the record. The win was Gilmour’s third of the Games. On the first day he won the M6O 10,000 m.