Mike in Mexico

Mike Medal

Kenji Kimihara receives his silver while Mamo Wolde and Mike Ryan look on

Mike Ryan was the only sea level athlete to win an endurance medal in the Mexico Olympics in 1968.   Distinguished athletes such as Australia’s Derek Clayton and Ron Clarke failed and British runners like Ron Hill and Tim Johnston (who lived at altitude in Mexico for 18 months) performed below expectations.   In fact Mike nearly didn’t make the Games at all and Peter Snell didn’t give him much chance before the event either.

I quote from ‘The Marathon Book’ by David Martin and Roger Gynn – “Wolde’s 2:20:26.4 was slower than Bikila’s times in Tokyo and in Rome otherwise it was the fastest marathon gold medal in Olympic Games history.   Given the altitude it was a fantastic performance.   After about three minutes Kimihara and Ryan entered and they finished 14 seconds apart.  Behind them the sight of 54 more finishers entering singly – having just endured a hypoxic hell – was not pretty to watch.   Tim Johnston and Akio Usami were within 1.8 seconds apart in placing 8th and 9th but neither could muster a finishing kick.    …………………………………….. The final finisher of the day was Tanzania’s John Stephen Akhwari (3:20:46) later identified for special recognition as one who symbolises Olympic ideals.   As he hobbled out of the approaching dusk onto the illuminated track his right leg bloodied and bandaged at both the knee and the thigh the estimated 10000 spectators began to clap for him in appreciation.   By the time he finished the crowd had gone wild; one would have thought he had won.   He did, in his own way.   At the Press conference he was asked why he had not quit once he had realised he was in such a sorry state.  His reply remains a classic: “My country did not send me here to start the race.   They sent me to finish the race.”   He went on to finish an excellent fifth place (2:15:05) in the 1970 Edinburgh Commonwealth Games marathon.”   It was quite an occasion and a tremendous performance from the boy from Bannockburn.

In what follows,  I’ll use the standard procedure and look at the pre-Games period, the Race itself and the post race toll that it took on him.

Mike had been running well but the system in New Zealand at the time divided athletes into A Class athletes and B Class.   Mike was in B Class and had to provide his own funding.   This could have come from the Waikato Centre (like the Scottish East or West District) or from local people.   In fact he got funding from both and he was going to the Olympics.   Knowing full well the difficulties that he would face in Mexico City he started training even harder and sought advice where he could get it.   And given that Arthur Lydiard was the Mexican National Coach at the time he got advice from him via Barry Magee – third placer in the Rome Olympic Marathon in 1960.   He had many meetings with Barry and the advice was first, to get all his speed work done BEFORE going to altitude and to get himself really race hardened BEFORE going to altitude.   That really pleased him because it fitted in with what he already had in mind.   The training was hard.   Sessions like 30 x 400 with a 200 jog went in and went well.   The forest trails around Tokoroa were important  they were away from the traffic, away from prying eyes, had good underfoot surfaces and were generally an inspiring place to train.   He would put on his full NZ gear, jog to the forest and run at maximum effort for as long as he could – usually 45 – 40 minutes.   Like all Olympians he was totally focused on the Games.   When he heard that Peter Snell had said in an interview that he might do well but it wasn’t very likely, well that inspired him even more.

He travelled to Mexico with the team and among his friends and training partners was Peter Welsh, a steeplechaser who had newly qualified as a doctor.   Once there Mike found training difficult.   He couldn’t keep up in training runs with the Australians and the English or even with Peter.   Things started to get a bit better then on the Wednesday before the race when out on the last long training run before the marathon on the Sunday he stepped on a rock of lava and rolled over on his ankle which immediately swelled up.   Peter was very concerned and some local people drove him in to the village – although not as strict as it became after Munich, security was still pretty good but they did let them in with the athlete.   The medics in the village put his ankle into freezing cold water and every time he tried to get it out they just pushed it back in again.   Then they massaged it.   However X Rays showed that nothing was skeletally broken.   Later that day he was able to walk slowly round the track for an hour, on the Friday he did an hour’s run and on Saturday 30 minutes.   On race day he did a light run in the morning.

He travelled to the Stadium with his coach and they were led into a room which he says reminded him of a scene from the Crimean War – people (runners) lying on camp beds all round the room with coaches talking to them and almost all looking very anxious.   His coach was not like that so they just stood and had their first look at the Africans whom they hadn’t seen till that point.   They were led out to a fanfare into the Stadium and when the race started he was in the leading group with runners like Clayton, Johnston, Adcocks, Hill, Temu, Gammoudi, Ackay and all the top men.   He actually felt good running through Mexico City which reminded him of Fukuoka.   The field broke up a bit and he ran steadily until at halfway he heard Ron Clarke  shouting for Clayton and he had 100 yards on him.   Turning a bend with about six miles to go he saw Johnston, Temu and Roelants ready to drop out and took heart from that.    He knew that the Ethiopian was ahead but didn’t know if it was Bikila or Wolde.   He was closing on them  as they approached the Stadium up a series of steps.   He knew that Ackay of Turkey was getting closer and still felt concerned.   Then he got stomach cramps for the first time ever – he did all the usual things – bent over, massaged the area and so on – and continued.   (Incidentally at that point he could smell the overwhelming odour of tortilla and chilli and when he smells chilli, even today, it brings it all back!).   As he turned into the tunnel he heard a roar and didn’t know who or what it was for – Fosbury or Wolde.   He felt there was a change in atmospheric pressure on the track itself.   He looked back for Ackay but he was nowhere to be seen.   So it was attempt to hunt down Kimihara but that was not to be and he finished 100 yards or so down.   A wonderful race.   When I asked him how he felt at the end he said relieved, exhilarated and a sense of achievement.   He had earlier said that he had taken inspiration and solace from all the people who had beaten him and whom he wanted to emulate – people like Lachie Stewart, Fergus Murray, John Lineker, Bert McKay and all the rest – and he mentioned them all again saying that they were there still in his thoughts.   It was a superb race by any standards.    He also talked at length to Chris Brasher whom he had met many years before at Alltshellach in Glencoe when they were climbing there.

[I’ll quote again from the source referred to above: “Despite being acclimatised to altitude they (Wolde and Gebru) as well as the others discovered that their performances at the similar altitude in Mecico City were considerably slower than their sea level bests prior to the Olympic Games.   The variance ranges from 4 to 17 minutes The primary influencing factor contributing to this slowing is tissue hypoxia (lowered oxygen availabilty) due to the decreased environmental  oxygen.   The air is 23% less dense than at sea level so it contains 23% less oxygen.   Marathon racing is essentially an aerobic event which means runners work to maintain the fastest pace possible without accumulating lactic acid from anaerobic metabolism.”]

Mike feels however that it really had an adverse effect for at least eight years afterwards.   When he came home he took part in a two man 5000 metres race with Rex Maddaford.   Rex won in a time 5 seconds outside Murray Halberg’s national record – no time was taken for Mike.  Two men in a race and the time of the second man wasn’t taken!   He reckons he was about 5 seconds back but times were never ever an issue for him.   However he found that he had great trouble maintaining fitness.   He put in a number of races and would find  that he got to a stage in training where he would be reduced to a shuffle, eyes back in his head, looked ill to everybody who knew him and went to the doctor who could find nothing wrong with him.    There was some stress in the job he was doing in personnel and human resources.   He seemed to recover then he ran in the Hamilton Marathon and won by a big margin mid winter.    When he got home he felt awful – lethargic and all the usual symptoms but in mid-winter.   Went to bed not feeling well, couldn’t sleep, pacing the floor, his hands on his head and generally distressed.   This time the doctor gave him a prescription for 10 litres of electrolyte which he took in one day.   And he was fine.   Even today he feels it coming on at times and his wife and he himself recognise the signs and he starts seriously drinking water and taking electrolytes.

However you will see from the other notes on Mike on the ‘Marathon Stars’ page that even after Mexico he was winning titles and running well despite the problems he was suffering.    No one can ever take Mexico away from him however – the day when despite the Doubting Thomases, despite the injuries and race day problems, he became the only man from sea level to win a medal in an endurance event at the Altitude Olympics.

Mike Cartoon

Vancouver 1954

Joe finishes

Joe McGhee was Scottish Marathon Champion three times; he ran in the international cross country championships three times and had many fine races on the road and over the country but will be most remembered for a race that he won in controversial circumstances – the 1954 Commonwealth Games in Vancouver when Jim Peters totally misread the conditions and collapsed before the finish after a dramatic struggle round the final lap of the track.   McGhee ran in a few minutes later to win the gold but the Press almost universally homed in on the drama surrounding Jim Peters which had been captured on film and shown in cinemas round the world.   It caused a tremendous furore in Scotland and there was correspondence in every daily newspaper.   The correspondence was nowhere more explicit  than in the ‘Scots Athlete magazine and I enclose some of it below – including a two page letter from Jim Peters and an excellent article on the role of the Press by John Emmett Farrell.    It is immediately below and his career at home will be dealt with on a separate page altogether in the Marathon Stars section.   After the report on the race in “Scottish Athletics”, the official history of the SAAA, by JW Keddie, the first article is by George Barber and was the first article to appear in the SA on the topic – a full month before the following pieces.   The page then has some extracts from the SMC Minute Book and comments on a wee exchange with the SAAA.   And at the bottom is a look back with extracts from an article in ‘Scotland’s Runner’ in 1987 to give some Scottish historical perspective to the events.   And finally comes the version that Joe himself gave to ‘Scotland on Sunday’ in August 1994 as supplied by Colin Youngson.

August 7th, 1954 was noted for two main athletic events at Vancouver – the so-called “Mile of the Century” involving Roger Bannister (Eng) and John Landy (Aus) and the marathon involving the great Jim Peters.   Sixteen runners lined up at the start of the race in which Joe McGhee was the only Scot.   He ran a canny race in excessive heat.   Early on he tried to stay with Peters and compatriot Stan Cox but was forced to drop back.   In the conditions Cox too found the going hot and dropped back at 15 miles by which time Peters was literally miles ahead setting his usual relentless pace.   This however was his undoing for as he entered the Stadium about two and a half miles ahead of McGhee he was suddenly overtaken with exhaustion and staggered and lurched round the track, now one way now another, in pathetic fashion until he was pulled out a furlong from the finishing line.   Meanwhile back in second place, as he thought, McGhee had fought off a challenge from the South Africans Jackie Mekler and Johannes Barnard.   It was a full quarter of an hour after Peters first entered the Stadium that the little Scot  came trotting on to the track to a great cheer.   His victory in 2:39:36 in such difficult conditions deserves more acknowledgement than it has ever received.   What is more, there is no truth in the tale that he was on the verge of giving up or indeed that he was waiting for an ambulance to pick him up when he was advised of Peters’ demise and decided to carryon.   In the end he simply ran the most sensible race on the day.

From ‘”Scottish Athletics.”

“That” Marathon Race

by GS BARBER

Having had some 48 years experience of dealing with marathon runners may I join with those youthful reporters in the discussion on their ‘This MUST not happen again’ race.   This WILL happen again so long as there are men like Jim Peters who will put out every ounce of strength to win races whether it is a marathon race or 100 yards.   I have seen men far more exhausted in a 440 yards race than in marathon races, but the reason that there is an outcry about this one is that it was a major event attended by big newspaper men.   My experience of marathon running is that it has always been a sort of ‘unwanted baby’.   Look how long it took to convince the AAA that a marathon championship was an important event,  it took even longer to convince the Scottish officials to consider this.

When a race of this kind is proposed promoters usually find an empty space in their programme to allow the favoured few to finish on the track but they usually continue the other events as if the marathon race was not in being.   How many times have we seen the road race from Drymen to Firhill Park messed up at the finish with officials NOT connected with the race directing men the wrong way round the track or holding up a tape at the wrong finishing place.   I saw an unholy mess at the White City, London, at the finish of the British marathon championship.   (The leading officials of the race came into the ground at least fifteen minutes before the leaders were due to arrive,   I know because I was with them) warning those in authority that the race was approaching.   Did it make any difference?   Not a bit, they started a hurdle race on the track and when the runners entered no one knew what to do and the two men Squire Yarrow and Donald Robertson running together dodged and ducked in and out of the hurdles until they were dizzy.   The result was that Donald Robertson was beaten by a short head in a most indescribable mix-up.

I must admit that a man at the end of 26 miles is not so bright as he was when he started, more reason that everything should – and could – be made easy for him to finish the race.   The finishing point of this race is usually in a different place from that of other events and the officials for the marathon race should explain to each competitor how he enters the track, the number of laps to go and the finishing point.    But when something untoward occurs all sorts of men take on the role of advisers and upset the race.   It was reported in the newspapers ………………….that Mick Mays the team masseur who helped Peters on the track said “I caught him at what WE THOUGHT to be the finishing line before he had a chance to fall.   Note these words ‘at what we thought to be the finishing line.’   I saw what happened at Vancouver in two news-reels pictures.   When Peters saw an official standing in the middle of the track I am sure that he thought the white line was his goal – and just stopped.   In fact he could not have run on because the person stopped him and caught him.  

Jim Peters must take much of the blame himself.   He has been running long enough to know to make full allowance for the conditions.   The fact that he was so far ahead shows that it was an unnecessary folly to run himself out.   Lets be sensible about this race.   Peters can run again and forget about his unlucky break.   Dorando Pietri  ran some of the best races of his career after his dramatic collapse in the marathon race at the London Olympic Games in 1908 and I remember some of the papers said the same things.     

