Walker was one of the all time greats at 1500/mile. I think he was the natural progressor from Peter Snell . Very strong. I dont know his 400 m.PB but I dont think either of them would have been suited to a world class 5000m in the way that Keino was or Moorcroft was or Elliott probably would have been.
Great Walker! Sad to remember that Van Damme died just a few months after these Olympic games, on December 29, 1976, owing to a car accident. We lost another great runner.
I was a few rows back in turn 4 watching this race. It was electifying. The crowd noise you hear during the race is for the men's high jump final. Greg Joy won the host nation's only medal, a silver.
Ivo Van Damme...Belgian legend...like Prefontaine, he died in an auto crash, in France, later in 1976... Check out the video of his second place finish in the 1976 Olympic 800m, behind Alberto Juantorena....Van Damme was only 22y/o when he died. Though the Africans boycotted in 76, his Olympic double silvers, showed the awesome potential of the man
Walker is one of my all time favorites. The way he started the sprint nearly 300 yards to go and maintained it, is very impressive. Great race tactics.
I was 12 when this was run and we had English relatives staying with us in our house in Bantry in West Cork. We crowded round the dining table in our living room to watch the race on our black and white rental TV, which was up high on a shelf in the corner. Coghlan didn't get a medal but that scene in our house remains a great childhood memory.
Walker kicked the last 300 metres in just under 38 seconds, which sufficed for a narrow victory over Van Damme - 0.10 seconds. Wellmann ran the best race of his career by finishing third. Coghlan was disappointed in his fourth place, but in 1983 he won the 5,000-metre World Championship. Clement finished fifth, but closed in on Coghlan in the final tens of metres. Wohlhuter faded on the home straight, Moorcroft, Crouch and Zemen already earlier. This was a classic kicker's race.
If it was a kickers race, why didn't Coughlan win? Slow pace. I really thought JW had blown it w 400 to go. Remember, he and Filbert were on another level at that time, and JW risked all by allowing a slow pace. Coughlan was correct to be disappointed - he was not gaining in the final straight, which was not the formbook at all. He could easily have won.
BTW Scots like to say Frank was the fastest finisher, which as you see here he was not, and was hardly slowed by the bump. He was always going to be 5th.
Bruce is one of the most amazing people of all times. He not only is a champion in sports, he is a champion in life! I admire him and feel he deserves a lot more than the media craving wife and daughters he fell into...but I guess maybe that is what that family needs, a good positive energy to balance everything.
Walker ran the perfect last lap surging at the right time but Van Damme also ran smart conserving his energy until the last lap-shame he passed away later that year. Overall a great Olympic 1500 m final despite the African boycott
I remember as a 10yr old. Had been on holiday where we could get no reception. Got back home just in time to see this on new colour TV. So exciting. I thought that Dixon and Quax were in that final too.
They all ran that fast over that last 300...you saw how tightly bunched they were. Walker just had ever so slightly more, even though he was the first to break. But they all followed closely.
Coughlan book is out now and he was sick the day before in this race. Walker played him perfect with the early sprint. I remember this night all too well and cried for an hour. I think Athletics Ireland's budget was similar in size to that of Malta's then.
That happened to me once on TH-cam. I was about to wholeheartedly agree with a comment that was saying exactly what I would have said, and then I realised it was my own comment from a few years earlier!
Update: 1972: Vasala last 200m: 26.3 s 1976: Walker last 200m: 25.2 s 1980: Coe last 200m: 25.4 s (est) 1984: Coe last 200m: 25.9 s 1988: Peter Rono last 200m: 26.1 s 1992: Fermin Cacho last 200m: 25.1 seconds! 1996: Nourredine Morceli last 200m: 27.6 s 2000: Noah Ngeny last 200m: 26.3 s 2004: El Guerrouj last 200m: 26.1 s 2012: Makhloufi last 200m: 27.0 s So the surprise is Fermin Cacho of Spain ran the fastest last 200m! Walker a very close second and Coe a very close 3rd!
I do not get what these statistics are supposed to prove. It is about the 1500m race, not the 200m race, so the final sprint is dependent on the pace that went before it, which in turn is dependent on tactics.
