LOVELOCK'S MILE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21546, 18 July 1933, Page 8

LOVELOCK'S MILE

Running for Oxford at Princeton, John. E. Lovelock, a New Zealand llhodes Scholar, covered a mile in the fastest time ever recorded—4m. 7 3-ss. The raco was the most remarkable in athletic history, seeing that W. Bonthron, the second man, who was outdistanced by seven yards, also beat the record. Lovelock's great achievement is a triumph of stamina, speed antl strategy, though it is possible that encountering such a formidable opponent may, in this c.ise, have been an advantage. In races of one mile and over the first-class performer must have not only extraordinary powers of endurance, but also an exact appreciation of pace and the will-power to run to a time schedule by which his energy can be rationed out lap by lap to bring about the supreme achievement. On many occasions promising efforts have failed through the runner being induced, by competitors setting a fast pace in the early stages, to keep within striking distance of them, and so reaching exhaustion before the final struggle. A. G. Hill, the English runner, was expected to lower the record in JO2l, his plan being to hold as nearly as possible to a pace of 62 seconds for each lap, but he was lured into a 59 3-ss. gait in the first lap, and his time was only 4m. 13 4-ss. Nurmi, the Finn, who established the record of 4m. 10 2-ss. in 1923, aimed at a time of 4m. Bs., but Wide, his Swedish opponent, set such a pace that Nurmi did not dare to let him Ret too far in the lead. This speed brought him to the half mile 2 l-ss. faster than he had planned, and his objective became impossible. "Sooner or later," wrote an authority, "a runner will appear with sufficient will-power to allow his opponents to do as they please, while he himself adheres strictly to his time-table, and then, provided the man has the form and speed of a George, a Hill or a Nurmi, the •Im. Bs. mile will become an established fact." The man has appeared in the New Zoalander and better than the 4m. Bs. is an established fact. His country congratulates faun.