How many of us have gasped at the end of a marathon race and said ‘never again, this is my last race and after a bath, rest and some food are looking for entry forms for the next race.   But remember – in the future when we discuss this race let us not forget (as some would have us forget) who won the race – Joe McGhee.   Because almost everyone knows that Dorando Pietri collapsed at the finish of the 1908 Olympic Games but very few know who won the race.   It was JJ Hayes of America, time 2 hrs 55 mins 18 secs, and the first Britisher to finish was WT Clark, Liverpool – who was 12th.

Joe ceremony

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Now we have the official version of the event dealing with the English complaint that the course was too long and that they were denied access to their athletes during the race.

THE EMPIRE MARATHON

On other pages we have been pleased to publish Jim Peters’ letter.   It is a sincere letter which speaks for itself and on which we have no desire to comment.   However in view of Jim’s references to the distance and measurement of the Empire Games marathon route and because moreover of an article by Maxwell Stiles headed ‘Did Jim Peters really win?’ which appeared in our USA contemporary “Track and Field News” supporting a claim that the race was considerably over distance and on the question of re-measurement attacks “stubborn Vancouver officials” we feel it is only just and proper to present the views of the marathon organiser Mr Alex Frew.   These appeared in a full article in the ‘Vancouver Sun’ for 12th August.   We are reproducing here only the necessary extracts.

The introduction to the article, reprinted here, gives the explanation to Mr Frew’s account.   “Storm of protest stirred up over the tragic Jim Peters case in the British Empire Games marathon last Saturday hasn’t subsided.   Questions have been asked and accusations hurled regarding the pitiful marathon ending.   In an attempt to shed more light on the case Vancouver Sun staff reporter Al Fotheringham interviewed Alex Frew chairman of the marathon committee .   Here is Mr Frew’s story.   ‘There has been so much discussion and so many inaccurate statements about Saturday’s BEG  marathon race I think the public should be told the true facts of the case once and for all.   I was in charge of the marathon as chairman of the marathon committee and and referee and in charge of the actual running of the race.   The whole thing took two or three months of laborious preparation so if anyone should know anything of the marathon, I should.   Everything about the marathon was scientifically prepared and checked.   It was probably the most difficult event to stage in the whole BEG.   Thanks to the co-operation of the city police and the RCMP the actual running  of the race came off perfectly.   The course was measured five times after the English team protested that it was too long.   I might point out that the Australian team which had been here ten days before the English had been over the course thoroughly and were satisfied with its length until the English protested.   The first time it was measured under the supervision of Professor JF Muir head of the UBC Civil Engineering department.   Also present was the city Traffic Inspector Jack Harrison who arranged for control of traffic while the course was being measured.  

CUT 250 FEET OFF COURSE

After the  English protest the course was re-measured on August 4th by a foot-o-meter reading.   Because traffic control could not be arranged on such short notice we were not able to cut the corners as a runner would and we found the course 250 feet out.   We cut 250 feet off the course – 250 feet off 26 miles 385 yards.   The English measured the course by a car speedometer and I have a certificate saying that no speedometer reading can possibly be accurate.   Every preparation for the race was properly carried out.   There was six feeding stations along the course, one at ten miles and one every three miles after that.   Every station was manned by an average of six officials so that runners would not have to stop.   The exact requirements of every runner were supplied at every station.   For example the list shows that Jim Peters required ‘A glass of water; a sponge dipped in water not wrung out’ .   For a South African runner the list reads ‘One apple, a glass of cold sweetened tea.   Other runners were given exactly what they wanted.

“Two medical cars followed the runners to pick up stragglers.  Other radio equipped official cars were ready to rush aid to any runner who was in trouble.   It has been stated in the English press that English officials were not permitted on the course.   This is not true.   They were told they would not be allowed to accompany the runners in a car.   I wanted as few cars as possible on the course for the simple reason that I wanted to keep exhaust fumes away from the runners.   English officials and all other officials were told that they could station themselves at the feeding stations to keep an eye on their runners.   The English did not take advantage of this opportunity which was open to all.   I personally saw Scotland’s coaches at five different spots around the course.   There were 103 officials around the course and 40 policemen.

All runners received a map of the course showing the route outside the stadium, also a gradient map showed the grades of the hills.   All runners were shown at the start of the race the exact finish line.”

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There you have it from the officials involved.   Jim Peters had his own version  of the race and the magazine printed it over the best part of two pages and it is here in full.

Joe article

Joe article 2

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But it was not only Joe who got short changed in the media – Jim Peters became the butt of many a cruel joke – when I first saw the film in the cinema newsreel, there was a lot of laughter from the audience who at first didn’t realise what was going on.   There may have been some understanding of their reaction because it was unprepared for but there was none for the sports writers of whom the celebrated Peter Wilson wrote for the ‘Daily Mirror’ which was the most down market of the Press in the pre-Sun days.   Many took exception to the coverage and Emmett Farrell felt obliged to record his feelings in no uncertain fashion showing that pride in Joe’s achievement did not mean taking pleasure in Jim Peters’ misfortune.

PETER WILSON ASHAMED

By John E Farrell

Describing Jim Peters’ collapse at the end of the Vancouver marathon in the Daily Mirror Peter Wilson says “I felt Dirty and Ashamed”     After reading his article I am not surprised.   I too felt ashamed on his behalf.   Admittedly Jim Peters’ collapse in the stadium at the end of a gruelling race was unfortunate.   Agreed too that a person has the right to express his own opinion.   But surely that statement should be balanced and objective and not lacking in dignity.

For the benefit of readers who were fortunate enough not to read the article let me quote some excerpts from his text.   Describing Peter’s entrance, Wilson writes – “But he is not a figure of merry jest; he is a refugee from an insane asylum, a fugitive from a padded cell”  …”He is Jim Peters ‘Mr Marathon’ himself  but he is a frightening caricature of the man I have called Jim hundreds of times…two steps forward, then three to the side, so help me he’s running backwards now ….There is more to follow – much more.   This poor dumb man who only wants to win for England … but this isn’t the fight game.   This is nice clean amateur sport – and game Jim does get up.   Mark you, he’s not in very good shape now.   In fact he looks pretty shop soiled – this item marked down.”    and now for Wilson’s peroration.   “… So Jim Peters – what does he remind you of, a landed fish with a gaffed jaw heaving for water and dying in the sun, a trapped and bloody fox which has gnawed his own leg off for freedom, a rabbit with infected myxomatosis beating its own brains out?”

After that description I thought Peters looked uncommonly healthy when he appeared on TV some days afterwards.   It didn’t seem right that he should appear in such good shape.   Yes, Peter Wilson calls Peters ‘Jim’.   But because a man calls you by your first name he is not necessarily your friend.   On the basis of that article Peter Wilson is no friend of Jim Peters, no friend of athletics, no friend of that fine instrument the English language, no friend of journalism and perhaps in the long run no friend even of the newspaper which he represents.   Athletics needs and desires advertisement.   But not the kind that comes from the sensation-monger lurking in the shadows.   Why does not Peter Wilson confine himself to the prize ring where despite his frequent horrifying and harrowing experiences he seems more at home?   Unless he can do better, he would be doing a service to athletics by leaving it severely alone.

So there you have it!    Whatever the post mortems there was only one winner and Joe McGhee had the gold medal.

Maybe proudest of all the Scots were the members of the Marathon Club but there is a reflection of the times in the minor squabble with the SAAA after the victory.    In the Minute of the Committee Meeting for August 1954 appears the following:

” Empire Games: The Committee formally expressed its great pleasure at Joe McGhee’s victory in the marathon race and the secretary reported having sent a cable in the club’s name within minutes of the news being known in this country.   After some discussion it was moved by Mr Wilson, seconded by Mr Howie, that Joe be made an Honorary Life Member of the club.   Mr Brooke moved, seconded by Mr Welsh, that he be presented with a plaque.   These motions were carried unanimously.   Members would be notified in a circular due shortly and would be asked to contribute towards the cost of the plaque, Messrs TS Cuthbert and John Wilkie to be approached regarding the plaque. “    It was also agreed that he be awarded the Robertson Trophy for the victory.   The SAAA was notified about the decisions and then at the following meeting this appeared in the Minute: “[The letter from the SAAA]   also pointed out that there was no objection to our presenting a plaque but SAAA permission should first have been sought.   Exception was taken to this … and as none present were aware of a rule on this subject, after discussion it was moved by Mr Haughie, seconded by Mr Wilson that the SAAA Secretary  be requested to clarify this matter.”      In the Minute of the Meeting of 21st February 1955: “The reply indicated that there was no rule in the SAAA Handbook but it was an IAAF Rule Number 9 para 4 which governed the value of £12 as souvenirs or prizes.   prior permission was an additional safeguard for the athlete.   Various members made observations and it was agreed to let the matter rest there.”

The plaque was important to the club partly because they had wanted to present the Robertson Trophy to Joe at the annual club presentation and social evening but SAAA had decreed that they would present the Trophy to the Vancouver Victor at their own function.   In those circumstances the club would want to make some presentation to Joe who was a long standing SMC member and a former Committee Member.   Nevertheless the whole thing is a bit different from today – eg Andrew Lemoncello’s profile on his blog has his occupation as “PROFESSIONAL RUNNER”

When Jim Peters died ‘The Independent’ newspaper had an obituary which carried the tale about Joe stopping five times and waiting for an ambulance when he heard that Peters and Cox were out of the race.   It is important that the truth is told as often as possible and as clearly as possible and the following are extracts from an article in the ‘Scotlands Runner’ in 1987 by Jim Wilkie.

“Peters had performed poorly in the 1952 Olympics Marathon at Helsinki but was to make amends in the summer of 1953 when he clocked the first sub 2:20 time in the Polytechnic Harriers Windsor to Chiswick marathon (2:18:40).   He came close to Gordon Pirie’s world record for six miles (29:07.4), won the British marathon at Cardiff and broke the course record for the Enschede marathon.    When Peters then returned to Finland and gave her best runners a pasting, his fame spread to America and he was invited to compete in the Boston Marathon of 1954.   The Finnish champion, Karvonen, however also got an invitation and promptly got his revenge in a punishing race which caused Peters to collapse at the end.    Once recovered the Englishman began the summer of 1954 as he had that of ’53.   In June he was once again victorious in the Poly  and on August 7th he found himself on the other side of the world in Vancouver for the British Empire Games.   Stan Cox and Joe McGhee were also lined up for this race and at three miles the three men comprised the leading group.   At nine miles Peters made a move, and the fact that he appeared once again to be shaping up for a 2:20 time – despite the glaring heat – was astonishing to the race observers.   Cox and McGhee could not keep up but the Scot was able to capture second place and fight off the challenge of the two South Africans Meckler and Barnard.   As Peters approached the stadium he was two and a half miles ahead of McGhee.   When negotiating the final hill however, for reasons probably associated with developing heatstroke, he began to wobble and upon reaching the track he fell – less than 400 yards from the tape.   Memories of Dorando  came flooding back and for that reason no one dared to assist him.   Finally in the interests of Peters life, the English masseur Mick Mayes intervened and helped by shot putter John Savidge, he got the runner to a stretcher and then to the dressing room.   Savidge and some of his team mates had previously been thumping the ground in encouragement and there was also the suggestion that Mayes had mistaken the finishing line.   The next runner, McGhee, did not appear for almost twenty minutes but in holding himself together and effectively running a sensible race in very difficult conditions, he richly deserved his gold medal.”

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And finally we have the REAL  version – as written in the ‘Scotland on Sunday’ paper on 28th August 1994 and supplied to me by Colin Youngson.   Joe’s own story – closely guarded for forty years – is below.

Joe McGhee’s Golden Triumph

(As printed in ‘Scotland on Sunday’ 28/8/94)

“The Marathon Race was timed to start at 12:30 – the hottest part of the day – and in the heat the sweat was dripping from us before we made a move.   My tactics were simple.   I had promised my Dad and Allan Scally, my coach, that I would run my own race and, no matter what happened, complete the course.   I was competing after all against the fastest marathon runners in the world and, despite my own Scottish record, I was not reckoned among the top competitors in this race.   Nevertheless I still had that little spark of ambition and privately determined to latch on to the leaders until I judged that their pace was too hot for me.   I would then concentrate on finishing.

After a cautious cat and mouse start over the first mile, the race speeded up and the leading group of five – the Englishmen Jim Peters and Stan Cox, the Australians Kevin MacKay and Alan Lawrence and myself – broke away from the field.   The crowds lining the closed off route round the city were most encouraging to us, but at times I seemed singled out for applause – so much so that Peters muttered a comment about the number of friends I had.   I didn’t waste breath replying that it was the same Falkirk family, the Liddells, who by a judicious use of side roads kept re-appearing over those opening miles.   I was surprised when the pint-sized but confident MacKay dropped back so readily at three miles, and then Lawrence at four miles.   When five miles were passed in a modest time of over 27 minutes, Peters remarked that it was two minutes too slow.   It was certainly fast enough for me!    Yet he still held back.   I was running quite comfortably and at seven miles was slightly ahead of the two Englishmen.   Peter had given me some idea of his plans, however, and I was not surprised when between eight and nine miles he chose his psychological moment as we were about to tackle on of the notorious long hills on the course and suddenly launched himself into a tremendous spurt.   In these conditions the pace was clearly suicidal for me and, resisting the challenge, I at once dropped back.   Cox, however, plainly not in the least awed by Peters’ reputation, tried to hang on, determination writ large in every thrusting stride, but the race soon developed into a procession – Peters a white speck in the distance with Cox labouring vainly to prevent the gap widening.   The heat was now becoming so unbearable that I couldn’t even bear the irritation of my long peaked baseball cap and threw it aside at ten miles.

