Presto! Presto! Prestissimo!!!The concert violinist with another vibrant sporting string to her bow Valerie Ball, the leading British woman quarter-miler and half-miler of the late 1940s and early 1950s, would no doubt have been at complete social ease with the aristocratic president of the sport’s ruling body, theWAAA, who was the Countess of Derby. Miss Ball was the daughter of an eminent botanist, Sir Nigel Gresley Ball, and her grandfather, Sir Charles Irwin Ball, had been the most senior member of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Ireland. An uncle of her father’s was the Royal Astronomer in the 19th Century. One of her two brothers, also named Sir Charles Ball, was a director of numerous prosperous companies, including Barclay’s Bank and Sun Alliance insurance. Her ultra-fashionable address in later married life was close to her parents at Broadlands Court, alongside Kew Gardens, in south-west London.

The Native Canadian distance-runners at the 1912 Olympic Games  At least four athletes of North American Native origin competed at the 1912 Olympic Games, and the best known of them is Jim Thorpe, the dominant pentathlon and decathlon winner who was later deprived of his titles for having previously played professional baseball, and then in the fullness of time reinstated. One of his US team-mates was Lewis Tewanima (sometimes spelled “Tewanina”), who was the silver-medallist at 10,000 metres, and two of the other distance-runners at those Games were Alex Decouteau and Joe Keeper, of Canada, who were both Cree Indians by birth. Decouteau's name, like Tewanima's, was subject to other interpretation, sometimes spelled “DeCouteau” or changed to “Decoteau” and apparently pronounced “Dakota”.

The Neglected Legacy of El MabroukThe story of North Africa’s first World-class middle-distance runner The most familiar image of Patrick El Mabrouk is of him charging along in a group of athletes into the final home straight of the Olympic 1500 metres of 1952. Josy Barthel, of Luxemburg, and Bob McMillen, of the USA, were the surprising gold-medallist and silver-medallist respectively that day, ahead of the joint World record-holder, Werner Lueg, of Germany. Missing out on a place on the rostrum were Britain’s Roger Bannister, 4th, and El Mabrouk, 5th, though both set national records of 3:46.0 (actually 3:46.30 and 3:46.35).

The Shapwick Express Reaches Journey’s End Late – 111 Years Late, To Be Precise Much more than a century after his greatest triumphs, and 70 years after his death, Great Britain’s first athlete to become an Olympic champion is at last receiving the accolades due to him. At the Paris Games of 1900 Charles Bennett won the 1500 metres and led home the victorious British team in the 5000 metres team race, but his achievement has long been lightly regarded – even by informed statisticians and historians – because those events were then in their infancy and his times, though record-breaking, were of no great note. Yet the Olympic successes were only part of a highly successful athletics career which entitles Bennett to be remembered as one of the finest distance-runners of his generation … or any other, for that matter..

The tragedy of an “old friend” from Poland Of the three men who had the temerity to challenge the Flying Finns in the 1936 Berlin Olympic 10,000 metres, two lived to a grand old age – Alec Burns, of Great Britain, to 95 and Kohei Murakoso, of Japan, to 92. The third of them was the man who had won the English AAA six miles a month or so previously, Józef Noji, of Poland, but his destiny was a tragic one. Like his fellow-countryman, Janusz Kusocinski, who had beaten the Finns for the Olympic 10,000 metres title in 1932, Noji died at the hands of the Germans during World War II, murdered at the age of 33 after being sent to Auschwitz concentration camp.

The Women's Olympic 800 Metres of 1960:Detailed analysis and fragmented memories by Bob Phillips No women's race further than 200 metres had been contested at the Olympic Games for 32 years. The International Olympic Committee – totally male dominated – had set its face against any event which the members regarded as being too strenuous for women ever since the 800 metres at the Amsterdam Games of 1928 had allegedly ended with distressing scenes of exhausted competitors. That event was at long last revived for the 1960 Rome Games, and so the 27 valiant young women from 15 countries who reported for the heats could be excused for imagining that they were being put to an even more severe test than any Olympic competition commonly entailed.

Tomorrow’s Paavo Nurmi. Today’s lone leader. Yesterday’s four-minute hopes In 1940 and 1941, as war raged throughout much of Europe, track and field activity continued unabated in the USA, and for a while it seemed as if one of a talented group of Americans might be the first to threaten the four-minute-mile “barrier”, rather than any of the Swedes thriving in neutrality. The fastest outdoor mile in either of those years was run not by Hägg or Andersson but by Charles Fenske, of the USA (4:08.3), and four other Americans were better than 4:08 indoors. Only Glenn Cunningham, the former World record-holder, could really be discounted from any pursuit of that tantalising “sub-four-minute” target. He had already said that 1940 would be his last season, and his hopes of ending his career with Olympic 1500 metres gold were, of course, dashed with the cancellation of the Games that year.

Walter Dohm: “Taking advantage of every fine point of the game”The brief life story of a great half-miler of the 1890s 19th Century athletes have had a good press in recent years. Leading the literary field by a lap or two is Peter Lovesey, whose  collection of biographies entitled “Kings of Distance”, published back in 1968, did so much to revive interest in that Victoria era. “Track Stats”, the quarterly journal of the National Union of Track Statisticians in Great Britain, has also done its bit to add to our knowledge, and such industrious authors as Rob Hadgraft, Warren Roe, Edward S. Sears and Jack Davidson have written books of enormous value. Even wider public attention has been brought to bear in the last few months as one of the major athletics venues in London of the late 1800s has been civically honoured with a plaque-unveiling ceremony.

Where footsteps Led to Cheptegei. In Search of Uganda’s First Distance-runners of Note The successes of Ugandan distance-runners in recent years, culminating in Joshua Cheptegei’s World records at 5000 and 10,000 metres, caused me to wonder who were the pioneers in that country in these events. Inevitably, a first thought that came to mind was concerned with the influence of the highly esteemed Malcolm Arnold, who went to Uganda from Britain as Director of Coaching from 1968 to 1972 and famously discovered John Akii-Bua, winner of Olympic and Commonwealth titles and World record-breaker at 400 metres hurdles in those years. Arnold also guided the careers of Judith Ayaa and Silver Ayoo, bronze and silver (aptly enough!) medallists for 400 metres at the Commonwealth Games of 1970 and 1974 respectively.