The first East African half-miler of note. A fierce opponent of Idi Amin  There is some reliable statistical evidence of the first stirrings of organised athletics in East Africa in the 1930s. This is provided by retrospective lists published in editions of the  “African Athletics” annuals produced by Yves Pinaud and Walter Abmayr between 1986 and 1990, which included the following performances:1 mile – 4:42.6 Evanson Wachira (Kenya), Nairobi, 30 October 19373 miles – 15:21.8 Lugonvu (Uganda), unknown date in 1937

America’s top two milers pirouetting down the home straight. No wilder race had ever been seen on the boardsMore than 90 years of the Wanamaker Mile  For much of my youth in England indoor track athletics was a source of wonder and mystery. It was almost unknown until the early 1960s. A few meetings had been held in cavernous and bone-chilling aircraft hangars generously loaned out by the Royal Air Force for an afternoon, and at one of those makeshift venues the sprinters and hurdlers perforce disappeared through open double doors out into the raw winter air to complete their 60-yard events. When a first attempt was made to hold some races on a 128-yard track shoe-horned into a concert hall in Manchester in 1957, the inexperience of the officials regarding such exotic forms of competition was obvious for all to see. The mile was won in 3 minutes 37.4 seconds, and even when the huddle of bemused officials broke up and announced that the distance was 70 yards short such a time still seemed somewhat unlikely even for Derek Ibbotson, who had finished a close 2nd and would set a legitimate outdoor World record of 3:57.2 before the summer was out.

Noel Brettell: Compassionate Observer of an “Arcadia of Jacaranda and Sunshine” Who Ran with the Ghost of Tom KnockerThe life of a remarkable poet-athlete   One of the fervent admirers of the commitment to young athletes by Jack Price, the Olympic marathon runner of 1908, and particularly of his attention to the “the humblest rank and file”, went on to eminent achievement himself in the cause of the care and consideration of others. But this was all to happen in a very different area of activity, and even in a different continent. Noel Brettell, who claimed only to have had “modest success” as a runner, is celebrated to this day as one of the foremost poets to have emerged from Southern Africa.

The Toil, the Tactics, the Triumphs of the Track. Paul Martin, “The Good Companion”   Hundredths of seconds decide races, and in the bygone age before such precision timing came into widespread and then universal use tenths of seconds were equally vital. Numerous instances can be quoted of titles won and lost by such a narrow margin, and in an Olympic context early classic examples can even be found in as many as three track finals in middle-distance and long-distance events at the 1912 Games in Stockholm, where the close-run winners were James Meredith, of the USA, at 800 metres; Arnold Jackson, of Great Britain, at 1500 metres; and Johan Kolehmainen, of Finland, at 5000 metres.

Paula Radcliffe – What Might She Have Done for 10,000 metres ?   It’s an interesting thought that Paula Radcliffe once upon a time ran the fastest 5000 metres of 14:57.65 at the European Championships and also the 2ndfastest of 15:03.44 – without ever having competed in that event at the meeting. The two performances were, in effect, one and the same because they constituted the first and second halves of her 10,000 metres triumph in Munich in 2002. The actual 5000 metres race in Munich lasted rather longer than either of Radcliffe’s efforts, as 15:14.76 sufficed for Marta Dominguez, of Spain, to win the title, and even Sonia O’Sullivan was not as fast as Radcliffe when she won in 1998 (15:06.50).

Ralph and Rufe, America’s largely forgotten milers of the 1930s    A few years ago, while waiting in the quaint and tiny railroad station at Klamath Falls, in the south-east corner of Oregon, for the 8.17 a.m. daily “Coast Starlight” to Portland and Seattle, I fell into interesting conversation with a fellow-traveller who turned out to be the sports editor of the local newspaper. The train, which had started in Los Angeles, was 2¾ hours late in arriving, but I was in no hurry and was all too glad of the opportunity for discussion with my new-found acquaintance to while away the delay. He had known Ralph Hill, the Olympic 5000 metres silver-medallist of 1932 who had died in 1994 at the age of 85, having been brought up and then earned his living on his family’s nearby potato farm.

The Quick-silver Master of the Photo-finishThe Career of a Double Relay World-record-breaker Reggie Pearman was among the finest exponents of the 400 metres/800 metres “double”, but unfortunately for him his career precisely coincided with two of the greatest ever at that particular combination of events. Malvin Whitfield was Olympic champion at 800 metres in 1948 and 1952, with Arthur Wint 2ndon each occasion, and Wint won the 1948 400 metres with Whitfield 3rd. Added to which, both had 4 x 400 metres relay gold. Pearman never won an Olympic medal of any kind, nor even came close, but he did have one achievement to his credit which neither Whitfield nor Wint ever managed – the fastest stage in the process of contributing to World records at both 4 x 440 yards and 4 x 880 yards.

Squire Yarrow: the Upright, Distinguished Squire of the Marathon from  London's East End When Squire Yarrow died at the age of 78 in 1984 the obituary writers could naturally have been tempted to describe him as having given a lifetime’s service to athletics. He had represented Great Britain at the marathon both before and after World War II and had continued competing until his mid-40s. He had written authoritatively about road-racing pace and strategy. He had been very widely involved in administration and had been appointed president of the Amateur Athletic Association in 1978, continuing a distinguished line of which Harold Abrahams and the Marquess of Exeter were his immediate predecessors. Yet it still didn’t quite add up to a lifetime of involvement because he had not taken up running until he was 26, and there can be few who have matched his achievements as a runner after so late a start.

  Records are made to be broken, but some get broken more easily than others. No better example of durability is ready to mind than the 1500 metres and mile times of Hicham El Gerrouj, both now having passed their half-century. By contrast, some previous records in those events have had a very much shorter life-span, and in one instance this amounted to less than a full day. Furthermore, the improvement in those 23 hours equalled the greatest yet noted for the 1500 metres – 2.1 seconds – and this time in turn was reduced by the even greater margin of exactly three seconds. 

Steeplechasing in the 1930s – the American Perspective, and a Technical Development 30 years Ahead of the Times At the beginning of the 1930s the World's fastest time for the 3000 metres steeplechase was 9:21.8 by Toivo Loukola, of Finland, in winning the 1928 Olympic title. Loukola's fellow-countryman and successor as Olympic champion in 1932 and 1936, Volmari Iso-Hollo, reduced this record to 9:03.8 on the latter occasion in Berlin. Iso-Hollo might well have become the first man to run under nine minutes, had he had the competition to do so and had he been more dedicated to the sport. Contrary to the dour and dedicated demeanour thought typical of the Finns, and personified by Paavo Nurmi, Iso-Hollo was a happy-go-lucky sort of individual.