For the next eight miles I ran completely alone with only the white vest of Cox in the far distance to aim at – Peters had soon disappeared from view – and I grew more and more uncomfortable as the heat began to take its toll.   Then the clapping and cheering of the crowd warned me of the approach of another runner.   Just before 18 miles, Lawrence, the Australian, passed me smoothly and confidently, and the gap opened astonishingly quickly.   I couldn’t do a thing about it.   This was the beginning of my personal crisis.   Certainly, I felt bad, but the trouble was more psychological than physical.   I simply could not visualise myself completing the eight miles still ahead.   I plodded on and then with more than 19 miles gone, I saw a most cheering sight: Lawrence sitting disconsolately by the kerb.   His encourahing remark spurred me on for only a short distance, however, and although I was back in bronze medal position I still could not see myself finishing.

Indeed, I ran through the 20 mile mark grimacing horribly at Willie Carmichael, the Scottish team manager.    Remembering my promise to my Dad and to my coach, I was determined not to drop out, but I was hoping desperately that Willie would be merciful, take the decision for me and pull me out.  His response was imply to scowl and gruffly urge me on.   I swerved, half twisted to glare back at him, and found myself running into a high, jaggy hedge.   The prickles and my resentment of Willie stung me into a short lived burst of speed.   A mile or so later I was heartened once more by the news that Stan Cox was being taken away in an ambulance.   Someone remarked that he had collapsed into a lamp post.   Incredibly I was now in second place with less than five miles to go.   It might just as well have been 50.   My spasm of elation had evaporated, and the black pall of depression settled down again as I endured the next mile.   Then at a road junction between 22 and 23 miles, I began to hear that ominous rhythmic clapping behind me: someone was obviously catching me up.    I tripped on the kerb and the shock of the stumble jolted me into full awareness of the situation.   I glanced back to see the two South Africans, Jackie Mekler and Johan Barnard barely 40 yards behind.   Subconsciously I had been expecting them.   Accustomed to ultra-long distances and to even hotter conditions and slow, canny starters, they had been reckoned the obvious threat in the closing stages if conditions had been tough – and they couldn’t have been tougher!

It was at that very moment my own personal miracle occurred, demonstrating the power of the mind over the body.   I suddenly realised  that I was going to finish these last three miles and, with that realisation, my energies and my racing instincts came surging back.   Turning the next corner I plunged into the crowd of spectators at the edge of the pavement.   The loud speaker vans kept blaring “Come into the middle of the road, Joe.   It’s much clearer here.”   But hidden by spectators I was not offering myself as a target to the following pair.   At the top of this hill, I knew that the route turned left for a short distance, perhaps 50 yards, before abruptly swinging right again.   Bursting from the crowd I spurted flat out to reach the further corner before my pursuers rounded the first.   Then I settled down into a more comfortable racing pace.   I did not dare risk a glance back over the the next two and a half mile in case I should offer the slightest encouragement  to the South Africans.   I was determined to fight every inch for that silver medal.   the thought of gold never entered my head even when, near the stadium spectators began shouting that the man ahead was looking bad.   Jim Peters deceptively awkward style with his head nodding forward always gave the impression of painful effort.   My main concern was how I was going t tackle the last steep hill – a one in ten gradient – that led up past the stadium to almost roof level.

I had just reached the foot and was gathering myself for the effort when the news of Peters collapse was yelled at me.   My first reaction was one of complete panic.   How close were the South Africans behind me?   I risked a glance back.   As far as the eye could see, a good three hundred years or more, there was no runner in sight.   I knew then that I could not be beaten and I never felt better in any race.   The hill held no terrors for me now as I faced the climb.   As I turned to run down the steep ramp past the stands into the stadium, I was struck by the deathly hush.   The crowd had been shocked into silence by Peters’ colapse.   “What is the next man going to be like?” was the question uppermost in everyone’s mind.   They did not even know who was coming next, so little news of the marathon had percolated back to the stadium.   There below me, framed in the opening to the track stood the track suited figure of Dr Euan Douglas, the Scottish team captain.   I have never seen such a look of stupefaction on anyone’s face as realisation dawned and the big hammer thrower, dolphin-like, began to leap up and down waving his arms.   I ran down into sheer pandemonium.   I have never received such a reception.   The crowd’s reaction must have been one of immense relief that this runner was not in a state of collapse.   My ears were literally popping with the din as I raced around the track towards the tape to become at 25 the youngest marathon winner in the history  of the Games.

The victory ceremony as the Scottish flag was raised will remain an unforgettable memory.   It was also a fairy tale ending for the Scottish team to win our first athletics gold just as the Games were closing.   I have been attempting to answer the question of what actually did happen in this historic race.    I have only indirectly touched upon the question of why such a disaster occurred to Peters at all – and to Cox for that matter.   England should have won the gold and silver medals comfortably, and it is not enough to point to the weather conditions and the hilly nature of the course to explain why they did not.   After all these were the same for everyone and, when you race, you are competing not only against the other runners, but the elements and the course as well.   You have to adapt accordingly.   I personally ran half a minute slower per mile than I was capable of.   Peters obviously did not.   A world record time was simply out of the question that day.   The whole point of the exercise surely was to win the medal and each of us was chosen by our respective countries to do just that.  I managed to do so, Peters did not.   A ‘glorious failure’ is all very well but it does not disguise the fact that Jim Peters, the best and most experienced marathon runner in the world at the time lost because he ran an unintelligent race.”

I Danced That Night till the Early Hours at the Closing Ball

ge in attempting to finish.   The fact is obvious from the newsreel.   Roger Bannister and I were the only athletes allowed to visit him in hospital, and I then realised how close he had come to dying.   By contrast the newsreel also shows the strength of my own finish.   It is when reports go on to tell what happened on  the roads away from the stadium however that we move into the realms of imaginative fiction.

The essential point to remember about the Vancouver marathon is that it was taking place at the same time as the race between the two greatest milers, England’s Bannister who had broken the four minute barrier the year before, and Australian John Landy who had lowered the record after that.   No one was going to miss the ‘Miracle Mile’ and consequently few reporters or team officials bothered to accompany the marathon runners.   Besides the result wass considered a foregone conclusion: Peters, the fastest man in the world was the absolute favourite.   To his eternal credit Willie Carmichael, the Scottish Team Manager, was a rare exception in following the race.   Most reporters simply resorted to imagination  in describing events out on the course.   Unfortunately most of the  myths that have grown up around the race to be embroidered in subsequent re-tellings, concern my part in it.   They seem to have originated in the romantic fantasy of a local reporter who described how I was lying in a ditch until an old Scots lady revived me with the exhortation that the honour of Scotland was at stake.   Norris McWhirter wrote a little later “Joe McGhee, an RAF officer, having fallen five times signalled for the ambulance.   While waiting for it he heard that Peters and Cox were out of the race, so up got the bold Scot and finished the course to win.”   The only true items in that statement are that I was an RAF officer and that I won.

The sad fact is that subsequent books and articles go on copying such second-hand, thrid-hand, fourth-hand flights of fancy.   Even the AAA Centenary Handbook gets it wrong, as does Jim Peters in his own book.   The ludicrous nature of such stories is obvious.   Any athlete who has ever run a marathon will assure you that if you stop for even a second or two especially in the closing stages you will never get started again – even more so if you have decided to lie down.   At no time did I ‘collapse’.   I was engaged in a very active race pulling away from the two South Africans ove the last four miles and I never knew that I was first until just outside the stadium.   Moreover because Peters and Cox ended in hospital it was assumed that I could not be much better.   As for my state of so-called ‘exhaustion’ I need only point to the Press photographs of my sprinting through the tape both feet clear of the track, and then walking across the stadium afterwards with Willie Carmichael and Euan Douglas, and then the various pictures of the closing ceremony.

The most conclusive evidence of my fitness, however, was the fact that I danced that evening till the early hours at the closing ball, and was up again at 6 am for a trip to America.   I suffered no after effects, and within a few weeks I was recording faster times than ever over the shorter distances, and the following season set a new native record of 2 hours 25 minutes 50 seconds in retaining my Scottish title.   Incidentally, this time, the fastest for any Briton in the 1955 season, still failed to win me a British vest – but the treatment of Scottish athletes by the British selectors in this period is another

The 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games marathon in Vancouver has been labelled one of the 10 greatest races of all time.    The awful collapse of England’s Jim Peters after he had entered the stadium is still recalled by the media with monotonous regularity.   The fact that a Scottish runner won the race is sometimes also mentioned.

Joe wrote of his time in Shettleston and there is more information about Vancouver in a letter he sent to Frank Scally which you can read by clicking on the link.

Jim in Jamaica

The Scottish record in the Commonwealth Games Marathon has been a good one with Dunky Wright winning in the first Empire Games, and then Joe McGhee winning in Vancouver in 1954.   Jim Alder is the third so far to win the event and it made all the front pages at the time.   We can start our account of the race with an extract from the Minute Book of the Scottish Marathon Club:

The Selection:   The Scottish Marathon Club Minute, Monday 20th June 1966:

“Mr Wright took the opportunity to apprise the meeting of the circumstances where Mr J. Alder had been chosen to represent Scotland at the Empire Games in the Marathon.   Tradition was that our own Marathon Champion usually goes, but it had been known that A.J. Wood and A.F. Murray, with other possibles, had decided to run in the A.A.A. Marathon instead of the Scottish because of the closeness of the dates.   It was considered inadvisable to run in both races and it was their opinion that better performances were likely to be shown in the British Championship when competing against this standard.   The Selection Committee, aware of this, decided to await the result of the British Championship and if a Scot finished in the first six to select him as our representative.   Jim Alder did in fact finish sixth.   A.J. Wood finished ninth.   A.F. Murray was unable to compete due to cartilage trouble.”

[The Scottish Marathon had been won by Charlie McAlinden from Gordon Eadie in 2:26:31 which was a very good time on a very hilly trail with hot weather.]

No marathon is without its own moments of drama and I don’t think that the three Empire Games marathon winners missed out in the drama stakes!   Joe McGhee’s dramatic win in Vancouver was maybe in a class of its own but Jim also had his heart stopping moment when he took gold in Jamaica.    The story of the race is told briefly in the history of Scottish Athletics by John W Keddie as follows.

“1966 and 1967 were halcyon years for Scottish marathon running.   Jim Alder was a Scottish representative at the Empire and Commonwealth Games at Kingston, Jamaica in August 1966.   Although the race started at 5:30 am the temperature was above 80 degrees throughout.   But Alder was always in contention and at 25 miles (2:15:20) he was 15 seconds ahead.   As the leaders approached the Stadium however there was some confusion in the wake of the arrival of the Duke of Edinburgh.   This led to Alder being misdirected and finding, when he did enter the track, that he was behind Bill Adcocks of England.   The Scot was the fresher of the two however and on that last lap regained the lead and completed a famous victory.”  

A succinct version of the story but Jim gives a much more detailed description of the race in Chapter Fourteen of his book.    Before the race there was a series of incidents including a blistered foot after training barefoot but more importantly a contretemps about his entry in the 10000 metres Race.    He had been selected for both the ten and the marathon but such was the heat in Jamaica that the team management decided that he would not run the former since they thought he had a better chance in the marathon.   However Jim’s persistence was such that he arranged a meeting with team captain Crawford Fairbrother and vice captain Ming Campbell who acted as go betweens and he ran in the Six and was placed third.   Nevertheless the officials were cool towards him and team coach John Anderson told him that going against orders was indefensible.   And then the night before the race there were huge celebrations in the camp after the decision to award the 1970 Games to Edinburgh which did not make for a restful night.

The race itself started at 5:30 in the morning to avoid the worst of the heat and this, after the noisy celebrations the night before, meant that the runner had scarcely any sleep.   Jim himself says: “Starting at that time in the morning was something of a worry.   Doctors said ‘there will be deaths.’   Drastic but they meant it.    The nearer it got to the day of the race the less I slept.   I used to lie and think.   I wasn’t worried about not sleeping though.   I must have had only four hours the night before the race and rose at four, light breakfast and three spoonfuls of salt.   It made my hair stand on end.   I had done that every morning to play safe with the heat.   And so to the Stadium – it was eerie, an empty arena except for the runners, one or two enthusiasts who would follow on bikes and of course the officials.   Thoughts of the race charged through my brain constantly.   The date Thursday 11th August 1966.   The favourite Ron Clarke.   I felt within myself that I could make it and controlled emotions as best I could.”     Jim had to hold himself back as Clarke sped off and was soon a speck in the distance.  Jim took in the view and worked his way through the field so that by halfway he was just behind Bill Adcocks and in third place.    Jim and Bill knew each other well and ran together  and at fifteen miles Clarke was coming back fast.

