06-17-2015, 04:23 AM
(06-17-2015, 03:17 AM)Lods link Wrote:He was a world record holder many times over but he found it difficult to win championship races.
He was an Olympic Bronze medallist in 1964 but had real trouble coping with the altitude four years later in Mexico
He lit the flame at the Melbourne Olympics as a rising junior star....he was the junior mile world record holder at the time.
Great runner, during one European season in 1964 he competed 18 times in 44 days & set 12 World Records !. He ran every race with the attitude of running it as fast as possible, not just to win the race. An attitude which had a fair bit to do with his struggling to break though in the Olympics. Mind you, at his absolute best (as he was in 1968, a class above the rest of the world) the decision to give Mexico City the Olympic Games was an appalling one for him (& most non-altitude based distance runners). He ran his absolute heart out in the 10 000m final at altitude, and ended up collapsing at the finish close to death......and was left with a permanent hole in his heart from then on.
It is a travesty that he never got the Olympic result that the rest of his career deserved.
RIP.
cheers
Mal.
Life is pain....... anyone who says differently is selling something.