Of-I IO !~ACE 0 C,+0 b.J ,1,- . VOLUiv.lEIV, NUH.!ER~8 ., T ~n '-· 1WOll'~l'r1968 So..L I<1 I ,_j t !VI l)SA It a:ppears that the ORl'l E:taff is going to have a difficult time picking the reci pient of the Second Dr. John H. filackburn Award for the most outotanding single performance in U.S. race walking for 1968. Larry Young and Rudy Haluza certainly cover .ad themselves with glory in Mexico City with third ·and fourth place finishes. Un.fortunately, we do not have a great deal of det ail on either race as we put this thing ·together, so we may not tell you much that you don ' t already know. Eut it•s always nice to read it in prin t even if you do already know it. The 20 Kilcmeter was contested on Honday, October 14, and as expected was dom­ inated by the Rutrnians. Vladimir Golubnichiy, gold medalist in Rome in 1960 but pushed baek to third -in Tokyo; · was back in top on this one, albeit by a very narrow margin. He entered the Stadium with only a few yards on tea.r;n.ate Nikolai Smaga, who had beaten him in a one-two finish at last year's Luga.no Cup. And very close behind these , two, to the _delight of the Mexicans was Jose Pedraza . Pedraza had not shown much this -year and despite his fine showing last summer in England, had been pretty weil .written, at least by this oboerver. He was ready for this one , however, and, .ot course, ,had a distinct altitude advantage. He made a big spur,t juGt as they hit t!1e track, quickly passed Smaga and was gaining ra pidly on . Golul>­ nichiy. Vladimir had the · situation well in hand though and with a glance over his shoulde~ s~~' '.lped up his easy, rut oh so powerful stride, am. went on to the gold. Pedraza "had .·looked a bit suspect to my eye during his big spurt but was evidently okay, as ! don ' t think a group of international judges would be swayed by his being a Mexican at home. fut wouldn 1 t it have created a fine riot i f they had thrown him out. Gol:ubnichiy had a 1:33:513 ..4. This is probably an improvement over his 1:3 3:30 in the USSR chamr ionshi ps, which were held at about 6500 feet. Pedraza was less than 2 seconds, behind and Smaga only another J seconds back. ' . ,( Meanwhile, sneaking through undetected by the Aro cameras until he had crossed the line, was Rudy Haluza. This 37 - year - old wonder was only 62 seconds back of the winner in turning in easily the best Olympic ::,erformance by an American to that date. The only International performo:!,nce to exceed this was Ron I..a.zrd's close third in the 1 67 Lugano Cup. Certainly these two performances have proven that we are ready to compete with anyone. This race was certainly a terrific one f'or Rudy who had been beset by injuries for the better pa.rt of a year and was never sure he would hold together to make the team. Eut he did hold together and when Rudy is right and has the time to prep are,look out. His big ~est asset is his keen sense of pace and competitive kno whow. I don't know the details of this race, but the chances are he waG movi ng up throughout. Jtlh.;....iywon t he Nationa l 20 in both 1959 and 1960 and competed internationally both of those years. In the 1959 USSRmeet in Philadel~:ihia he finished a not too far distant third with phe ever- pr esent Golubnichiy out front. The next year he ran in to dysetery nrof>lems, aa di d many others, and had a ba.d race in Romo. He then spent a couple pf years in England in t he Air Force and raced quite ouccensfully there. His Air F0 p6e duties ke pt him from any serious training for the nex-t three yearo, although pe' came fi~h in t he 1964 OJmpic trial. Then in 1966 he suddenly -shot to t!1e for6 again, better than ever and completely dominated the scene. In the Spring of " 1967 he pulled a leg muscle in a race and only race two more ti mes in the neJ1..