“I said, “We’ve got it, gold and silver.”   We passed Clarke a a watering hole in a hell of a state, only just able to walk.   ……….    I was working out just where to strike and at twenty two miles I did it.    I just turned the screw and quickly surged ahead two hundred yards.   It is a conscious and physical effort putting the pressure on and sensing the other man – is he responding?   No, the beauty of that morning was that I could see the shadows lengthening – soon I was thirty seconds ahead all I had to do was keep going and the gold was in my back pocket.”  …..  “Suddenly problems were about to begin, for unknown to me the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Charles and Princess Anne made an unscheduled visit which caused utter confusion.   Nature being what it is all the marshals and officials left their posts and followed the Royal Party in a gaggle leaving me   utterly confused as to how to find the entrance to the Stadium.   I asked a car park attendant “Which way?”   “I don’t know, man.   I looked around in dismay.   What a stupid situation to find myself in.   The late Dunky Wright an old Scottish official saw I was bewildered and tried to  help me out the best way he could and took me on a route up some stairs and down a tunnel …. eventually I managed to find the track and bright sunlight half blinded me.   I screwed up my eyes and saw a figure on the track and to my horror saw Bill Adcocks 50 yards ahead of ne with only 300 yards to go.   I couldn’t believe it, only one thing to do, no good getting upset – it was all on tap.   I set off pulling back yard after yard eventually breaking the tape fifteen yards ahead of him.”

The SMC however were not finished with the race however and further discussions were held about selection methods.   Dunky Wright’s recollections of the finish of the race were as follows: “The start was at 5:30 and that was in confusion, the course had earlier been marked off in 5-10-15-20 miles and at the finish.   Alder had already run in the six mile and finished well and was sure that he had a good chance in the Marathon.   At 21 miles he was in the lead and on reaching the Stadium was confused as Prince Philip had arrived at almost the same time and there was a security check.   Alder turned in a door too soon and down a flight of steps.   Wright stopped him and put him on the correct trail and he caught Adcocks on the track.   Officially Alder covered the correct trail and Adcocks cut it.”

A final note on the relationship between Dunky and Jim.   In an article in ‘The Independent’ about the Morpeth to Newcastle Road Race, Jim is quoted as saying  “He won the Morpeth six times and he always used to say to me ‘You’ll no get my record.’    He was right.   I won it five times.   So did Mike McLeod.   No one else has won six.”

Men’s 800m: Tom McKean

McKean v Cram

The year before the Commonwealth Games, it was clear that Tom McKean was running very well indeed and maybe good enough for a medal on his home turf.   When it came to it, he did indeed medal in his first major Games – as well as in his second (the Europeans) later that year.  I’ll simply re-print Doug Gillon’s article on the event as it appeared in the Herald on 1st August 1986.

HAPPY McKEAN SETTLES FOR SILVER

Tom sets records, but Cram too good.

Two gold chains hung around his neck and a gold bracelet round his wrist.   In his left ear gleamed a gold earring.   He had even dyed his hair gold for the occasion.  But the metal flung around Tom McKean’s neck was silver.   “I like gold, McKean told me, “But I’m satisfied with this, I might even sleep with it on tonight.”   The Bellshill man had carved 1.22 seconds from his best time, and broken the national and native records with a time of 1:44.80.   But it was not enough to stop England’s Steve Cram from striding to the 800m gold in the Commonwealth Games yesterday.   When the Geordie slipped into overdrive with 280 metres to go, there was only one winner.   Cram’s time, 1:43.22, was a Games and Scottish All-comers record and the fastest time in the world this year.

The race began with a vacant lane.   World record holder Seb Coe was forced to submit to the infection which he has been fighting for several days.   Peter Elliott, the other English runner, led through 200 metres in 24.88 and reached the bell in 51.03.   McKean was some seven metres off the pace, lying fifth and keeping a watchful eye on Cram.   “I hadn’t intended to hang back, I went off too slow,” said McKean.   But when Cram made his move in the back straight, McKean made no attempt to chase him.   He left his challenge to the final 150 metres, coming through to overhaul Australia’s Pat Scammell and the brave front running Elliott.   “It’s not my nature to run for second best, and my coach Tom Boyle, who has done a magnificent job, expected the race to be slower in that wind.   The crowd were absolutely brilliant.   That’s why I did the wee bow to thank them at the end..”   McKean clutched a bundle of telegrams of good wishes as he was congratulated by his sponsor, Glen Henderson.

He had spent the past few days living on a farm at Coalburn.  “I’ve been playing pitch and putt, Trivial Pursuit and snooker, anything to take my mind off the race,” he said.   “I’ve no regrets at being beaten by Cram.   He’s clearly the best in the world.   But my time today is as fast as Cram was running when he was my age.”   Cram, who will make up his mind about running the 800m and 1500mm double at Stuttgart at the European Championships after he has tackled the second leg of a Commonwealth double, said, “I’m sorry Seb wasn’t here.   It was a very good competition but he would have added to the race.”

SR 3

The result of the Final  (7 runners) :

  1.   S Cram (England)           1:43.22  Games Record
  2.   T McKean (Scotland)     1:44.80
  3.   P Elliott (England)          1:45.42
  4.   Pat Scammell (Australia) 1:45.86
  5.   Malcolm Edwards (Wales)   1:47.27
  6.   Simon Hoogewerf (Canada)  1:49.04
  7.   Paul Forbes (Scotland)     1:51.29

***

Tom went on to Stuttgart where in a GB vest he was second again ( see the famous picture above) to make it a very good year for him and a great introduction to the Games scene.

Medals By Country

McKean v Cram

Tom McKean leading Steve Cram

At a BMC Meeting in Bishopbriggs in 1985, I had asked Tommy Boyle to speak about putting strength and speed together to make an 800m runner.   At that time Tom McKean was unknown outside Scotland but Tommy said that 1986 would be Tom’s breakthrough year.   At the time I said that he was either very brave, very stupid or very confident.   Guess who was right???    Tom had a good year, just check the results page.   Scotland in the CG  did not have anywhere near as good a year as it had had sixteen years earlier.   More anent anon.   The table below indicates the total medals over all sports; the figure for athletics is one gold, four silvers and a third.    Look at the tables below and see what you think of the team representation for a home games!

Position Country First Second Third Total
1 England 52 43 49 144
2 Canada 51 34 31 116
3 Australia 40 46 35 121
4 New Zealand 8 16 14 38
5 Wales 6 5 12 23
6 Scotland 3 12 18 33
7 Northern Ireland 2 4 9 15
8 Isle of Man 1 0 0 1
9 Guernsey 0 2 0 2
10 Swaziland 0 1 0 1
11 Hong Kong 0 0 3 3
12 Malawi 0 0 2 2
13= Botswana 0 0 1 1
13= Jersey 0 0 1 1
13= Singapore 0 0 1 1

SCOTS ATHLETES IN ATHLETICS

MEN

Event First First Scot Second Scot Third Scot SAAA Champion
100m Ben Johnson (Canada) 10.07 Elliot Bunney 10.37 5th James Hendersn 10.68 8th C Sharp 10.63 C Sharp   10.94
200m * Atlee Mahorn (Canada) 20.31 George McCallum 21.39 Brian Whittle 21.69 C Sharp dnz G McCallum 21.7
400m Roger Black (England) 45.57 Brian Whittle 47.10 5th Martin Johnston 47.57 J Nicoll 50.07 B Whittle 48.64
800m Steve Cram (England) 1:43.22 Tom McKean 1:44.80 2nd Paul Forbes 1:51.29 7th P Forbes 1:50.14
1500m Steve Cram (England) 3:40.87 John Robson 3:57.20 10th Alistair Currie 3:44.82 T Hanlon 3:50.57 A Callan 3:43.0
5000m Steve Ovett (England) 13:24.11 Nat Muir  13:40.92 8th N Muir 14:06.44
10000m Jon Solly (England) 27:57.42 Allister Hutton 30:16.5 11th N Tennant 29:02.25
Marathon Ron de Castella (Australia) 2:10:15 John Graham 2:12:10 4th Fraser Clyne 2:17:30 10th B Carty 2:23:39
110mH* Marc MacKoy (Canada) 13.31 John Wallace 14.23 Neil Fraser 14.28 G McDonald 14.37 N Fraser 14.23
400mH* P Beattie (N. Ireland) (49.6) David McCutcheon 53.68 Mark Hardie 55.58 Mark Fulton 57.9 M Fulton 51.54
Steeplechase Graeme Fell (Canada) 8:24.49 Tom Hanlon 8:53.56 10th Colin Hume 9:05.40 11th R Charleson 9:21.73 12th R Charleson 8:53.94
4 x 110 Canada  39.15 third  40.41
4 x 400 England  3:07.19 fourth  3:18.03
Long Jump GR Honey (Australia) 8.08m Ken MacKay 7.39m 8th K MacKay 7.48
Triple Jump John Herbert (England) 7.27m Craig Duncan 15.68 7th M Makin 15.89
High Jump Milt Ottey (Canada) 2.30m Geoff Parsons 2.28m G Parsons 2.25
Pole Vault Andy Ashurst (England( 5.70m Brad McStravick 4.45 8th G Jackson 4.80
Shot Putt W Cole (England) 18.16m Eric Irvine 16.73m 9th NB: A Vince (Eng) 10th E Irvine 16.82
Discus Raymond Lazdins (Canada) 58.86m George Patience 52.54m  8th P Gordon 52.68
Hammer David Smith (England) 74.06m Chris Black 63.88  8th C Black 60.46
Javelin David Ottey (England) 60.62m Stewart Maxwell 62.34m 12th D Abernethy 63.86
Decathlon FM Thomson (England) 866 pts Brad McStravick 7563 pts 4th A Rankin 6079 pts

Three Medals, 28 empty slots that could have been filled, three track events with no one in the final and no more than one in any field event.

WOMEN

Event First First Scot Second Scot Third Scot SWAAA Champion
100m Heather Oakes (England) 11.2 Sandra Whittaker 11.59 5th Kaye Jeffrey 11.59 6th S Whittaker 11.50
200m Angela Issajenko (Canada) 22.91 Sandra Whittaker 23.46 3rd Angela Bridgeman 24.13 A Bridgeman 24.05
400m * D Flintoff-King (Australia) 51.29 Dawn Kitchen 55.52 Fiona Hargreaves 55.76 L McDonald 58.26 D Kitchen 54.57
800m Kirsty Wade (Wales) 2:00.94 Anne Purvis 2:02.17 4th Elizabeth McArthur 2:04.40 C Whittingham 2:02.59
1500m Kirsty Wade (Wales) 4:10.91 Lynne McIntyre 4:17.25 8th Chris Whittingham 4:33.01 L McDougall 4:10.23
3000m Lynn Williams (Canada) 8:54.29 Yvonne Murray 8:55.32 3rd Marsella Robertson 9:51.33  L Lynch 9:01.12
10000m Liz Lynch (Scotland) 31:41:42 Liz Lynch 1st Andrea Everett 33:56:43 9th Christine Price 33:59.90 10th C Price 35:02.33
100mH * Sally Gunnell (England) 13.29 Ann Girvan 13.60 Pat Rollo 14.00 J Kirk 13.70
400mH * D Flintoff-King (Australia 54.94 Moira McBeath 64.03 E McLaughlin 59.33
4 x 100m Relay England 43.29 Fourth 45.84
4 x 400m Relay Canada 3:28.92 Fourth 3:42.86
Marathon Lisa Martin (Australia) 2:26:07 Lorna Irving 2:36:34 5th S Quirk 2:58:57
Long Jump * Joyce Oladapo (England) 6.43m Lorraine Campbell 5.65m L Campbell 6.07
High Jump Chris Stanton (Australia) 1.92m Jayne Barnetson 1.83m 7th J Little 1.83
Shot Putt * Gael Martin (Australia) 19.00m M Anderson 14.08
Discus * Gael Martin (Australia) 56.42m Morag Bremner 47.06m K Pugh 51.86
Javelin Tessa Sanderson (England) 69.80m Shona Urquhart 48.04m 10th S Urquhart 49.28
Heptathlon Judy Simpson (England) 6282 pts Valerie Walsh 5420 pts 8th M Anderson 4914 pts

Three medals, twenty three empty slots that could have been filled (the women) had fewer events than the men (no pole vault, hammer or steeplechase), six events with no one in the final, one event with no Scot present and no field event with more than one entry   * indicates an event with no Scot in the final.  

 

 

 

1986 Commonwealth Games

Liz SWAAA

The 1986 Commonwealth Games were as memorable as those of 1970 with some very good performances by Scottish athletes like Liz Lynch and Tom McKean – but also unfortunately for the fact that there were some outstanding candidates for selection who were deliberately overlooked (given that it was a home Games, then there should have been three per event anyway I think) but even more for the dreadful financial organisation and the boycott by most of the African countries.   The Games were summed up well by Wikipedia as follows

Organisation and controversy

Despite the popular success of the previous 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, the 1986 Games are remembered with considerable notoriety due to a large political boycott and financial mismanagement.

The Games were boycotted by a majority of countries, largely African, Asian and Caribbean states, and making it appear as a whites-only event. Of the 59 eligible countries, 32 boycotted the Games due to the Thatcher government’s attitude towards British sporting links with apartheid-era South Africa as opposed to the sporting boycott of South Africa. It resulted in the lowest number of athletes since the 1950 Commonwealth Games

Further controversy came about when it was revealed that due to the lack of participation and associated decline in anticipated broadcasting and sponsorship revenues, the Organising Committee was facing a serious financial black hole, and the boycott ended any prospect of securing emergency government assistance. Businessman Robert Maxwell stepped in to offer funding, taking over as chairman, but despite promising to invest £2m, Maxwell’s contribution was just £250,000. On a budget of £14m, the Games opened with a deficit of £3m, which later grew to £4.3m, and instead of putting enough money into the event to save it, the new chairman of the Games asked creditors to forgo half the payment due to them to keep the event out of liquidation. The debt was finally paid off in 1989, with the city of Edinburgh losing approximately £500,000.

