LOVELOCK IN ACTION

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 175, 9 July 1932, Page 6 (Supplement)

LOVELOCK IN ACTION

A NEW ZEALANDER’S IMPRESSIONS DOMINION'S OLYMPIC HOPE. PAS IMPROVED THROUGH CLASS COMPETITION. Interring comment on the running of J. E. Lovelock, ex-Otago champion, who, as an Oxford University athlete, broke the English mile record and gained a place in the New Zealand Olympic team, is contained in a letter from Mr. D. W. Bain, handicapper to the Canterbury Centre of the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association, who went to England some time ago-

Mr Bain, who was a New Zealand (University champion half-miler and one of the most prominent runners in Can(terbury for some seasons, saw Lovelock gun in the University Athletic Union championships about a mouth before he broke the record. On that occasion Xovelock was third in a “blaket finish” jn the mile, which J. F. Cornes (Oxford) won in 4.21 2-5. It was a Wonderful race on a heavy track, and In falling rain. J. G. Helps (Birmingham University) and the two Oxford men were in line as they turned into the straight, and only a yard separated (the three of them at the tape. Commenting on the race, Mr Bam (laid .that although Lovelock ran very yrell in one of the greatest miles he had ever seen the New Zealander did not then look anything like a 4.12 miler, for he lacked a really strong finish.

“Certainly,” continues the letter, ‘‘he is running as never before, getting well up on his toes for the whole of the journey—an essential thing on cinder tracks. He tbld me that the fact of having to run against Cornes on every occasion at Oxford and elsewhere has made a great difference to him. He leans rather more forward than Cornes, who approaches the upright position of Nurmi.”

The tollowing comment on Lovelock's record run by the '‘Dully Mirror’’ was enclosed: —

“Is there an Olympic champion at Oxford in J. E. Lovelock, who won the mile race in th? match between the Dark Blues and the A.A.A. team at Oxford ?

“He broke the British amateur iecord tor the distance by covering the mile m 4.12. “Lovelock is a New Zealander, and the record he upset so decisively was 4.13 2-5 set by R. H. Thomas, the Air Force runner, whose effort was •t Stamford Bridge a year ago.

“Thomas holds the mile championship and was looked upon as invincible in this country at the moment. )t should oe a great race if the pair meet jn this year’s championships.

“Lovelock had to make much of his own pace as he won the race 50 yards from the Army runner, Trooper A. A. Harris, who was representing the association.” Mr Bain reports that he is enjoying life in London immensely, in the company of Mr E. B. E. Taylor, who will bo wed remembered in New Zealand as a Canterbury and New Zealand Uni yersity mile and three-miles champion and who has been in London for sonn time following a considerable period of travelling in America. The two Canterbury athletes have joined forces in the project of discovering England Lovelock Writes Home. “Lord Burghley is just incredibly popular,” writes Lovelock to a Dunedin friend, “the crowd just roar when he turns ou>—you would never think he is as old as he is and an M.P. and captain of England’s Olympic team ” Loveloek was supposed to run first string for Oxford in the 880yds. in the Universities’ athletic championships in London, while J. F. Cornes did the mile, but two minutes before the gun they changed, Cornes to double on the 880 and mile, and Lovelock to do the mile. In the heats Cornes won the half-mile in 2.2 and a bit and was third in the mile in 4.39. while Lovelock came second to the title-holder in 4.32. The track was not particularly good. In the final, Lovelock could not do better than third place, this being on May 21. He was pipped on the tape by the title-holder, J. G. Helps, who had broken 4.20. Cornes won the 880 in Imin. 57 l-ssec. shortly before the mile, and as they both were running against the A.A.A. teams a few days later they decided to keep together. The race was run'in rain and the track was cut up. At the end of 880 Helps was still with them, so Cornes came up to Lovelock and they did 3.18 for the J-mile. Then Helps shot into the lead at the bell. Cornes displaced him 220yds. fro/ home, but not soon enough to let Lovelock in before the last bend. Consequently, the New Zealander had to run wide on the last bend, and came into the straight level with Helps, Cornes being two or three yards ahead. Lovelock drew within a few injhes- of Cornes, and thought Helps was out of it, making “the un-

pardonable blunder of looking round to find him on my shoulder and moving fast.” This wa? 15yd$. from the tape, but Cornes managed to force ahead, though Lovelock could not recover and got left by inches in 4min. 21 2-ssec. On the day the time was fast. Harold Abrahams, ex-Olympic 100 metres champion,, considered it one of the finest races he had ever seen. This made Helps and Lovelock all square as the New Zealander had beaten him rather easily the previous time they met. Modest About Performances. In a later letter, dated May 27, Lovelock writes: “Again the day after, but a different race. Ran a badlyjudged race, but it was 4.12.” This is how this unassuming runner refers to the breaking of a British record at the

meeting against the A.A.A. team, and he goes on to say that he wanted to do 4.18, so set out with the intention of doing 61, 2.7, 3.14, 4.18 for the laps. The day was very fair, there was a slight wind, but a dead slow track. He felt in fine form, and reckoned he did not start to run till the last quarter, when he did step on the gas. He pushed his pacemakers till he nearly killed them—one of them, a lad of nine, teen, did 3.13 for the J-mile. Lovelock actual times were 59, 2.5, 3.13 and 4.12. Two watches made the time 4.11 3-5 and one 4.12, while an unofficial watch (that of Guy Butler, the famous English athlete put it down at 4min. 11 7-lC.ee Love!. < \ I that he had a reliable man f? times, this being permitted ,I—in fact, at all the big : tit i :<-v were called officially, mid he thought the sooner New Zealand adopted that attitude the better,

as it was the only way to get scientific

tunning an<( any improvement.

Immediate!., after his record-break-ing run Lovelock was asked to run for England at Los Angeles by one of the English selectors. “I’d love to,” he writes, “but New Zealand has the first offer. If it can’t and will not, England will take me.” The* track on which the record was put up had to be remeasured at the time of writing, before official sanction was given to the performance. Next time he had good conditions and was feeling like it Loveloek said that he intended to step on it harder in the third lap—about 3.6 or 3.7 —to see how close he could get to 4.9 or 4.10. No Flash In The Pau. “I’m rather afraid it’s a flash in the pan and I'll never be able to reproduce it," he writes, “but on the day and with a strained leg, I think 4.12 was not a bad effort.” (That is was not a (lash in the pan was shown a little later when he broke the world’s record for three-quarters of a mile./ tl Art-lrrir Pnri’i+t. nrlvisPzl mo In.

“Arthur Porritt has advised me t<v slack off for a few weeks, and I’m taking his advice,” he proceeds. He said that ho intended going all out against J. F. Cornes for the threequarter mjle record, which, as it turned out, he shattered. It may be added that Lovelock has already been invited to run for the British Empire against the United States after the Olympic Games. When Lovelock broke the British record he did so on the Oxford track, which is a third of a mile to a lap and consequently is difficult for runners who are used to the orthodox quartermile course. Guy M. Butler, in the ‘Morning Post,’ classed Lovelock’s mile as the most extraordinary that he had ever seen. “Last Saturday,” he wrote, on Map 27, “this runner was struggling to do a time more than 10 seconds slower, yet to-day he puts up a performance which at one bound raises him into the Olympic class.”

Another paper says that Lovelock was clocked by seven watches, and except in one instance, a faster time than 4.12 was returned. It was decided to accept the slowest. He ran his first half-mile in 2mjn. 2sec. He beat Trooper Harris by 50yds.