Athletics: Bayi surprises Walker again

By TERRY MADDAFORD

As a teenager, Steve Ovett watched in awe as Tanzanian Filbert Bayi and John Walker ran themselves to a standstill in breaking the world 1500m record at the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch.

Twenty-nine years on, Ovett is in New Zealand for the first time and enjoying the company of the two athletes who inspired him in 1974.

While Ovett and fellow Englishman Sebastian Coe were expected at the John Walker tribute in Auckland on Thursday night, Bayi made a surprise appearance which stunned Walker.

"Ovett had already spoken when they showed the 1974 race at the dinner," Walker said yesterday. "We had been told that, unfortunately, Bayi was unable to be here. I turned to the screen half expecting to see a televised link. Then, there was a tap on my shoulder and he was standing there.

"It was a very emotional moment."

Bayi, accompanied by his wife Anna, presented Walker with a carved mahogany trophy which acclaimed him as "The Greatest Miler."

Bayi's respect for his former rival is obvious.

"I always rated him as my major competition," said Bayi, who turns 50 in June. "First it was Kip Keino [of Kenya] and Jim Ryun [of the US], then Bayi and Walker, followed by Coe and Ovett. They were great eras."

Bayi remembers the 1974 race clearly.

"I knew about John, but nobody really talked about the time I had run in Europe the previous year," Bayi said. "Most people were, understandably, behind John, but I was allowed to dictate the tactics and won from the front.

"I preferred to run that way after what happened at the Munich Olympics in 1972 when there was a lot of jostling and pushing. I thought then, why not run in front by myself?"

He did, racing through the first 400m in 54.5s, 800m in 1m 52s and 1200m in a slowing 2m 50.2s.

Still in front, Bayi withstood challenges from Rod Dixon, Walker and the Kenyan Ben Jipcho.

In the straight Bayi was three metres clear of Walker. He lost only a metre in the charge to the finish, where both went under the world record. Bayi's time was 3m 32.2s. Walker was three-tenths of a second behind.

The two draped their arms around each other, exhausted, but exhultant.

Third was Jipcho in 3m 33.2s, followed by Dixon in 3m 33.9s.

Amazingly, the national records of Tanzania, New Zealand, Kenya, Australia and Britain were broken in that race.

These days Bayi, who returned in 1975 for the New Zealand Games and again for John Walker's This Is Your Life programme in 1986, is the secretary-general of the National Olympic Committee in Tanzania and is on the IAAF technical committee.

Away from sport Bayi - who ran his last race in 1987, on the road in the United States - and his wife run a private school in Dar es Salaam.

"It is a sport-orientated school with football, athletics and netball among the most popular."

Bayi still jogs four days a week, but admits to being a portly 100kg - well up from his racing weight of closer to 65kg.