 

The list of countries taking part is not huge, 27 in all – in 1970 the figure was 44 countries entered.   The boycott took a big toll in terms of countries, athletes and sponsorship!    The countries were –

Cayman Islands Falkland Islands Scotland
Cook Islands Vanuatu Northern Ireland
Samoa Maldives Isle of Man
Norfolk Islands Singapore Guernsey
Fiji England Hong Kong
Gibraltar Canada Malawi
Lesotho Australia Botswana
Malta New Zealand Jersey
Swaziland Wales Bermuda**

** Bermuda took part in the Opening ceremony but boycotted the rest of the Games.

Despite the selectors omitting from the team several athletes who were well worthy of selection, the Scottish team was sixth country of the thirteen who won medals.

[ Medals by Country ] [ The Early Problems ] [ Scotland’s Runner Covers the Games ]  [ Men’s 800m ]   [ Women’s 10000m ] [ Team Managers Report, Men] [ Team Managers Report – Women ][ Alastair Shaw’s Gallery ] [ The Programmes ]

 

“Scotland’s Runner” and the Games

SR Wells

1986 was a very good year for Scottish athletics in several ways:   Despite the many problems associated with it, the Commonwealth Games was a real highpoint;   some new stars appeared on the international scene, mainly Tom McKean and Liz Lynch, who had been well-known beforehand but who really came good and launched wonderful international championship careers and the ‘Scotland’s Runner’ magazine appeared for the first time.    This magazine that went out of print in 1993 was a great source of information via the results pages obviously but also through the many ‘Upfront’ articles and stories by the editors Alan Campbell, Doug Gillon and Stewart Macintosh with regular contributors Lynda Bain, Fraser Clyne, Bob Holmes, Graeme Smith, Sandy Sutherland, Jim Wilkie and Linda Young.   The photographs were first class and the letters pages gave readers an opportunity to contribute to the debate.   Everyone was interested in and involved with the sport.   It was a real loss when circumstances led to it’s demise.    If you want to read the articles in their entirety or re-visit the magazine, just go to Ron Morrison’s website at

 http://salroadrunningandcrosscountrymedalists.co.uk/Archive/Scotland’s%20Runner/Scotland’s%20Runner.html

It was natural then, that they should cover the Commonwealth Games in more detail and with more insight than the daily press.    I’d like to look at the July to October issues of the magazine and quote from some of the excellent articles on the subject.

The first issue – cover above – was in July 1986 and among many articles of interest was one by Sandy Sutherland entitled ‘The Shoestring Games’, one by Fraser Clyne on marathon selection difficulties and an interview with Tom MacNab about Allan Wells.

Elsewhere on this website I criticise the low number of athletes chosen to represent their country in the Games but there is an interesting item in the ‘Inside Lane’ page written by Alan Campbell.    It reads: “Nobody loves a selector.   Every jogger who ever stumbled blistered and leg weary towards a marathon finish  thinks he or she can do better.   So as the Commonwealth Games selectors brace themselves for the four yearly lashing, let’s set the record straight.   The Scottish team’s original allocation of 33 male and 23 female places is smaller in real terms than in 1970.   There were 35 men in Edinburgh 16 years ago and 21 women.   But since then four events (400m Hurdles, 3000m, 10000m and marathon) have been added to the women’s programme.   This allocation is given by the Commonwealth Games Council for Scotland who have consistently refused to increase the figure.   That despite the fact that in overall terms Scotland is a stronger athletic nation now than in 1970 (although it does not mean we will win more than the four gold we took then.)   

Pressure on the selectors to pre-select, especially in the marathon, was intense.    There has to be something wrong with a system that does not get our fastest man on to the start line.       But the selectors, with no room for passengers on a tight ship,  dared not choose any but certain starters.   Allan Wells and Tom McKean are among those over whom serious injury doubts have been raised on the run-in.   The fact remains that a domestic Games remains the cheapest opportunity to blood young talent.   Lack of funds, always the scapegoat when the Commonwealth Games are held overseas, should be less of a consideration now than ever before.   The reality is that in the race to stage the first commercial Games the people who matter most, the competitors, have been left at the post.    National Coach David Lease admits that there are good athletes who will not be in the team.   That is a disgrace.   But it is not the fault of the selectors, or the sponsors and public who have given generously, and who will give more before the curtain goes up on Scotland’s greatest show.”

So the small team was not down to the selectors, but to the Games Council for Scotland.   That doesn’t make it much more palatable.   The shortage of cash with which to run the show was dealt with later in the magazine in the ‘Up Front’ page.  The item read:

“The Commonwealth Games faces a substantial cash crisis after the Government’s snub to a request for financial aid.   Attempts to emulate the success of the Los Angeles Olympics by making the 1986 Edinburgh Games the first to be funded entirely by the private sector and public donations have failed.   A yawning gap of £1.5 million lies between the Commonwealth Games and financial viability, but on June 2nd the Government refused to make any contribution despite the international kudos which could accrue to such a prestigious international event if it works successfully.

After considerable press speculation, Games chairman Kenneth Borthwick conceded at the end of May that only £12.5 million of the required £14 million has been raised and wrote to the Secretary of State, Malcolm Rifkind, to ask the Government to underwrite the loss.    Mr Rifkind turned down the plea and reminded Mr Borthwick that when Edinburgh had bid for the Games, it had been on the basis that there would be no State funding available.   He expressed his confidence that the £14 million target would be achieved.   Games organisers hope that they have correctly detected a coded message between the lines of the Secretary of State’s reply where he asks to be kept informed of the situation.   They harbour hopes that if they fail to clear the £14 million hurdle, some sort of cushion might be provided by Mr Rifkind.

Current sponsors will be approached and asked to consider increasing their contribution and Scots will be asked to make further donations to the public appeal which has had its target adjusted upwards to £2.5 million.   Companies who have declined previous request for support and sponsorship will be contacted again and asked to reconsider.”

A sad and rather undignified situation in which to be placed – and the contribution to the discussion by the Secretary of State not at all sympathetic.    Sandy Sutherland further through the same issue commented in more detail on the financial aspect in an article entitled “The Shoestring Games” which had the opening paragraph: “Sun and gold medals will make the XIII Commonwealth Games shine in a way that no amount of glossy PR will.   And it certainly has not been sunshine and roses for the Games organisers who were faced with some unique problems and a whole new ball game compared to Edinburgh’s so-successful 1970 Games.   Yet the cost-conscious 1986 event may yet prove to have done sport a favour – in the long run.”   and continued (with a large illustration of the new scoreboard  which had been bought second hand from Los Angeles to save money) as follows:

“The 1986 organisers must be praying that we find some new local heroes but with just over a month left before the opening ceremony at Meadowbank, it has to be admitted the portents are not good as over 3000 competitors and officials from up to 50 countries prepare to descend on Edinburgh.   Venues, tickets fund-raising, South African rugby tours, Zola Budd, miniscule Scottish athletics teams – these are just some of the topics which have caused rows in the build-up period.   The projected Scottish team of 23 women and 33 men is a big let-down for the competitors.  

Money however has been the matter which has dominated these first commercial Commonwealth Games.   When Scotland was awarded the Games in 1980 in Moscow it was by default – Scotland’s was the only hat in the ring and that somewhat prematurely, as the bid had originally been intended for 1990 or 1994.   Edinburgh, the reluctant hosts, gave an assurance that no government money would be required to stage the event as no new facilities would need to be built, hence negligible capital expenditure.   But that assurance came back to haunt them,  particularly when   a new Labour administration was elected in the city.   They refused to go ahead with an ambitious project for the velodrome, but in the end however something approaching £400,000 was allocated to dismantling and rebuilding the old cycling venue.   But it is much the same style as in 1970 with new wood, but still open to the elements with all the attendant risks should rain fall during the Games.  

The city have also resurfaced the Meadowbank athletics track and spruced up the old stadium.   A huge new scoreboard dominates the West end (but perhaps not big enough to shut out the awful prevailing wind?) and a photo-finish box in the stand shuts out at least 150 seats.   Improvements totalling £4 million were budgeted for by the city, including some at the Royal Commonwealth pool, venue for the swimming events, and Balgreen, where a lot of bowls will be played and talked about.   But that expenditure pales beside the organisational budget which at the time of writing stands at £14.1 million.   Compared to what it might have been, that is quite small.   The budget in Brisbane in 1982 was £17 million and, allowing for up to 25% increase in competitors, that figure might well have reached £28 million.   Instead that has been halved.   

“That is a fine achievement,” says Robin Parry, managing director of the consortium of accountants, Arthur Young, and publicity agency, Crawford Halls, charged with the task of raising the bulk of the funds, through advertising, sponsorship and licensing and other deals.   Will they achieve their target?

“It’s finely balanced,” says Parry whose group will be fund-raising right up to the Games. “In particular, arena advertising tends to go at the last moment, but we have already definitely raised over £13 million and I’m optimistic  of closing the gap.”   The consortium’s conservative projection, from their various sources, including hospitality suites at the main arenas, is £8.5 million  while the public appeal is expected to raise £1.5 million.   TV rights – £500,000; tickets – £1.1 million; and programme sales, after sales of equipment and other items – £600,000; while £1 million was raised in early sponsorship.    The appeal includes the Lottery, which could prove quite  money spinner, and the “McCommonwealth campaign” which has had a lukewarm response in its initial stages at least.   The Commonwealth Games book and the special £2 coin are two of the items which come under Parry’s remit and are two of the hardest to assess in terms of return.

But tickets look like exceeding their target and, with the main sessions at athletics and swimming sold out within a few days of going on sale for postal applications last September, there could be quite a black market for these.   Part of the problem for the organisers has been that they did not know how many seats were actually going to be available because the stadium capacity had not been settled due to the Popplewell Report on crowd safety and the extra room taken by hospitality units.   It looks as if, despite the extra terracing, the Meadowbank capacity will be approximately 22,000 compared with well over 30,000 in 1970 when scaffolding doubled the norm.   Sadly a priority ticket scheme intended for the real athletics fans, which would have given athletics clubs and others a month’s advantage over the general public, was so mis-handled that the dates merged.   That is just another example of how the people in the sport appear to have been neglected in these Games.   So in the end who will benefit?  

Certainly the Games themselves.   the inflationary spiral which has gone on through Christchurch, 1974, Edmonton, 1978, and Brisbane has been broken, and Edinburgh in particular because of the massive television exposure and the income from tourism (which has been estimated at £50 million).   Certainly sport in general though rowing, back in the Games for the first time since 1958, with new purpose-built facilities at Strathclyde Park, could point to more obvious benefits than swimming or tack and field which have been short-changed on facilities (no warm-up pool or track for example) and competitors.   But short-changed or not, track and field will be the centre-piece and showpiece of the Games, and the making or breaking of them.   And our athletes have destiny in their hands.”

It’s a very interesting article and looking back Sandy’s comments towards the end of the penultimate paragraph about priority ticket schemes, is thought provoking.   In the collection of club memorabilia that I inherited from James P Shields is a letter from the organising committee of the London Olympics of 1948 asking of any of our club members would like tickets for the event.  nearer home, all clubs in Scotland were asked how many tickets they would like, where in the arena they were for and for what events.   Here again is the idea that those who are involved in any sport should have priority in the availability of tickets is mentioned.   It is worse than just a shame that this idea has been abandoned in favour of mass, elbows out, scramble for tickets at Olympic and Commonwealth Games.

For now I will hold back from re-printing Fraser Clyne’s article – sections of it will appear elsewhere soon – on marathon selection but will say that his conclusion was that “the 1986 Commonwealth Games marathon team should have been picked by no later than the end of 1985.”

SR Whittaker

The above picture features Sandra Whittaker the quite outstanding sprinter, coached by Ian Robertson, who was one of the very best Scottish runners ever.   It is most unfortunate, to put it mildly that she has been virtually ignored in recent years.   A woman who in the Los Angeles Olympics set personal bests in the heats, and in the quarter-final has to be very special.  She is still the only Scotswoman inside 23 seconds for the 200m.    With talents like hers and her training partners and the Edinburgh group of the same period, there should surely be some website with profiles or tributes to our sprinters.   However, in the second issue of “Scotland’s Runner”, the middle pages full-colour spread was an article by Doug Gillon which took a look back at 1970 and had what was called an optimistic look ahead.   But first, in the very first page of the magazine was Alan Campbell’s ‘Inside Lane’ page with the dreaded news that many had anticipated but which no one wanted to hear: the boycott was now on.    The article read:

“On July 9th, the darkest cloud hanging over the success of the Commonwealth Games finally burst over mountainous political pressure.   Nigeria and Ghana announced their withdrawal over Mrs Thatcher’s attitude towards South African sanctions.    Just 24 hours earlier, new Games trouble-shooter, Mr Bryan Cowgill, had felt justified in announcing a record Games entry including a full African participation led by … Nigeria.   Yet no sooner were we digesting the good news in our morning newspapers than our kippers and toast were upset by the boycott announcement.     The news came just in time for Scotland’s Runner’s final deadline for this issue.  we cannot therefore give an in-depth analysis of the ramifications and repercussions.   By the time you read this, any amount of political machinations – ranging from a full Afro-Asian-Caribbean boycott  to  a compromise salvaged from Sir Geoffrey Howe’s seemingly ill-starred trip to Southern Africa will have decided the fate of the Games.   ……

The sanctimonious claptrap mouthed by Mrs Thatcher on the morality of sanctions against South Africa had already turned enough white stomachs – including ours – before Nigeria and Ghana took their precipitous decisions.   In the light of the worsening political climate which dwarf the problems of the Games, a far more delicate hand than Mrs Thatcher is capable of playing was called for if the original boycott threat was to be finessed.   Before returning to the subject of the boycott however let us not pass over the, now admittedly parochial, commercial and administrative problems which have bedevilled this Commonwealth festival from the outset.  

