Chatting with Golden greats

By Our Special Correspondent

EDMONTON, AUG. 3. ``It is important for today's athletes to know the history of the sport. They are part of the history, not bigger than that,'' said Sebastian Coe in his typically impeccable `English' style.

The occasion on Thursday was a sneak preview of the `Legends of Gold Dinner' that will be held here on August 6. For the first time at the World championships, a bunch of legends have been brought together to mingle with the audience and to share their thoughts.

Hopefully, as Coe, two-time Olympic champion in the metric mile and former world record holder in the 800m, observed, there would be some of the present-day superstars at that dinner. They will then have the chance to meet and interact with the living legends of the sport. And to know more about athletics history.

That is what a group of scribes achieved on Thursday. Not all the invited stars were there, notable absentees being Edwin Moses, the great technician over the intermediate hurdles, Bruce Jenner, the decathlon supremo of the 70s, and Wyomia Tyus, the two-time Olympic sprint champion of the 60s.

Yet, the very sight of the greats like Al Oerter, Herb Elliott, Peter Snell, Kipchoge Keino, Seb Coe, Sergey Bubka, Harrison Dillard, Donald Quarrie, Dick Fosbury, Parry O'Brien, Alberto Juantorena and Irena Szewinska sharing one podium was awe- inspiring. Bubka, Juantorena and Szewinska left quickly after the introductions since they had to attend the IAAF Congress, going on in an adjacent hall within the complex.

But most of the others stayed on, sharing their thoughts with television crews and other mediamen. Ralph Boston, the 1960 Olympic champion who was at the wrong end of that monstrous leap by Bob Beamon in Mexico City, and Harrison Dillard surprised the two Indian reporters here with their enquiry about former Indian greats.

Boston asked about Milkha Singh and Dillard remembered Mary D' Souza. Boston could, in fact, recall the sensational 400m race at the Rome Olympics in which Milkha finished fourth. ``Yes, I had watched that race from the stands,'' he said. ``Who was third, I remember Otis Davis and Kaufmann, but who was third?'' asked Boston. Malcolm Spence of South Africa was the man who edged Milkha for the bronze.

But more than watching Milkha, with whom he struck a friendship over the years, Boston had also watched Bob Beamon thunder down the runway at the Mexico City Olympics, eight years later, to leap into history. ``I was sitting on the sidelines of the run-up and I told Lynn Davies (of Britain) `just watch him miss his step'. But he didn't. There was an `ooohhh' from the crowd as he landed. `How far is it', asked Davies. `It looks more than 28 feet, I can't jump that far.' he muttered. Good, I thought, I wanted him out of the way, but I had no idea how far Beamon had jumped``.

``Then it was announced, Beamon had jumped 8.90. I made quick calculations. It was 29 feet and more. I couldn't jump after that. It was unbelievable,'' said Boston, who was the favourite in 1968, but finished third with 8.16m.

Boston has four grandchildren who are into athletics, all jumpers in either high jump, long jump or triple jump. And when told that Milkha's son had taken to golf and Milkha himself was a keen golfer nowadays, the American said: ``I too play golf, it is an easy sport compared to all that what we had to do.''

Dillard, who won the short dash at the London Olympics in 1948 and added the high hurdles gold four years later in Helsinki, felt that all that they were told not to do in the 40s and 50s were exactly what today's sprinters were doing.

``We were told not to do weight training since the muscles would become tighter. It is not true anymore. Look at (Maurice) Greene, he is full of muscles. Today, strength and explosion are important. We had to depend just on reaction time. Now they just boom off the blocks,'' said Dillard.

Dillard lamented the fact that no top male athlete on the current scene combined the sprints with the high hurdles as he had done. ``It is so specialised, very few athletes try to do both,'' he said. Of course, there was the case of Gail Devers in the women's section, he agreed.

All of us would agree that Dick Fosbury had revolutionised high- jumping technique in the mid-60s by clearing the bar with one's back to it instead of rolling over it. Not many of us would have known, however, how he evolved the technique despite the general scepticism among coaches, how successful a civil engineer he has been in Idaho, U.S, and how eloquent he could be when it came to discussing athletics.

At 54, Fosbury looks as trim and fit as he might ever have been. ``It was intuitive, not by design,'' explained the man after whom the `Fosbury Flop' has been named. ``My mind knew that I wanted to achieve the purpose and my body responded,'' said he of the strange way he approached the bar and cleared it to bring in the single-most significant development in high jumping through the past four decades.

As a boy, Fosbury had used the `scissors' style. It was an antiquated style in those days compared to the `straddle' or the `western roll', which his hero, Valeriy Brummel, used. Into high school, his coach asked him to go for the straddle, but the results turned out to be poor.

``I told my coach that I would be comfortable with the `scissors' and went back to my old style. He reluctantly agreed, but the results were again not very good,'' recalled Fosbury.

That was when young Fosbury started looking out for a change in technique. ``One day, going over flat over my back I could reach an improvement of six inches. I started using the technique regularly and got better results. The next two years were evolutionary. I started the curved approach and slightly raised my shoulders before take-off. By the time I finished school in 1965, the technique was fully evolved,'' he said.

The coaches were sceptical, though some of them were interested, said Fosbury. ``Some of them were not only opposing it, they were critical. They questioned the whole concept. They had not studied it, I forgave them.''

The younger athletes began to adapt to the new technique and women picked it up very fast. Then the results began showing. `Fosbury Flop' was suddenly everyone's favourite and now it is the style that all top jumpers use.

``I was blessed to discover the style and I am very proud of it. It affected my life and I feel it is a debt I have paid to the sport I enjoy. Even now I enjoy working with the kids,'' said Fosbury.

Fosbury agreed that the present-day jumpers had improved upon his style to a great extent. ``They are able to arch their bodies so well and throw their heads back. It is instinctive, they have to rely on their timing and you have to perceive where the bar is.''

He said that Javier Sotomayor had reached the heights he had predicted 20 years ago. But now the level had reached a `bench'. ``Historically, it is nothing new''. Fosbury felt that if there were one or two athletes who could challenge Sotomayor, then the height could go up to about 2.50 metres. ``Sotomayor is an incredible example at his age. He has set a mark (2.45m) which no one else has even neared,'' said Fosbury.

One could not hear much from another man who revolutionised another event. Parry O'Brien, who introduced the turn in shot put had very few words to offer before he slipped quietly away. Probably it was time for his nap, as he put in during the introductions.

To be clubbed with the legends were the not-so- legendary Canadians, former World record holder in the 100m, Donovan Bailey, the 1992 Olympic high hurdles champion Mark McKoy, and decathlete Michael Smith, who has a silver and a bronze to his credit in the World Championships.

In the list of 26, the others include Filbert Bayi, Joan Benoit Samuelson, Debbie Brill, Eammon Coghlan and Frank Shorter. But the three big names that would have added lustre to the list are missing: Carl Lewis, Michael Johnson and Jackie Joyner-Kersee.

Tickets for the Monday night event are priced at $ 195 apiece. Funds raised from the dinner will be divided between athletics scholarships at the University of Alberta and the `Friends of 2001' which will be developing legacy funding from the World Championships.

The `Legends of Gold Dinner' is the brainchild of Edmonton businessman, Mr. Barney Baker.

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