One more target for Walker

Press, 8 March 1982, Page 34

One more target for Walker

By ROD DEW After successfully completing the New Zealand 8001500 m championship gold medal double yesterday, New Zealand’s former Olympic Champion, John Walker, said he had one more aim to achieve this season — the regaining of the Australian mile record. Walker has accepted an invitation to race over this distance at Adelaide next Saturday and it is there that he plans to lower the record set by his great American rival, Steve Scott, in January. The time he has to beat

is 3min 55.935. “This will be my last serious race before I go into my build-up,” said Walker. He will run in the straight road mile in Auckland and possibly other road races but regards this only as part of his training. “I will be making no special preparations for them.” Walker’s New Zealand national record stands at 3min 49.45, the world record when it was set in Sweden seven years ago. . He plans to return to Europe in the middle of June and wants to make very sure

that he is in top shape. He believes he was not at his best for the European season last year and is keen to show what he is capable of. The Commonwealth Games towards the end of the year are also firmly fixed in his mind. Yesterday Walker won the 800 m championship in a fast Imin 47.535. The previous day, he won the 1500 m title in 3min 45.425. Because of programme changes brought about by the switching of the championships from the traditional Friday-Saturday combination

to a Saturday and Sunday, Walker’s task in winning the two middle distance gold medals was the toughest it has ever been. He had to run a heat and a semi-final of the 800 m and a heat of the 1500 m before the final of the 1500 m on Saturday, a programme which discouraged his main rivals from attempting the double. Afterwards, he was critical of this. “There is no way' anybody can run a fast time after all those races. This is quite ridiculous, especially in a Commonwealth Games year when everybody wants

fast times.” ■ He suggested a return of I the old format, with the ; heats of both middle distance races being on one day, and i the finals on the other. i The small crowds at the > championships also drew critical comment from him. i “Look up there,” he said, ; pointing to the main stand. “Apart from athletes and ■ their friends, there might be < 50 spectators. If this event > was properly promoted, ; there would be five or six i thousand up there. In Britain, i . they would pack out a meet- ; ing like this with 18,000.”