After 18 months of rumour, evasion and a permanent smokescreen of optimism from the Games organisers, the truth emerged.   The Games were on the brink of cancellation; the limited company, Commonwealth Games ’86 Ltd, was in danger if trading illegally, and Scotland would have become an international laughing stock.   Part of the blame must lie in Canning House, the Games HQ, where a bewildering series of some 40 committees was spawned under the muddled leadership of Games chairman Ken Borthwick, a former Conservative Lord Provost of Edinburgh and a newsagent and tobacconist shop proprietor.   Political wrangles with a new left-wing Edinburgh District Council administration did not give confidence that the organisation of the Games was progressing smoothly.    The Government could and should have done much more, but their dogmatic commitment to the market economy blinded ministers to the contribution that a successful Games could bring to the future standing of Scotland and the UK.  

To be fair, it had been made clear at the outset that these would have to be the Commonwealth’s first “Commercial Games,” but when the fund-raising consortium got tantalisingly near the £14 million target it was petty of Malcolm Rifkind. the Secretary of State for Scotland, to refuse to fight in Cabinet for the funds that would have bridged the gap and given his home city and Scotland an unbeatable opportunity to perform on the world stage.   It would have been a very small amount to pay for the potential return in terms of future tourism and commercial interest.

Then the cavalry came riding over the hill.   Robert Maxwell, publisher of Mirror group Newspapers, had (with nothing more binding than a handshake) apparently won control of the Games, unseated Ken Borthwick as chairman, and in the process won himself enormous publicity.   But when the cavalry comes to the   rescue they are supposed to fly in with a life-saving charge, not stand on the hill-top trumpeting for reinforcements which are still some way over the horizon.   In return for his dramatic winning of the Games Maxwell seems to have offered nothing more than a promise to do three things: to campaign vigorously for further injections of commercial money, to explore advertising  and sponsorship opportunities which the Games organisers had missed, and to demand that the Government throws some cash into the pot.

Major sponsors such as Guinness, who have put money rather than hot air, into the Games must wonder whether they have got the full return on their investments when one of the most formidable personal publicity machines in the UK won the top seat so cheaply.   As one Scottish newspaper pointed out, it was as if the annual newspaper ‘silly season’ had started early this year; indeed if it was not for the fact that these indignities are being inflicted on our country and our sport it would be all rather comical.  ….

Returning to the boycott threat, having apportioned blame in all directions for the commercial shambles, we would like to at least applaud the Scottish Commonwealth Games Council for having tried its damnedest to keep the Games intact (and indeed Edinburgh District Council, although their methods at last year’s Dairy Crest Games were less than diplomatic).      The Games Council cannot be held responsible for the selfish attitudes of rugby administrators and players determined to flaunt the Gleneagles agreement on sporting links with South Africa now could they prevent the Daily Mail and the Home Office conspiring to polarise Commonwealth opinion over their handling of the Zola Budd affair.   Whatever the situation on July 24th, Scotland’s Runner can only join sports lovers everywhere in hoping that the merchants and politicians finally got their act together in time to salvage the Games.”  

This is not the entire article but he doesn’t mess around – he says what he thinks: and what he thought was endorsed by most of the Scottish sporting public.   He mentions the Gleneagles Agreement had been signed at Gleneagles in 1977 and discouraged sporting contact with teams from South Africa because of their apartheid policies – read about it at this wikipedia link  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gleneagles_Agreement     As far as the boycott of the Games by the African teams is concerned, it was a great deal to do with the Thatcher government’s attitude, Philly.com said frankly in 1986:   “Thatcher is virtually alone in the Commonwealth in arguing that sanctions against South Africa will not work, but in October she persuaded the other heads of Commonwealth governments to appoint a delegation to find ways to open a dialogue between the South African government and black nationalist leaders.”   Despite the agreement, England’s rugby team toured South Africa in 1984 although the Lion’s tour in 1986 was cancelled.   The Edinburgh Games Committee took a very public stand against the English tour but to no avail.  The whole story can be found at  http://www.bl.uk/sportandsociety/exploresocsci/politics/articles/boycotts.pdf .

Doug Gillon’s major article in the middle of the second issue of the magazine.   Starting with a look back at 1970 when Scottish chances of any gold medals were scoffed at (other than McCafferty – if we’re lucky!)   Looking ahead, Peter Matthews (ITV commentator) said we would get two – silver for Parsons in the High Jump and bronze for Liz in the 10000m.    Before looking at the prospects for 1986, he retells the story of an Englishman who wrote off Lachie’s victory over Ron Clarke in the 10000m by saying that a champion should win like a champion – from the front.   Jim Alder came back at him.   England’s great athletics hero Chris Chataway in his epic duel with Vladimir Kuts had led for 20 yards – the last 20!”   Doug says, in an article that is still worth reading, “There is certainly no lack of ambition.   The American philosophy of ‘First’s first, second’s nowhere!” alternatively expressed by “winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing” is a sentiment that many home athletes share.   They just are not as obtrusive about it as the Yanks.   But on current ranking, at the time of going to press, the reality is that not one Scot tops the Commonwealth lists in his or her event.   But the impact of national fervour cannot be underestimated.   I believe that Scotland has genuine medal prospects in Tom McKean (800m), Allister Hutton (10000m), John Graham (marathon), Geoff Parsons (High Jump) and the 4 x 400m relay provided the squad can get their act together.   I also believe that the hopes of gold are greater with the women.   Nobody should underestimate the talent of Yvonne Murray in the 1500m and more particularly, the 3000m, of Liz Lynch in the 3000m and 10000m, or of Lorna Irving in the marathon.   And Chris Whittingham has already carved three seconds from her 1500m personal best this year, running in Oslo, where she clocked 4:06.24, a time inside the Games record.

It will hopefully be third time lucky for her family.   Her twin, Evelyn, competed in 1974 at Christchurch, both of them were in Edmonton where Chris placed fourth in the 1500m.   In addition Christine’s husband Mike was edged out of the medals in the 400 metres hurdles in Brisbane.   There are several other events with lesser medal prospects and national and native records will fall regularly.”    The article continues with an appraisal of the Games as a whole.

The magazine contained other articles relevant to the Games – an interview by Bob Holmes with Geoff Parsons (who was to go on to win silver), several items in the Up Front section including one on the Guinness ‘Commonwealth Friendship Scroll’ travelling round the Commonwealth.     

SR Lynch

The cover picture of Issue Number Three, September 1986, tells the story!    The men’s 10000m gold medal of 1970 had been equalled by the women’s 10000m gold in 1986.   By the time the magazine hit the streets, the Games were  over but the magic of Liz’s medal was still in the air and the delightful picture on the cover above just summed up everyone’s delight at the result.   Doug was given the two middle pages to ‘Report On The Games’ with another superb photograph of the end of the women’s 200 metres showing the first three in full flight.   Doug wrote:

” …. Jake Young, a teacher at Edinburgh Academy identified the talent of sprinter Jamie Henderson and commendably realised there were people better equipped than he to develop the boy’s potential.   In less than a year under Bob Inglis’s care, Henderson had won gold and bronze at the World Junior Championships and bronze in the Commonwealth Games relay.  

In cold statistics there were many who did not live up to expectation in Edinburgh.   Injury in some cases saw to that.   Janice Neilson never competed at all and Lindsey McDonald appeared to be limping during her warm-up and clearly competed in pain.   Moira McBeath from Thurso who finished seventh in the final of the semi-final of the 400m hurdles is pregnant.   Our three men’s 400m hurdlers all failed to match their best.   Neither  Allister Hutton nor Nat Muir came anywhere near threatening the Scottish native best for 10000m or 5000m which has stood since the 1970 Commonwealth Games, despite having run well inside these marks.   The long jump of 7.51m that gave Dave Walker sixth place in 1970 was one centimetre further than sixth place in 1986; the heptathlon long jump of 6.39m by Moira Walls in 1970 would have won her the bronze medal in the individual event this time; and the Scottish women’s relay squad have still not run any faster than the 45.2 seconds which an Edinburgh Southern Harriers squad achieved to win the WAAA title in 1970.

Worse, the boycott would almost certainly have stopped us from winning at least two of the six medals won.   But athletes can only beat those who turn up on the day.   Sandra Whittaker surpassed expectation in becoming the first Scottish woman ever to win a Commonwealth sprint medal, maintaining her style spectacularly over the final 20 metres when it counted.   The men’s relay squad succeeded against the odds.   Cameron Sharp, nursing himself round with an excruciating back and leg injury after sacrificing his personal aspirations in the 200m to do so.   And George McCallum tore his right hamstring yards before the vital final takeover to Elliott Bunney.

The highlight was of course Liz Lynch’s stunning 10000m victory.   It was a great gamble for the Dundee woman who was ranked top of the 3000m starters.   Had she known the 3000m would have been a straight final, she would have attempted the double.   The girl from Whitfield in Dundee was another who had a  haphazard introduction to the sport.   She went with a group of friends to Dundee Hawkhill Harriers and left almost immediately.   It was only later that she returned.   It was the late Harry Bennett who converted Liz from a 100/200 runner to  a distance athlete before she left to study in the USA at a junior college and then at Alabama.   Yvonne Murray, who settled for bronze but made a brave bid for gold in the 3000m, was spotted playing hockey by her biology teacher, Bill Gentleman.   Tom McKean however has had a more normal progress in the sport, a member of Bellshill YMCA since shortly after his eleventh birthday, and nursed delicately by coach Tommy Boyle.   His silver medal behind Steve Cram was a national record and bettered a native one that had stood to Mike McLean, chairman of the selection committee for the Games since 1970.   Geoff Parsons fell one short of his ambition to win gold but equalled his British outdoor record to do so.  

At this time last year, Jamie Henderson was pulling on an Edinburgh Academy cricket sweater.   The Games were something that would be happening in his native city the following year.   He might buy a ticket or two and go and watch.   Or he might not.   Instead the sweater was resurrected like a prop from the wardrobe room of Chariots of Fire, and Henderson wore it on his way to the starting blocks for the men’s 100m final at Meadowbank last month when he became the youngest man to contest a Commonwealth sprint final since the 17 year old Dan Quarrier struck gold in the capital 16 years before.   Henderson wore it again when he Groge McCallum, Cameron Sharp and Elliott Bunney came out to take the relay bronze.   A year is a short time in athletics, but the progress made by Henderson in that time is perhaps the most heartening thing to emerge from the Commonwealth Games.   And that is not to minimise the stunning success of the delightfully unspoiled Liz Lynch.   For the emergence of the Edinburgh teenager in so short a space of time is proof that the basic natural resource of the sport is flourishing in Scotland.   But we must have more input.   Otherwise these resources will be burned and wasted like a puff of spent tobacco.”

That is most of Doug’s article and it was the only major one in “Scotland’s Runner” that month.    The following month brought an article by John Anderson under the title of “Why Are We So Bad?” and a report by Doug Gillon on another event that certainly affected the Commonwealth Games – the European Championships later that year.

SR 3

John’s article read:

” … we have a cultural heritage second to none, one which promotes the twin elements of dedication and passion.   The Scottish tradition is to learn well and fight hard to achieve.   We must harness that.

POTENTIAL

Clubs come in all shapes and sizes, some well organised and well resourced others which barely survive from year to year.   Some clubs have a large variety of facilities and can provide their members with a complete range of opportunities, coaching and competition, supported by an excellent organisation.   Such clubs  however are limited, largely through no fault of the club but either because they are geographically isolated, or by the nature of their limited resources they are unable to provide comprehensive opportunity to those in their area.   It is important to recognise the contribution made by schools.   The Scottish athletic tradition has been to a large extent built on the excellent network developed at this level.   But this marvellous tradition is in jeopardy as teachers consider whether they can afford to continue.   If the school involvement dimishes, this will pose further problems for clubs and the development of the sport.  

But however many clubs there are, and no matter how well equipped and funded, they cannot function without the voluntary club official.   Like the clubs they come in all shapes and sizes, but have in common a desire to give their time freely in order to ensure that others enjoy the full range of opportunities in athletics.   These people must fulfil many functions.   They have to be first-class administrators, able to deal with the secretarial and financial aspects of the organisation, and they certainly have to deal with fund-raising since most clubs usually exist on a hand-to-mouth basis at best.   There also have to be coaches to advise the young athletes and there must be conpetitions organised, and the structure to provide the numerous judges, timekeepers and other officials.   So, on the plus side, Scotland has a multitude of willing voluntary helpers, the backbone of athletics without whom the sport would cease to exist, or at least would exist in a very limited form.   We also of course have outstanding performers who have emerged to put a little dash of colour on Scottish athletics.   In addition to the one or two jewels in the crown is the very substance of athletics, the performers.   Some argue that athletics is about providing for these people rather than for the elite, but the argument of course is specious because all athletes are part of the sport.   The top encourages the bottom.   Aspiration and achievement are recognised throughout the sport and therefore those who achieve the highest levels act as a stimulus to those whose performance and talent are not at that level.   It is important to identify at the outset that the pursuit of better performance is the driving force within athletics.   One cannot just take part.

