Gold medallist returns after 12-year break

Press, 26 February 1987, Page 48

Gold medallist returns after 12-year break

By

ROD DEW

The women’s 1500 m gold medallist at the 1974 Commonwealth , Games, Glenda Reiser, of Canada, is back in Christchurch preparing in earnest for a return to international athletics — after a break of 12 years from all competition.

She has put herself under the influence of the successful Canterbury coach, Bruce Milne, and has set her sights firmly on the next Commonwealth Games, in Auckland in 1990. “I would like to explore my potential,” she said yesterday. "If it doesn’t come to anything, then I have lost nothing.” Reiser, now .31, has been “keeping a very low profile” and her hopes have been shared with only a trusted few — until yesterday. “I realise I have got to come out of hiding. I have been very, very private about my running, but I realise that people are interested. One of the reasons I have avoided telling people about my plans is to protect myself. “As soon as I go near a track in Canada, speculation starts right away. Journalists can put a lot of pressure on athletes. My times will not be good for a start,” she said, warning that it would be unfair to expect too much of her too soon. “Don’t get excited people,” she said. “Only time will tell.” One of her reasons for coming to New Zealand is to have a launching pad away from the glare of publicity, which can be overwhelming in her home city of Ottawa. Another is to take advantage of summer conditions at a time when the running tracks “back home” are under half a metre of snpw. When Reiser won the 1500 m gold medal at Queen Elizabeth II Park, she was widely regarded as a runner with the potential to become one of the greatest women middle distance runners in history. Her time of

4min 7.8 s was three seconds faster than the Games record she set in the heats, and an incredible 11 seconds faster than the record had been before the Games. At the time she was a mere 18 years old. Less than two years before that, as an inexperienced 17-year-old, she had reached the semi-finals of the 1500 m at the Munich Olympic Games. Her heat time of 4min 6.7 s remains her personal best. “That was a pretty good time for a 17-year-old,” she recalled, Reiser was expected to become an Olympic champion, and to break the world 1500 m record. Instead, she dropped out. The Christchurch 1500 m final was “the last good race I ever ran.” At the time of the Christchurch Commonwealth Games, Reiser was studying for a medical degree, and this began to eat into her training time. She competed with modest success in the northern summer of 1974, and raced in Europe in the next northern summer. She realised she had to make a choice between running and a medical career. “I stepped off the track, and said, ‘l’ve had it. I am going to medical school’.” Reiser is now a fully qualified doctor of medicine, but she often wondered what she might have achieved had she chosen a different path. It was not until a nostalgic visit to New Zealand last year that she met Bruce Milne and he encouraged her to accept that it was not too late to make a comeback. “The day I got on the plane to fly home after the 1974 Games, I

promised myself that I would return to New Zealand.” She kept this promise with her three-week visit last year. “I started to run with a few athletes, and I met Bruce. We started talking, and I began to think that maybe I could still do something.” A cautious build-up began on her return to Canada. She arrived back in Christchurch last month, and intends to stay until April. She has now been training for eight months, but has no real idea how she is progressing. She will not race in New Zealand, although she may complete one time trial, possibly over 3000 m. Mr Milne has no doubts that she will return to the top of international athletics. “At this stage of training no-one could hope for anything more. She has made amazing progress,” he said. “Anybody with the sort of ability which Glenda showed doesn’t lose it. She has speed and tenacity, and she has still got the same positive attitude. The distance she will specialise in has not yet been decided. It could be the 1500 m or the 3000 m, or even further. “The thing to do is to get fit, step out, and then see what she can do,” Mr Milne said. He estimated it would take between three and five years for her to reach her full potential. Reiser, who specialised in the 800 m and 1500 m in her brief career, has never run the 3000 m, and she regards this as a blessing. She is starting from scratch, with nothing to compare her performance with. “I am starting at the bottom and working up- •