Dixon’s ideas for race

Press, 3 August 1985, Page 80

Dixon’s ideas for race

NZPA-AAP Sydney The distance runner, Rod Dixon, will use the Sun City to Surf run tomorrow as the start of a comeback attempt for the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh. Dixon will be challenged by two top distance runners, Hugh Jones of England, and Masami Otsuka of Japan, to win the fifteenth anniversary 14km run. “I will return to New Zealand after the Sydney race and may compete in the cross-country title at Invercargill before continuing back to the United States,” said Dixon. “The 10,000 metres at Edinburgh will be my objective if I can regain the competitive fitness needed for national selection. There’s still a bit of fox in me and I think I can stay up with them." Dixon, aged 35, began his international career in 1970 with a tenth place for New Zealand in the World Cross Country championships in Spain and followed with an Olympic bronze medal in

the 1500 metres at the Munich Games two years later. He finished fourth in the 5000 metres at Montreal in 1976 and tenth in the marathon at Los Angeles last year. Jones won the London marathon in 1983, while Otsuka is ranked fourth in Japan and has a 10,000metre best of 28min 345. Dixon also won the San Francisco Bay to Breakers run twice and was a former record holder. “I wanted to get established in the United States as a distance runner and in looking for events with big numbers of competitors it was logical to choose the San Francisco race,” he said.