If it is accepted that all athletes are aspiring to improve and that officials are there to help bring this to fruition, we have to look at whether the existing structure achieves these ends.   The sport, including cross-country and road running, is too fragmented for effective management structure.   Any management consultant would feel that the ability to implement new initiatives would be restricted in view of the small population and large land area.   The existing structure does not ensure that those who live in the more outlandish places are given an equal opportunity with those in the central belt.   There are many self evident criticisms which might be directed in terms of management organisation and structure given the current framework, but suffice to say that the current structure is a nonsense and cannot achieve even a small part of what it sets out to do.   We need organisation and radical change.  

The problem of scale outside the central belt means that athletes are not given equal opportunity – or even an adequate opportunity – to take part in club athletics or competitions.   This is compounded by the fact that very few clubs are able to offer a full range of facilities in terms of road running, cross-country and all the various forms of athletics – throwing, jumping, pole vault, etc.   In many cases they even lack the required level of coaching expertise.   It is therefore necessary to find ways in which the resources might be used more effectively and efficiently.   In some if not all parts of Scotland the competition structure leaves a good deal to be desired ,   Certainly there are many very good competitions available.   These have grown over the past few years and are a credit to those who organise them.   But they are centred largely on the central belt and tend to leave others in isolation.   There are different modes of competition, the lifeblood of the sport, which might be brought into such areas to the benefit of the raising of standards.  

Competition is based on the existing club set-up but this is clearly inadequate.   What we must do now is build on that structure which has stood the test of time.   The older clubs must pool their resources, building an area structure on top, evolve the concept of more wide-ranging competition.   This could take the form of inter-area matches in throws, jumps and pole vault, others in sprints and hurdles, others still  in the middle distance races.   It should not be beyond the wit of man to devise this.    Scots traditionally reflect great national pride.   It is in evidence in all the national sports events when the Scottish people demonstrate their loyalty and pride in their heritage.   Sadly this very often is not reflected in the way in which our organisations function.   It may well be suggested that there is no really strong national feeling or sense of responsibility in Scottish athletics, that the sport is too parochial. that   it sells itself almost exclusively to individual clubs and those within these clubs concern themselves with ‘The Club’ rather than examining how the whole national scene can be improved.  

We must examine the sport’s funding in Scotland and different methods of financing must be promoted and developed.   Certainly if further development is to come then the whole area of sponsorship and support from local authorities, quite apart from national level involvement must be scrutinised.  As a Glaswegian I am ashamed to note that in spite of being one of the largest areas of population, Glasgow has languished behind not only Edinburgh, but many other smaller places between Glasgow and Edinburgh in its provision of facilities.   It borders on a national disgrace that Glasgow has only recently acquired one synthetic track for its entire population – this from a city which promotes itself as being ‘miles better.’    One track is inadequate and even the new Kelvin Hall project will only scratch the surface of the lack of indoor facilities.   Until that is resolved nationwide, Scotland’s adverse weather conditions will certainly limit the development of technical events.  

Tradition is a two edged sword.   It can be a positive or a negative weapon.   In Scotland the young are taught that the club is the focus of all activity, superseding all others.   By definition all else falls by the wayside.   Youngsters are taught to be hostile to other clubs, to succeed at the expense of others.   What is taught is negative.    We should be sharing our limited resources.   Very, very seldom do you hear of clubs sharing their knowledge, expertise or facilities or assisting other clubs.   All the clubs in the Edinburgh area, for example, could be pooling their resources.   There would be enough coaches to go round and a scouting system could be developed to tap into the schools.   Instead they are too frightened of the possibility of poaching.   The clubs are too selfish.   The questions they must ask themselves  are, “Is the sport bigger than the club?   Do they care enough about the sport they profess to believe in to change things?”

The allegation of Scottish small-mindedness is one that has to be looked at.   We  Scots have to bury our parochial attitudes in the interests of national development.

SOLUTIONS

The control, administration and management of Scottish athletics must be re-structured and reorganised.   A diverse and fragmented administrative structure leads to inefficiency and ineffectiveness.   A single administrative office was a step forward but one body for a country the size and population of Scotland is the answer.   The form that body should take and the responsibilities it should have are matters which can be resolved with goodwill on all sides.   This questions the motives of the adults who run Scottish athletics.   It is the officials, who put in many hours of effort, who actually control the sport.   The athletes themselves, although capable of decisions, are motivated by participation rather than politics, and it will always be thus.   So the responsibility for the future lies with those officials, and they now carry an onerous responsibility.   No doubt the vast majority of national officials come altruistically into the sport, but over the years that altruism becomes blunted.   The fragmented nature of Scottish athletics is perpetuated by misguided individuals reinforcing the separate entities of the sport, men’s and women’s track, men’s and women’s cross-country.   There is little to suggest in recent years these incumbents have made any effort to bring the organisations together for the good of the athletes and the sport.  Instead they seem intent on retaining their power.

They have the power to run the sport more effectively, but that will require sacrifices from them.   The tendency is to focus attention on their own club’s particular role.   What is needed is a magnanimity of spirit and attitude in the interest of the sport nationally.   These people must look beyond their own role and examine the contribution which could be made if they took a less parochial stance.   The leaders of Scottish athletics must do precisely that  …  lead Scotland into building a new structure, one more efficient and effective, one able to respond rapidly to the needs and demands of the athletes.   We should be riding on the high of the enthusiasm generated by the Commonwealth Games and the success Britain achieved at the European Championships at Stuttgart.   We owe it to the new generation of Scottish athletes.”

That’s John’s article and it makes interesting reading.   At the time it was written, Scottish athletics was governed by the SAAA, SWAAA, SCCU and SWCCU – he was one of the first to propose the amalgamation of the four bodies into the Scottish Athletics Federation, and as usual with John, the priority was always the good of the competitors.   A lot of what he has said about competition and clubs away from the central belt has also come to pass.

Marathon Personals

Marathon Trio

Fergus, Jim and Donald

(The picture and Donald’s version of the race have been taken from Donald’s excellent biography, “Running My Life” which covers his running career and much more and should be in the library of every Scottish distance runner)

Several of the men in the marathon (there was no women’s marathon in the 1970 Games) have written of their experiences and their build up to the race and they all have a slightly different perspective on how to prepare for such an event – there are many ways up the mountain – and how the race unfolded.   So I will take some extracts from some of these books and place them here – the details of the books will be given so that they can be borrowed from the library or bought from your nearest book seller.   First off the blocks (for a marathon runner?) is Jim Alder’s story from his excellent book, “Marathon and Chips” which was written in collaboration with Arthur McKenzie and published in 1972 by Alder Sports.  Alder had of course won the Empire and Commonwealth Games marathon in Jamaica in 1966 and was the defending champion.   Jim had been selected to be the man who carried the baton into the stadium and present it to Prince Philip at the start of the Games and he tells of that as the start to the marathon experience.   He says, “”Four and a half minutes before we marched onto the field I was whisked into a side door of the stadium and handed a small pile of non-branded sports equipment and told to change pronto.  The teams marched out and my family saw I wasn’t there and passed the comment, ‘He’s missed the parade, typical.’   Once all the teams were lined up I was handed a silver baton and ran out into the stadium.   A tremendous roar went up, the noise was deafening and brought goose bumps to the skin and a lump in my throat.  It was fairytale stuff, on the up again and as I handed the baton over to Prince Philip to officially signify the opening, HRH said with a smile, “Have you run all the way from Canada?”   A marvellous experience and one which very few athletes have experienced and I am proud I was picked.”   Just as well Youngson did not sneak the baton away on its travels in Aberdeen!

On to the race itself.   “On the morning of the marathon I awoke to hear the wind slapping the guide ropes on the flag poles, clanking away.   There was rain early on but the sun came out eventually and the humidity was high.  What had Clayton said?   I was good in bad conditions.   The line up was fantastic, Hill (England), Clayton (Australia), Drayton (Canada), Foster (New Zealand), Adcocks (England), Macgregor (Scotland), Murray (Scotland), Temu (Kenya) and a host of others, possibly one of the best line-ups ever.

Clayton went off too quickly, the pace was suicidal and most of them followed like maniacs.   I settled into ninth place with Hill; Clayton, Drayton and Singh were leading at five miles in a time of 23:45 and all three were on target for a world record.   I was going fast but felt well within myself and once again teamed up with Bill Adcocks, together we forged ahead.   At eight miles, Clayton began to move backwards, we could see he was finished so as we approached – there’s that bugger Clayton – right – one on either side, we nudged him in the sides like a sandwich for shooting his mouth off to the Press – sweet revenge indeed.   At the turning point we were in about fourth place and could see the faces of the others as they passed like ships in the night.   Ron Hill with his shaved head was in phenomenal condition and I knew instinctively he was unbeatable – Drayton was out of it, written all over his face, but the Tanzanian, Stephen, caught up as I turned.   At fifteen miles we caught Drayton as he was looking behind him, once marathon runners do this they are hanging on for survival.   As we passed him, I said to Bill, “Right, it’s silver and bronze.”   But Stephen was still hanging on.   Hill’s time at twenty miles was one hour 37 minutes and mine one hour and 39 minutes.   Stephen was dropped at twenty one miles but by then Don Faircloth had moved into third place to take over from BIll and pressing 150 yards behind.   As if by fate at the twenty one mile marker, Bruce Tulloh was standing cheering exactly as he had been in Jamaica, it was uncanny to see him there, the spirit of fortune.   Two miles to go I died, breathing became hard and head rolling but entry into the stadium and the crowd’s roar lifted me enough to enable me to run in and pick up the silver.”

“The medal ceremony was a moving experience especially seeing Scotland’s flag unfurled, realising it was flying for me once more – and front of my home crowd.   That night I spent with the family at a friend’s, Jack Carcas in Edinburgh.  I couldn’t sleep a wink, running and re-running the race ……………At the village the next day I was treated as top dog.   David Coleman of the BBC approached me in the cafeteria with Clayton for a chat and Derek shook my hand warmly and apologised for his previous behaviour – this was a nice gesture and my estimation of Clayton as a man rose immeasurably.”   (Clayton had said publicly earlier in the build-up to the race that Alder was over-rated and lacked basic speed).

*

Donald Macgregor has run more sub-2:20 marathons than any other Scot, he is known to prepare carefully for every major  marathon in which he takes part and this one was a really big one; he is also known for his racing tactics and ability to ‘think on his feet’.   His account of the race reads as follows:

“As the race day approached I had still not decided what shoes to wear.   The reason was that my previous racing shoes were rather battered and I needed to replace them but had not been able to find a pair that I liked.   Puma had provided red racers rather like the white model that Bill Adcocks had worn when winning the Marathon to Athens race in 2:11, but the soles were too thin, and I had passed them on to Dave Logue who also took size nine and a half.   Gareth came up with the solution by lending me a pair of well-used dark blue suede Adidas racers which I was able to ‘run-in’ to my own specifications over the last three or four days.

‘Race day dawned and, thank goodness, it was not excessively hot,’ as Dunky Wright had said in 1965 in a BBC broadcast about the 1932 Los Angeles Olympic marathon.   That Thursday, 23rd July 1970 was pretty warm, however, and for just about the first time anyone could recall there was practically no  wind on the course.   The prevailing wind was normally from the west but that das wind still.   Dunky’s sentence about the start of the 1932 marathon begins: ‘We set off a a steady six minutes to the mile on our watches.’   The 1970 field did not.   There were only thirty starters but they included several of the world’s greatest marathon exponents, such as the Lancashire-born Aussie Derek Clayton, holder of the world’s best  (2:08:33.2), Jerome Drayton of Canada who had run 2:11:13 in winning at Fukuoka in 1969), Jeff Julian of New Zealand, one of Arthur Lydiard’s original NZ stars, his team-mate Jack Foster, a late starter in running who was now 40, the English trio of Ron Hill, the obsessive Lancastrian, the 21 year old Don Faircloth from Croydon, who had shocked the cognoscenti by winning the ‘Poly’ to qualify for the English team, and Bill Adcocks the outstanding Coventry racer.   Philip Ndoo of Kenya and John Stephens (Tanzania) were the main African challengers, along with Sinkala of Zambia, Rwabu (Uganda) and Dlamini (Swaziland).   Mike Teer and Mike Cranny represented Northern Ireland, Mike Rowland, Dai Davies and Cyril Leigh Wales, while Harnek Singh and YD Birdar started for India.  Ken Grant, a former Dundee Hawkhill Harrier and S Alecio wore the colours of Gibraltar.   Fergus Murray, Jim Alder and I were of course the home favourites.

Jim had been put in a state of incandescent fury by an article in the Sunday Post under the headline ‘It it’s snowing, put your money on Jim.’   The basis for the headline was an interview with Derek Clayton in which the tall Australian had said that if the pace was fast, Jim would not have the class to keep up but that if the race was run in extremely windy . hot or cold   conditions, then and only then would he have a chance.   Naturally Jim resented that suggestion and was determined to hit a fast pace and give Clayton something to think about, or die in the attempt.

