FIFTH ANNUAL SPRINGBANK INTERNATIONAT SUNDAY, OCTOBER lst" 1972; LONDON, ONTARIO. s Frank Shorter of the United States wins the gold medal in the marathon at the 1972 Olympic Games, l\4unich, West Germany. Second is Karel Lismont (foreground)of Belgium and third the defending champion, Mamo Wolde of Ethiopia. Today. in his first road race since his lvlunich victory, Frank Shorter competes in the Springbank'12', One of his opponents is Karel Lismont. -'! { HIGHSCHOOL'3' 1971: lntheclosest{inishtoaraceinthehistoryoftheSpringbanklnternational,itwas Chuck Woods, Fergus High School, outsprinting Danny Katz, Toronto OlVmpic Club. John Wierda, South Water' loo Harriers, the leader onlv a few yards earlier, ,inished third. Their respective times: 14129.2,14129.7, 14130.4. COMPLIMENTS OF GORD 0t{IARt0 CAMPBELL CARPTT Ii{DllSTRIES FINEST SELECTION OF INSURANCE WALL_TO-i'l/ALL BROADLOOM AGENCY Shop- at- Hone S erui c e ao ail abl e Suite 24,267 Dundas Street, London 433-8147 in Lon don Phone: 433-2011 TONY'S P'ZZA AND TAVERN DUNDAS AND OUEBEC FOR A SPECIAL ITALIAN DINNER, TRY TONY'S Also two Pizza carry-out locations: 65 WHARNCLIFFE 83 WELLINGTON STREET NORTH SOUTH t0 6 sEN toRS', ',6' - 1971: Hal Higdon (above) of the lndiana Striders speeds across the finish line in 30:29.5, a new record by 49.5 seconds. Joe Bessel lextreme teft) New York AC, was second and the previous record holder, Art Taylor (left), Kithener-Waterloo, third. HARRY MacKELLAR LIMITED House of Photography Everything in Photography (Photo Developers for the Springbank lnternational) 214 Du ndas 434-3414 II 1971 SPRINGBANK'4Y2' STAOTBTRG COITORTABTT Ulll{ilER E : Running through the pines after only y. miles in the race, the six runners who were to monopolize the first six positions had already grouped in front and had started to detach themselves from the field (left to right): Steve Stageberg, Ken Hamilton, Bob Legge, Grant McLaren, Sid Sink (partially hidden) and Dan Shaughnessy. But it was the Georgetown star alone in Iirst making Together in second at the same point U.W.O. grad the turn into the shor! second lap. student Grant McLaren (leltl and Sid Sink of Bowl- ing Green University. Sink finished second, McLaren third. 12 Unpressed, Stageb€rg strides gracelully towards the Iinish. His time ar the finish, 20:09.7, gave him an 18.3 second margin of victory, Victory Presentalion - Sink and McLaren flanking him, Slageberg accepts the Labatt's Trophy from S. lM. McLeod, Community Relations IVlanager, Labatt Ontario Breweries. 13 It is doubtful whether anyone anywhere has ever run the marathon as well and as confidently as Ron Hill did in 1970. He seemed fully capable and prepared to take on anyone at anv pace and win. His victories at the Boston Marathon and the Commonu/ealth Games Marathon that year (in 2:'10:30and 2109:28) were masterful performan- ces. The latter is still the second Iastest time ever run lor the distance. And who among us will forget Dr. Hill's superb victory in the Springbank ''12' that year. Since 1970 the textile research chemist rrom lvlanchester has experienced two ,rustrating setbacks in international games competition. The pattern in both cases has been strangely similar. ln 1971 he won the British marathon championship in 2:12:39, runn;ng wellwithin himself. In the European Games, at Helsinki, Finland, however. he could only manage third behind ne!rcomer Karel Lismont of Belgium. Thls year Hill again looked highly impressjve qualifying ror the British team, recording a less-than'all-out 2:12:5'1. Going into the Munich Games most track experts rated Hill the marathon favorite. But victory escaped him again. He finished sixth, in a time almost 6even minutes oIf his best perlormance. The Helsinki, Munich setbacks notwithstanding, Ron Hill has to be regarded as one of the all-time greats of road running and a man to be reckoned wilh in any race he contests. Afterall, anyone who can run 2: 1 2:39 and2.12i51 marathons running within himself has got to be a pretty frightening opponenr. R0ll ]m GREA, BRrrArN Like Frank Shorter, Jerome Drayton was born in Munich. Unlike Shorter, Drayton never got to go back there in 1972. ln a decision that stunned many Canadian track fans, the Canadian Track and Field Association lelt Drayton ofI