John Walker, the
third of New Zealand's triumvirate of great milers, was very much a man of his
times. Whereas his predecessors, Jack Lovelock and Peter Snell, were
understated and tended to shy away from publicity, Walker was always
comfortable in front of the television cameras.
He spoke confidently and was extremely
accessible. While never neglecting the stringent training demands that his
running required, he had a down-to-earth, almost casual approach, epitomised by
his "have spikes will compete" attitude that so endeared him to
promoters on the grand prix circuit.
The mile, or its metric equivalent, the 1500m,
is a glamour event of track and field and Walker was invariably a major
drawcard at any athletics meeting. He was a track and field rock star. He was
bigger than most of his rivals and cut an impressive figure as he burnt up the
tracks of Europe, his long, flaxen hair trailing behind him.
But the style and the image would have counted
for little if he hadn't also been a champion athlete, and he was one of the
best.
His international career spanned nearly 20 years
- extraordinary durability for a runner - and his string of achievements is
mind-boggling.
Chief among them:
- Won the 1976 Montreal Olympic 1500m gold
medal.
- Became the first person to break 3min 50s for
the mile, setting a world record of 3min 49.4s.
- Set a 2000m world record that lasted a decade.
- Ran more than 100 sub-four minute miles, the
first person to reach that milestone.
- Won three Commonwealth Games medals.
Walker was one of three big-name New Zealand
distance runners who emerged at about the same time. With Dick Quax and Rod
Dixon, he blazed a trail through Europe throughout the 1970s.
As a youngster, he showed more interest in
tennis than running, but once he was taken in hand by coach Arch Jelley, his
natural talent quickly emerged. By 1972, aged 20, he was the national 800m
champion and missed selection for that year's Olympic team by a whisker.
His first sub-four minute mile was at Victoria,
Canada, in July 1973 when he blitzed a B section field and stamped himself as a
champion in the making.
The New Zealand public saw how good he was at
the 1974 Christchurch Commonwealth Games, when he took the bronze medal in the
800m in 1min 44.9s, a time still bettered only by Snell among New Zealand
athletes.
Then he chased home Filbert Bayi in a
sensational 1500m final. Bayi ran 3min 32.2s to break Jim Ryun's world record.
Walker, at 3min 32.5s, was also under the old world record. Ben Jipcho and Rod
Dixon were just outside it, yet were relegated to also-rans. It was an historic
race.
Walker beat Bayi in Europe the next year and
also turned in a 3min 32.4s 1500m. The world eagerly awaited a Walker-Bayi
showdown at the 1976 Olympics.
In 1975, Walker was supreme. He ran eight
sub-four minute miles and won them all.
The big one was at Gothenburg, on August 12,
when he thrilled 11,000 spectators with a stunning display of power and speed.
He surged across the line and into the arms of the other New Zealanders at the
track - Dixon and journalist Ivan Agnew, who told him excitedly he had gone
under 3min 50s.
That run changed his life. He was besieged by
the world's media and became the brightest star on the track and field circuit.
Track & Field News named him as Athlete of the Year for 1975.
The following year, though beginning to be
hampered by a leg problem that was eventually to require an operation, Walker
was again in a class of his own. He rated his 2000m world record of 4min 51.4s
at Oslo that year as the best he ever ran.
At the Montreal Olympics, Walker caused his
supporters some flutters when he was eliminated early from the 800m, but in the
1500m - in a field weakened by an African boycott - he was always the man to
watch.
After a slow early pace in the final, he was faced
with the prospect of having to outkick runners who were faster over 800m and
made his bid with 300m remaining.
He grabbed the lead at about the same point
Lovelock began his famous finishing burst 40 years earlier, and, though he
weakened over the last 20 metres, he had enough in hand to hold off Ivo Van
Damme and Paul-Heinz Wellmann.
His immediate reaction? "Relief. That came
before the joy. To have been favourite and to have lived up to everyone's
expectations, including mine. The relief was fantastic. They can break your
world records, but they can never take away your Olympic gold medal."
Amazingly, Walker's international career was to
last another 14 years. He set a New Zealand all-comers' record of 3min 50.6s at
Auckland in 1981, ran 3min 49.08s for the mile in 1982, and ran his 100th
sub-four minute mile on his home track at Mt Smart in 1985.
Leg injuries handicapped him and stomach cramps
forced him to cut out the longer distance work in his training. Yet took a
silver medal behind Englishman Steve Cram in the 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth
Games 1500m, then flirted, with moderate success, at the 5000m at the 1984
Olympics and 1986 Commonwealth Games.
In 1990 he made the final of the Auckland
Commonwealth Games 1500m, only to be tripped early in the race. Afterwards he
did a victory lap at the invitation of the gold medallist, Englishman Peter
Elliott.
Walker hoped to become the first person to break
four minutes for the mile after turning 40, but his attempt had to be called
off because of a leg injury.
There was a somewhat mixed reaction to Walker in
New Zealand. While everyone admired his running ability - he was Sportsman of
the Year in 1975 and 1976 and was named Sportsman of the Decade for the 1970s -
his outspokenness grated on some. Overseas there were no such caveats. He was
admired at all the circuit stops in Europe and was a special favourite of the
autograph hunters at London's Crystal Palace.
Steve Ovett called Walker a pioneer and said he
did more than anyone to popularise athletics in Europe. "I looked up to
John Walker and I can't say that about many people," said Ovett.
Walker was awarded the Lonsdale Cup in 1975 and
1976, was inducted into the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame in 1990 and
eventually the Mt Smart Stadium track in Auckland was renamed John Walker Track
- in the days before
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John's Games History
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Commonwealth Games Auckland 1990
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Commonwealth Games Edinburgh 1986
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Olympic Summer Games Los Angeles 1984
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Commonwealth Games Brisbane 1982
- 2
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Olympic Summer Games Montreal 1976
- 1
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Commonwealth Games Christchurch 1974
- 2
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