-tyear; · pulling · a muscle again in one o.f those. fut in the llB a.ntime, he was able to train enough to stay cloce to comr,etitive form and pointed hilll.sel f for being ready when it counted. He w91lked wel~ - enough in the A.AU-20 to qualify for the final trial and when t hat came, he was ready, finis .hing a cl oo e second to Ron Laird . In Mexico City, he improved that perfcrmance by over three minutes an:l almost made a liar out of your- editor, who said we would not r,et a medal , I would have been very happy to have been shown in this case, however , Tom Dooley also iw.proved on his Trials perfo:nnance and finished a very res pect­ able 17th in 1:40:0S, only five seconds behind 15th, Ron Laird managed only 25th place and we have not yet heard what hap ::,ened to him. Obviously something affected bis performance. Had he been up to his Lugano performance, we would have had 4th and 5th and second only to the H.ussians on a team basis. As it was, · the team perfrolllance was only a slight imnrovement on Tokyo, where we had 6th, 17th, and DO. Scoring tbe Mexcio City 20 on a Lugano l::asio, the Rucsians won easily with 48, East Germany had 36, i'-1e:x:ii:co30 , the US 22, Sweden 22, and Great Britain 14 . The British were evidently not at all pre:Jared for the altitude, as only Arthur Uones was close to his poUmtial. Othern- of local interest in the race were Karl Iviersch­ enz, just 3 seconds back of Dooley and ¥.iatt Rutyna, who finished behind Lai.rd. The official results: lci V. Golubnichiy, USSR 1 :33:58.4 2. J. Pedraza, Nex. l:3L.,.:OO 3 , N. Smaga,USSR 1!34 :03.4 4. R. Haluza , USA 1:35;00.2 5. G. Sperling, EG 1 ; 35:27.2 6.- O. 139.rtsch USSR 1:36 ~16.8 ?. H. Reimann 1:36:31.4 80 S. Ingvarsson, Swed. 1:36:43.4 9. 1 0 Karaiositoglu, Rumania 1:37:07.6 10, F. Frenkel , EG 1!37:2008 ll. A. Jenee, GB 1:37:32 12. P. B.tsca~- Italy 1:37:32 J.a. A. Kiss, Hung. 1 : 38:24 1a. J . Oliveros, Mex. 1:38:17 15 . S . .ui.ndberg, Swed. 1:40 :03 16. Frank Clark, Auotralia 1:40:06 17~ T. Dooley, USA 1:40 :08 18. I(. Nerscl1enz, Can. 1:40:11 19. C. Sowa, Lux. 1: 40: 17 20. E. Campos, Mex. 1.: 41-:52 21. S. Andersson, Swed 1: 41: 58 22. J. Webb, GB 1:42:51 23 . R. Pfister, Swtiz. 1:43:36 24. R. Hughes, GB 1:43:50 25. R. Laird USA 1:44:38 26. M. Rutyna, Poland 1:47:29 27. E. Calzada, Cuba 1:49:27 28. J . Ortiz, Guatenala 1:54:4$ 29. R. Castellanos , El Salvador 1:58:48 Then, 3 days later, Larry Young did make a liar of me, ca:)turing the bronze medal, bles$ his soul. 1·ie have even lesa detail on this one, and only the firct ten finishers. Christoph Hohne proved just how tcugh he is by decimating t he field in 4:20:13.6 . AntsJ. Kiss., walkiz,.g his second race, was over 10 minutes behind. This must be about the most decisive victory in Olym\Jic history (i.e. until B.ob Beamon took wing and that was really unbelievable) . Hohne' s time, at altitude and on what was evidently a very hot day, might be almost as fantastic however . In third place, Larry Young lJroved he is very definitely an International com')etitor now, if anyone doubted it . He improved on his Tria l s time by over two minutes and reportedly rass.ed oeveral in the last 15 km to ca::-iture the medal. He clearly beat Peter Selzer, the young East German who usually shadows Hohne. Goetz Klopf er showed even a greater i. nrrovement over his Alamosa race in cap­ turing loth in- 4:39:13 . S. I don't know where Ranansky was, but on a team basis we may well have been second to the ¾st Germans. No one else had two in the top ten. Certainly the overall per formance in both races should convince someone t hat counts that it will be worthwhile .financing a team to the Lugano Cup © mpeti tion next fall. The American continent did quite well in this race, with Pedraza and Merschenz doubling back for 8th and 9th places. Official results: 1, C. Holme, EG 4:20 :13.6 2. A. Kiss, Hung. 4 : 30:17 3. Larry Young, US 4:31:55.4 4. P. Selzer, EG 4:33:09,8 5. S, Lindberg, Swed, 4:34:05 6. V. Visini, Italy4:36:33,2 ?. B. Eley, GB4:37:32 . 2 8, J. Pedraza, Mex? 91 K. .1.·.1.erschenz, Can. 4 : 37:57,4 10, G.