this year's Canadian Olympic team. lr seems like only yesterday, but was actually in 1969, that Drayton sent shock waves through the distance'running world with a 2:12:OO marathon in Detroit, a North American record, and then an even laster 2:1 1:12,8 in winning the Fukuoka lvlarathon in Japan. Fukuoka is regarded as'the unofficial world marathon championship and for his viciory there Drayton was voted the world's outstanding marathon runner Ior the year. ln 1970 Drayton ran up against Ron Hill at the Boston Marathon and the Commonlvealth Games and folded both times. Bur he still ran a world 1O_mile record, however, and raced Hill stride-for-stride until the {inal quarter mile in the great 1970 Springbank ''12'. With such a record behind him, what hapoened to Drayton this year reads like a cruel practical joke. First, the CTFA set an inordinarily still Olympic standard for Canadian marathoners: 2:17, a time only Drayton ai his best, among Canadians, has beaten comfortably. lln' cidentally, the CTFA was one ot few maior national track associa_ tions in the world to set an Olympic marathon standard.) Secondly, Drayton was plagued by leg iniuries throughout the winter, making training di{ficult and attempts at races like Boston pointless Lastly, in the tragic Jinal act, the course over which the Canadian marathon triai was run turned out to be '1,00O yards too long. The problem was neither Drayton nor anyone else knew this beforehand Under_ standably, during the race, when he realized his final time was going to be exiremely ilow. he became extremely discouraged and lost his grasp on the pace. He still won, rn 2:23:13 {worth about 2:19 had ihe i:ourse been correct rn length). But the arbitrary standard was 2:17 and rhe CTFA was unbending. The result was that Canada's only world record holder in track was le{t off the Olympic team and had to content himsell !!ith sitting in front oI a television set watch' ing while the Olympic gold medal in the marathon was won in 6 time he has beaten twice in his career. IIROtlE DRAYTO]I Drayton is now reported 1o be in the besl condition he's been in since 1970, although he still is experiencing some leg problems. lt isn't known what, iI anything he's pointing towards now in his ruo_ CANADA ning. One thing is certain. he's not pointing towards the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. "What's the use," he says with quiet resignation. "They'd prob6bly _---- me the same way they did this year." 14 GRAIII lrlclAREil, CAI{ADA A native oI Drumbo, Ontario, now a doctoralcandidate in zoology at the University of Western Ontario in London.23-year'old Grant McL;ren has emerged this year as one o, North America,s finest distance runners. He,s received far too lir'tle credit for it, particutarly in his own backyard of Southwestern Ontario. lvlcLaren's accomplishmenrs thjs year include victories in several major in- door meers (including rhe Philadelphia Ctassic and the New york Otympic invitational), a smashing triumph in the Drake Relays three mite (his 13:10,8 breaking Bruce Kidd's previous Canadian standard of 13:17) and a victory at three miles in the lMartin Luther King Games in phitadelphja. The last weekend of July, McLaren ran a 3:59 mile behind worrd recoid- holder Jim Ryun at the Police Games in Toronto. A coupte cf weeks later he scored a two-mile victory over U.S. Olympians George Young and Ryun in Kansas, giving him victories {or the year over every U.S. rhree miler-two miler o{ note with rhe exception of Steve Prelontaine. At the Olylnpic Games IVlcLaren drew the toughest and fastest heat o{ atl and failed to qualify. Hisrace included Prelontaine, Betgian star Emiet Puttemans and former 5,000 silver medalist Harold Norpoth, wirh only The holder of three Canadian records (two miles indoors, 3OOO metre sreeplechase and three mites), 6ranl [4cLaren has always performed well at the Springbank lnternational. Alrhough he's never won, he,s finished 2nd. 2nd and 3rd in the Springbank '4%'the past three years. This mav be his year. He didn't compete in the f irst Springbank competition. Having run his 3:59 mile in July, McLaren today becomes the first four-minute miler ever to compete in the Springbank lnternational. 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