The initial pace was well inside five minute miling.   Four runners went through 5 miles in 23:31, those being  Drayton, Clayton, Ndoo and HIll.   Next came Harnek Singh in a very optimistic 23:57, 12 seconds up on Stephen, Alder, Adcocks, Murray and me.   Fergus and I decided that the field was ‘bound to come back’ as the leader Ron Hill was nearly two minutes ahead of us with 47:45.   Unfortunately some of the field had no intention of coming back.  

WE caught a glimpse of Ron Hill soon after the turn as he headed westwards into the sunny afternoon.   He passed 15 miles in 1:12:18, 59 seconds up on Jerome Drayton and 69 ahead of Alder and John Stephen.    Adcocks, Foster, Clayton and Moore made up the leading eight.   However by 20 miles we were seventh and eighth, both Clayton and Drayton having cruised to a halt by the roadside.   Our time was 1:42:02 but we were 41 seconds down on Jack Foster whose pace showed no signs of slowing.   It became a battle of mind over matter, and Fergus gradually drew away from me to finish in seventh place only 22 seconds behind Bill Adcocks.  

Ron Hill, string vest and all, had set a new UK best with 2:09.28, an astonishing performance.   He had to wait  2:36 before Jim Alder crossed the  line in a much improved personal best of 2:12:04.   So much for ‘if it snows, put your money on Jim.’   Don Faircloth was another who recorded a world class time (2:12:19).   Foster (2:14:44), Stephen (2:15:05), Adcocks (2:15:10) and Fergus (2:15:32) paled by comparison, while my 2:16:53, Mike Teer’s 2:17:24, and the other three sub-2:20 clockings of Andy Boychuk (Canada), Mike Rowlands and Cyril Leigh (both Wales) could all be classified as just ‘good.’   Even so, I took satisfaction from a personal best.   Gareth, not long after finishing fourth in the steeplechase final, came out along the road to watch us finishing and was too tired to keep up with his own shoes, as I headed towards the stadium.” 

The third Scot in action in that wonderful race was Edinburgh’s Fergus Murray and here is what he had to say on it in August 2011.

Mt recollections of the marathon generally reflect that I did my best although with hindsight  of modern preparations, perhaps  ?   I am sure others would have similarly reviewed their approach.   The “buzz” on preparation for  marathon racing was an approach advocated by Ron Hill and involved carbohydrate depletion over three days followed by “loading”.   I followed this but found no benefit, indeed, the accompanying tiredness did nothing for confidence!

Training had gone well with a succession of 100 miles plus a week of quality training.   I do note that I did not race on the track in 1970 which was perhaps a mistake as speed/racing had been sacrificed for training.   The race itself was notable for the exceptionally fierce pace right from the start and I never got in contention for the lead.   Caution was perhaps the right approach, as the leaders went through 5 miles in 23:31.   I was two minutes adrift at 10 miles but still reached that point in 49:34 … amply fast enough.   The Games Marathon was also graced with five of the fastest marathon runners of all time, so personal heroics might well have ended up sitting at the road side.   This relatively restrained approach bore fruit as several dropped out or came back through the field.  

Although Don and I ran relatively close together, there was no pact to help each other.   Jim was away up front doing his best to retain his title from Jamaica, coming in a brilliant second.   Don and I ran well coming home ein seventh and eighth in what was, for that era, fast times.   It was a pity that there was no team race as we would have earned silver behind England.  

One interesting feature of the race was some of the scientific work done on the distance runners from lung capacity to fluid loss.   The majority lost some 6 lbs during the race, largely fluid, which is a significant percentage of body weight.   Taking on fluid in those days had nothing like the scientific approach of modern runners.   Indeed, distance runners of that era generally trained with friends and didn’t have the benefit (?) of the current support  ranging from physiotherapy through to psychological.”

*

“A succession of 100 miles plus a week of quality training…” says Fergus.    100 miles a week was the common currency of marathon runners at the time – Lydiard’s book “Run To The Top” with its recommended 10 weeks at 100 miles a week had appeared in 1964 and soon everybody was doing 100 mpw whether their distance was 800m or marathon.    It was the marathon men who made it their own and many went beyond that – for example Roger Matthews of England who had run in Lachie’s 10000m had at one point done 200 mpw as had Jeff Julian the New Zealand marathon runner.    One man who knew all about big miles was Bill Adcocks who had been at the top for some time with an incredible record.    In the twelve months to May 1969 he had run five marathons including a 2:10, a 2:11 and a 2:12 at a time when no other British marathon runner had been inside 2:13.       If we jump to the year of 1970, he won the marathon at Otsu in Japan in 2:13:45 after ten weeks averaging 101.3 miles just fourteen weeks before the Commonwealth race.   He only averaged 94.6 in the ten weeks leading to that one. but there’s a tale to be told.   Having suffered a foot injury he dropped his miles to 70, then 58 and then 50 before taking five days off.    As an indicator of how reluctant the marathon men of the time were to rest up unless totally unavoidable, it’s a fairly good one!    Selected for the Games in mid-June, he recorded in his Diary on 14th June, “Must get some miles in” at the start of a week in which I ran 103 miles despite needing treatment on my foot and back.    A the end of a 126 miles week, I finished second in the Worcester 10 in 50:21 on 27th June – beaten by my club-mate Colin Kirkham.   “Result was a combination of tiredness due to first good week’s training for weeks  and coming up against someone in good form,” I noted in my Diary.   “Not disheartened – a guide to how it’s going.”   The following week I managed 118 miles and a win in the Welwyn Half Marathon, one of only a small number of races over what was a new-fangled distance back then.   Then came 122 miles in the last week before I went up to Edinburgh.   …. The following day, after a 22 mile run – 12 of them on my own – in very warm weather, I travelled up to Edinburgh.   It was a new experience to live in a village environment in the UK, but the Edinburgh University halls of residence were first class.   In fact, all the infrastructure and eating arrangements were excellent.    If only the weather had been as good!   But it was often wet.   And the cool temperatures caused some visiting teams to request that the heating be turned on.   It was a fair request but, as there were no individual controls in each room, it was not to my liking.    I developed a sore throat, for which I was prescribed anti-biotics.   Little did I realise what an effect this could have on my chances!

There is a two word entry in my training diary for Thursday, 23 July 1970: ‘Commonwealth Marathon.’   No more.   No words could adequately describe the helplessness I’d felt in the race.   All the weeks and hundreds of miles of training counted for nothing after that sore throat and those antibiotics.    A struggle into sixth place in 2:15:10 was not catastrophic but it was no reflection of what I felt I could do when I arrived in Edinburgh.   Up the road ahead of me, Ron Hill proved that this was his purple patch with a resounding win in another record time.   The defending champion Jim Alder was second, almost ten minutes faster than his winning time four years earlier in the heat of the West Indies.   England new boy, Don Faircloth won the bronze medal.”  

(The extract is from Bill’s autobiography, “The Road To Athens”   written in 2004, published by amrec69 in Coventry.   Written in collaboration with Trevor Frecknall, with an intro by Cliff Franks (a Scottish cross-country runner from Greenock, it is an excellent book.)

Remember of course that Adcocks was the man who was second to Jim in Jamaica in 1966.    Adcocks was a wonderful runner who trained hard and raced a lot: a first class club runner who proved that you could perform regularly/frequently for your club and still do it at international level.   He was never one for excuses, and one has to feel sorry for him on this occasion.

*

In 1970 Ron Hill was undoubtedly ‘top dog’ in marathon running – Bill Adcocks had filled the role admirably for several years before 1970 and it was not at all clear that he could not stay or get back to that level at all.   You have read already of how, following several misfortunes, he was still in sixth in 2:15!    However Edinburgh 1970 was to be Hill’s and Colin Youngson has taken the following extracts from his book, “Run to the Top”.  Let him set the scene.

“On 20th April, 1970 Ron Hill had made himself favourite for the Edinburgh Commonwealth Games marathon by becoming the first British runner to win the famous Boston marathon (in a pb of 2:10:30.1).   This was to end up the second fastest-time recorded for the marathon that year.   The fastest was run on the 23rd July by the very same athlete.   After a ten-week build-up, running well over 100 miles per week, including several hard repetition sessions, a 20 mile race, a half marathon and an international 10,000m, Ron drove his family up from near Manchester, settled into the Games village, and eight days before the race, started his secret ‘pre-marathon diet’, which involved four days of low carbohydrate and continued training, (on the fourth day  he still ran seven and a half miles twice, despite feeling weak.)   Then he had three days on a high-carbohydrate diet.   On race day, his breakfast featured: “porridge with bags of sugar, poached egg, bacon, brown bread with jam, sweet coffee, multi-vitamin tablet, iron tablet, vitamin C tablet and vitamin E capsule.”   Lunch was at 12:30 pm, “Two slices of brown bread and marmalade.   Salt in orange juice, then orange juice with sugar.”   The start was at 3:50 pm prompt.   Ron had a couple of glucose tablets in the last 40 minutes.

“Bang!   It was like the start of a 1500m race.  No leisurely jog, which sometimes precedes the serious part of a marathon, but a fast drive for the inside lane of the track and immediately Derek Clayton set a rapid pace.   Three of us followed him closely.   The weather was cool but humid.”   At two and a half miles, Ron inspected his rivals.   Jerome Drayton, the leader, was sweating heavily; Clayton looked pale and was not pushing the pace along as he had threatened – in fact he dropped back before long.   After a very fast five miles, the pace dropped slightly and Ron Hill felt more comfortable, running at his optimum level.   He surged up a fairly stiff hill at six miles and realised that Drayton and Ndoo (Kenya) were struggling to hang on.   However, Hill waited for them, since there was a long way to go.    Then at eight miles he decided “the time had come to make my effort.   Any more fooling around and I might make a mistake”.  Drayton dropped first and then Ndoo.  “I powered on, looking five or six yards ahead at the road, occasionally glancing up to get my line, trimming the corners, shortening the line between bends.   I was fully aware, relaxing yet running fast.”

After the turn, Ron tried to look alert to his rivals with a slight smile.    He thought that Drayton, Alder and Adcocks looked uncomfortably close.   “Now I knew the real race was ahead.   The twists and turns on the road up to 15 miles were helpful, I  could see the big clock ahead: 72:18.   It was still fast but it didn’t worry me, I was slicing away at those sub-five minute miles.   The roads had dried now, the clouds were breaking up, the summer sun was shining through, the afternoon was heating up, and with all the water about from the rain, the atmosphere was humid.   Back along the dual carriageway I began to feel the strain of leading.”

Jock Semple, of Boston Marathon fame, cheered him on from the Press bus.   Ron started to feel uncomfortable about sixteen miles: heat, the pace, flies in his eyes.   He felt better after taking his first sponge but refused drinks.   Down the steep hill after Wallyford Toll roundabout, to reach 20 miles in a very fast 1:37:30.   “This was good, it didn’t frighten me, I’d been there before, faster in fact with my 1:36:28 Pemebroke ’20’, but my pursuers were holding me.   They were holding my lead to about 1:20.   Would they now start eating into that lead?”

Withe six miles to go, Ron Hill felt tired and worried but carried on as fast as he could.   His legs felt dead at 22 miles and he hoped he would not disappoint his family by failing.   “I looked forward to the Press bus not far ahead.   How nice it would be just to step on and ride back, then go to a bar and line up a couple of pints of cool, bitter beer, and knock them back.”   Two sponges made him feel better.   “My head raised a little and my stride lengthened.”   Ron’s team-mate, Andy Holden, who had finished fifth in the steeplechase shortly before, cheered him on at 24 miles.

Ron’s final thoughts were as follows: “Let’s get home.   Don’t panic.   Relax.   Nice and easy and you’ve won it.   Thankfully downhill to the stadium.   A sharp right turn, taken carefully, then run out into the bowl of sound and the silent, soft, empty red rubber track.   I didn’t push it.   There was a full lap to go.   There was such a loud cheer that I looked round a couple of time to make sure that I was still safe, then on the back straight I risked a couple of waves at the crowd; down the home straight, and on to the tape with my fist raised high.   ‘Take that, take that!’ I said to  myself.    The thrill of winning was nothing like that I had felt in Athens (when he came through late to win the European championship).   Rather the sentiment I had was of a job completed successfully.   Even the time of 2:08:28 didn’t impress me.   Only slowly over months and years did I become proud of that 2:09.”

Scottish Best Performances

Simply the best performances by the leading Scots athlete in each event

(excluding walks and relays)

Event Name Performance Name Performance
100m L Piggott 10.5 H Golden 11.5
200m D Halliday 21.2 H Golden 23.4
400m AJ Wood 47.7 B Lyall 54.7
800m M McLean 1:49.9 R Stirling 2:06.2
1500m P Stewart 3:40.6 M McSherry 4:23.6
5000m I Stewart 13:22.8 N/A
10000m L Stewart 28:11.8 N/A
Marathon J Alder 2:12:04 N/A
110 H AT Murray 14.6 L Carruthers 14.6
400 H AG Webb 53.0 N/A
Steeplechase G Bryan Jones 8:33.8 N/A

Event Name Performance Name Performance
Long Jump D Walker 7.51m A Stevenson 6.23m
Triple Jump No Scot N/A
High Jump DN Wilson 2.04m M Walls 1.70m
Pole Vault G Rule 4.50m N/A
Shot Putt MR Lindsay 16.77m N Stuart 40′ 0.5″
Discus MR Lindsay 50.94 R Payne 54.46
Hammer LM Bryce 59.82m N/A
Javelin D Birkmyre 70.38 No Scot

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