TRUE CHAMPION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27276, 30 December 1949, Page 5

TRUE CHAMPION

ABILITY AND MODESTY LOVELOCK’S FINE QUAUTIES By the Sports Editor Dr John Edward Lovelock was the only New Zealander ever to win an Olympic athletic title. This country may produce other Olympic champions, but it is likely to be long before again is seen an athlete with the qualities which made Lovelock the greatest athletic figure of his time—the running ability, the mental outlook, the poise, and the modesty of the true champion. He was born on the West Coast, and came to Otago University from Timaru Boys’ High School, whence he had gone from the Fairlie District High School. He showed natural ability as an athlete while at school and when he left Timaru Boys’ High School he had put fresh figures on the record book for the 440 yards, half mile and mile. He represented his house at cricket, athletics, swimming, and tennis, as well as being a member, of the school fifteen in 1928 and the school boxing champion. In his first year at Otago University he broke , a leg while practising with one of the University Rugby teams, after which he gave up Rugby, He was runner-up in the Otago University feather-weight boxing championship and on one occasion was adjudged the most scientific boxer at the University try-outs. Unofficial Record The late Mr G. Dryden, a wellknown Dunedin athletic trainer, soon saw outstanding possibilities in Lovelock as a runner, and his first performance of promise was achieved when he ran second to J. G. Barnes, now a Dunedin city councillor, in the Otago One Mile Championship in the 1928-29 season. The following year he defeated J. J. Morris in the Otago One Mile Championship in 4min 30sec. and going on to Wanganui filled fourth place in the New Zealand Mile Championship. Lovelock was timed unofficially that evening in 4min 25 4-ssec, which was the fastest time he accomplished in New Zealand. . He subsequently won the Otago University One Mile Championship in the then record time of 4min 28 4-ssec, was runner-up in the New Zealand University Mile Championship to E. B. E. Taylor, of Canterbury, and in the winter of the same year won the Edmond Cup Steeplechase at Wingatui in a field of 158 runners in his only cross-country start in Dunedin. In his last season in Dunedin, 193031, Lovelock won the Otago Mile Championship after a great duel with J. J. Morris, in 4min 31 l-ssec, and finished, third in the New Zealand Mile Championship at the Caledonian Ground, where he finished ahead of R. A. Rose and the American star, R. Kiser. He finished the season by winning the New Zealand University Mile Championship in 4min 39 3-ssec. •Even before leaving New Zealand for Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, Lovelock had shown qualities of leadership and administrative ability which were later to win him international renown. He was captain of the University Amateur Athletic Club and the first captain of the University Harrier Club, of which he was one of the founders. That club now each year holds a Lovelock Trophy Race to commemorate Lovelocks rauu Metres victory at the Olympic Games in 1936 in what vvas then, the world record time of 3min 47.8 sec. Performances in England

Lovelock entered Exeter College at Oxford, and it was not long he was making a name for himself on the tracks of England, where he was fortunate to receive assistance from J. F. Cornes, a fellow student. In May, 1932, Lovelock gave a real taste of his ability by running one mile in 4min 12sec to establish an English mile record and clinching his right to represent New Zealand at the Olympic Games. Less than one month later he established a. worlds record for three-quarters of a mile by running the distance in 3min 2 4-ssec. At the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Lovelock entered the final of the 1500 Metres, but did not show, hi? true form and finished just outside the first -six. Immediately after the games Lovelock competed in the British Empire v. USA relay meeting at San Francisco. Lovelock ran away from the American representative m the final lap of the Four-mile Relay and registered the fastest time at the m Then g came his biggest day. At Princeton University, Lovelock met an unheard-of runner'm W. M. Bon- , thron in the One Mile Race, the New Zealander prevailing m 4mm 7 3-ssec. This was on July 15, 1933. Lovelock s time broke the one mile world s record of 4min 9 l-ssec established by the Frenchman, Jules Ladoumegue, at Colombes Stadium m 1931 Lovelock had once told his Dunedin trainer, Mr Dryden, that he hoped one day’ tci be good enough to break Paavo Nurmi s mile record. He did so, but by then the record was held by Ladoumegue. Lovelock was rightly hailed as the world’s greatest miler and arranDements were made to have him compete against the Olympic ohampion, L Beccali. This contest duly eventuated at the International Universities Games and the New Zealander was defeated. In 1934 he won the One Mile at the Empire Games at White City, London, in 4mm 12 i?.? had other successes m America, but during the next two years ; concentrated his preparation on the wmrdng of the 71500 Metres, at. the Berlin Olympic Games, He indulged m swimming under the famous British coach, W. J. Howcroft. to gain .greater relaxation and took up Greek dancing to develop rhythm.

And In 1936 he scored perhqps the greatest individual triumph of the Olympic Games when he achieved a glorious victory m the 1500 Metres in world record time ' to bring to New Zealand, greater - eminence than had e >’®f heen attained bv one individual sportsman with the PossiMe exception of the late Anthony Wilding. Soon after his Olympic success, Lovelock revisited New Zealand on the invitation of the Government and TDoeared in a demonstration ut the Caledonian Ground. After spending some -years at Oxford, he went to St. Mary’s Hospital, L ° n^°"'- P he obtained his medicaldegree He served in a hospital m the Midlands during the war, attaining the rank of major and about a year ago left for New York.