Herb Elliot - the miracle man of the mile...

by A. C. de Silva

ATHLETICS: There has been many captivating stories on athletics, but outside the story books, it's very rare for a sportsman to walk unbeaten throughout an entire career. Even 'kings' such as Muhammed Ali, Ed Moses and Jehangir Khan have known the sour taste of defeat.

Herb Elliot - roses all the way in the event he loved - 1,500 metres or in the ‘mile’.

However, for one man at least it was roses all the way. His name - Herb Elliot and from the time he started serious training in 1954, until his retirement in 1962, he never lost a race over his chosen distance of 1,500 metres or a mile.

He stood so high above the crowd that he didn't have a serious challenge in sight. He was only 24 years when he retired and he went, so it was said, simply because the fun had gone away. Even the winning cam become tiresome after a while.

History is likely to remember best as the man who took the mystique out of the four-minute barrier.

For so long, this had been the athlete's version of the impossible dream. Roger Bannister, the Englishman, had made the impossible come true in May 1954, but sub-four-minute miles continued to be headline-makers.

Elliont ran no less than 17 sub-four-minute miles, and made such feast appear merely commonplace. Yet many fellow athletes believe he was merely scratching the surface of his talent.

Pain barrier

Certainly, if Elliot had been running long after he stopped, he would have been an overnight millionaire. Bronzed and handsome, he was a fine picture of a commercial superman.

Even in the early sixties he was being offered L 90,000 to turn professional. He turned down the offer with barely a moment's thought. Fame and fortune didn't appear to mean all that much to him.

Many years earlier his coach then Percy Cerutty had been told that Elliot's was weak. If he cruised through his days, forsaking sport and violent pleasures, he would have a reasonable chance of reaching middle-age.

The response was typical of the man. He began to run - as he saw it, literally for his life. He pushed slim frame through the pain barriers, until he became one of the best ling-distance runners in Australia.

During the 1958 Commonwealth Games at Cardiff, Elliot-looked so calm before the start of his races that he was asked whether it had ever occurred to him that he might lose. He had said: "Not really, and had added". I know that if I do my thing and stay strong over the two final laps, I'll win. That's all need to know".

The long run

In fact, he didn't need to worry about the tactics of others. He set his own battleplan and dared the others to follow.

That tactic was simple. Soon after the halfway point of a race, he would make the long run for home. The move was revolutionary. No champion had ever win his races that way before.

Elliot's career had begun fittingly enough, on the day Bannister first went through the four-minute barrier. He was 16, and yet still good enough to record 4 mins 20.8 seconds for the mile.

He was hailed as a future world-beater by the Australians. And, two years later, he underlined that prediction by setting junior bests for the mile (4 min 4.3 secs), 1,500 metres (3 mins 47.8 secs), two miles (9 mins 01.0 secs), and three miles (14 mins. 2.4 secs).

He was then only 19 when he ran his first sub-four-minute mile. And at the age of 20, he stepped up a gear and moved into a class of his own. He won two gold medals at the Commonwealth Games, and shattered the world records for 1,500 metres and the mile.

In the 1960 Rome Olympics, he won the 1,500 metres, finishing 20 metres ahead of the silver medallist - Michael Jazy of France. That was the measure of his supremacy. The time of 3 mins 35.6 seconds broke his own world record yet again.

Impossible feats

An immediate impression of Elliot in action was one of strength. Cerutty had his man running up and down the sandhills, sometimes for hours on end.

And so, after such Spartan fare, running on flat tracks must have seemed like paradise. The very toughness of this training helped the Australian to achieve feats previously considered impossible.

In 1957, for instance, during the space of eight days, he ran 1,500 metres in 3 mins 36.0 secs, a mile in 3 mins 58.0 secs, a mile in 3 mins 55.4 secs and 1,500 metres in 3 mins 37.4 secs.

But perhaps the best day of all came later that year, in the aptly names Golden Mile in Dublin. The field included the Olympic 1,500 metres champion Ron Delaney; the world three-miles record holder, Alby Thomas; a future Olympic champion, Murray Halberg; and another Australian strong-man, Merv Lincoln.

Thonas took the field through the first lap in 56.0 seconds. And it was still Thomas throughout the second lap. His time for the half-mile being 1 min 58.0 seconds.

Stormed away

But Elliot, by his standards, had merely been coasting, and now he bounded into the lead, making that by-then famous long run for home. Only this time, the script had been changed. Lincoln not only came with Elliot, but overtook him down the back-straight.

Elliot retook the lead just before the bell and, thanks to his unexpected tow, he was stronger than ever. He had run the first three-quarters of a mile in 2 mins 59.0 seconds, and now there was no stopping him.

He simply syormed away from the rest of the field, looking more like a sprinter then a miler, and then through the tape in 3 mins 54.5 seconds - a full 2.7 seconds inside the existing world record.

Lincoln, Delaney, Halberg and Thomas (in that order) were also well inside the four-minute barrier.