charisma and talent. The onset of Parkinson’s disease in recent years has shocked his millions of fans in both the running and general sporting community around the world.


J


BREAKS WORLD RECORD With his good looks and long blonde locks Walker was an archetypal 1970s sporting superstar. The first man to run the mile in under 3 minutes 50 seconds, Walker won the Olympic 1500 metres title in Montreal in 1976; an achievement overshadowed by the boycott of the Games by African countries in protest at the presence of New Zealand following the controversial All Blacks tour of South Africa that year. Walker’s gold was seen as being


devalued without the likes of the Kenyans and Tanzanian phenomenon Filbert Bayi, but it was not the great Kiwi’s fault that another sport in his home country decided to have formal contact with a state riven by the curse of apartheid. His status at the time as world mile record holder told you that this was a worthy champion.


WORLDWIDE FAME Walker first achieved worldwide fame with an astounding performance at the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch. The 1500m final produced five of the top seven times recorded over the distance as Walker was edged out into second by Bayi after a ferocious gallop. Walker also claimed bronze in the 800m in 1:44.92, which to this day is the closest any New Zealander has come to Peter Snell’s national record of 1:44.3 set 50 years ago. Walker continued to improve and


46 n www.runningfreemag.co.uk


✱


GOLDEN BOY


ohn Walker, who has recently turned 60, is an icon in his native New Zealand who achieved global fame partly through events beyond his control but primarily through


reached the gold standard with his historic four laps of the famous Ullevi Stadium in Gothenburg in August 1975, setting a new mile world record of 3:49.4, eclipsing the mark set by Bayi earlier in the year by 1.6 seconds. Just 21 years after Roger Bannister collapsed with exhaustion having pushed the human body to what was seen as its extreme, Walker had revised one of the most famous entries in the book down by 10 seconds. It took a further four years (including


several failed attempts by others) and the remarkable talent of Sebastian Coe to erase Walker’s name from alongside the blue ribboned record.


FEAT OVERSHADOWED Walker prepared for Montreal by lowering the 2000m world record, covering the rarely run distance in 4: 51.4 in Oslo in June 1976. It was five seconds faster than the target set by Frenchman Michel Jazy a decade before. The feat was totally overshadowed by the maelstrom created by the New Zealand Rugby Union’s decision to sanction a tour of South Africa. The mouth-watering Bayi-Walker showdown was off when Tanzania decided not to send a team to Canada, although Bayi may well not have competed anyway due to an attack of malaria. Walker had a disaster in the 800m, being eliminated in the heats, heaping


“He became the first person to run 100 sub-four minute


miles, an achievement once unthinkable”


Adrian Hill considers the achievements of the sporting superstar, John Walker


even more pressure on his shoulders as the 1500m final approached. With Bayi, the legendary front-runner, absent the pace was slow and Walker made his move with 250m to go. Belgian Ivo Van Damme led the charge in pursuit but Walker had judged his effort to perfection. His reign as Olympic champion and


world record holder led to appearances around the globe and another mark fell in due course as Walker broke the indoor 1500m world record with a time of 3:37.4 in 1979.


ATHLETIC GIANT Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett had superseded him as holders of the mile accolade in the 1980s by the time he set a New Zealand all-comers’ record of 3:50.6 in Auckland in 1981 and a year later, at 30, Walker produced a 3:49.08 in second place behind his great friend Steve Scott in Oslo to break his national mile record yet again. The mark still remains in the Kiwi hall of fame. Earning the silver medal in the 1982 Commonwealth Games 1500m in Brisbane behind the rising talent of Steve Cram was his last major effort at the metric mile. He moved up to 5000m for both the 1984 Olympic Games and the 1986 Commonwealth Games but his star was waning. In between he managed to create a new line in the sand when he became the first person to run 100 sub-four minute miles, an achievement once unthinkable. He would finish with 135. His appearances at 800 and 1500m at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland saw him way past his best and was effectively a valedictory tour in front of his adoring fans. It was in 1996 that Walker revealed he was suffering from Parkinson’s disease. The award of a knighthood in 2009 was a long overdue recognition for a true giant of athletics.


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