Sad to hear that. I'm from NZ so I didn't know the story about Van Damme. At only 22 he had a lot of good running years ahead of him. I saw the movie on Prefontaine, he was another one that would have pushed on in another 4 years time.
both died in car crashes - which used to claim a lot of lives then - cars are much safer now - the last famous person killed that way was princess diana 2 decades ago? certainly it is much rarer now anyway
John L. Parker, Jr.'s sequel, Again to Carthage is out now after a LONG wait. It is a more difficult read, but in many ways a more mature book. Very good and worth the purchase. And apparently Once A Runner is being printed again so if you are someone who doesn't have it, better get on the stick. I've got one of the first editions! :)
@bitrot66 - We'll never know. Yes, Bayi was recovering from malaria, but it's hard to imagine that he couldn't have challenged a 3:39 pace...the rest of these guys were just a little too wary of Walker.
In 1976, ran Governor's Island circle In NYC ,in 21 minutes,I was in a radar class at age 18,,it was during Bi Centennial Operation sail,it was a massive sail ship celebration
Walker's last lap in this, of all places to produce your best, the Olympic final, was a staggering 52.4 seconds! That is as fast as anyone has gone in a last lap of a 1500m race, including, Coe, Ovett, Cram, Aouita, Morceli and El Guerrouj. No wonder no one could catch him! And, he didn't even put the hammer down until 300m to go! Walker was deceptively fast in 1975 and 1976. Unfortunately, he just lost this edge from 1977 onwards. Great athlete though. A legend.
Feel so sorry for Éamon Coghlan to this very day. I was only a 9 year old boy watching the race and the whole of Ireland had high hopes for Eamon. His devastating finishing kick just deserted him on the day if it was there he would have won 3:39 pace was tailor made for his big finish he was devastated.
Do you think he went to the front too early and why on earth did he not move out in the last 100m when he had the chance instead of getting boxed in, mentally he knew he was doomed at that stage,your right his legs didn't have it in the end.
Well, viewing this again after so many years, have to say that Walker may have won the race, but not by much at all. Four men there all equally capable of being champ. Walker, by a margin, left nothing on the track. Great race by all.
I just finished that book for about the 20th time, and yes, didn't Cassidy get silver. Ha. I always wondered what John Walker thought of that book, which in many ways was quite a nod to the great New Zealander who was my idol growing up. I wish someone could come up with footage of Walker's 3:49.4 mile from Goteberg. I still recall the finish line photo which showed the strain of the race.
Agree. The winning time would've been 3:32 or so and the pack would've been strung out big time. Walker once said him getting beat in the semis(?) of the 800 was probably a blessing in disguise and allowed him to regather. Van Damme was hitting his peak; too bad he would soon be dead as well as the Polish steeplechaser Bronislaw Malinowski (I think) who medaled in the 3000SC.
But for his death Van Damme would have given Coe/Ovett etc a lot more competition in the 80s and the history of middle distance running might well have been very different. By Moscow 80 Ivo would have been the original 'monster coming over the hill.'
This TV commentary had him as favorite. The TV commentary I had at the time had me wondering, like, " What is this ? Can you get 9 - 2 about Walker winning this ? ". He'd been mentioned in sports news dispatches for word record runs. Anyway, I'm gonna lie here and watch him win this, and he did.
In reply to gakaface. It is interesting to compare splits from champions from different eras. Walker's last 200 split being slightly faster than Coe's does not mean his performance was better. The 1980 race had a blisreing last 700M where as the 1976 race was an even slow pace until the last 300 from which point Walker and everyone else kicked. In fact you will find the the 2nd and 3rd place runners had similar splits. Coe only went into top gear in the last 100M in 1980 - which was covered, according to Deano in 12.1
I'm not comparing them to qualify any value to them. They're all just different. All the numbers show is that if you run as fast as Walker, or Coe or Cacho did in their last 200m in their respective wins, then you're going to win! What I was pointing out specifically though, was that on his day, and this was it for Walker, he ran as fast as Coe or Cacho, or anyone else has ever ran over the last 200m, to within a margin of 10cm or 4 inches. So whoever is the chief protagonist with 200m to go, if they run that fast, and they are a metre up on the second or joint-favourite, they're going to win. Happens every time. Walker would never run a last 200m as fast as this ever again. Not even close.
Walker overcame his elimination in the 800-metre semifinals or 2nd round. He sprinted the last 300 metres in about 38 seconds. Van Damme ran great, but didn't find the final gear needed to win this race. Wellmann ran his best race in Montreal, while Coghlan paid for his poor or mediocre tactics - leading the race for 700 metres at a rather slow pace. Clement managed to rise to fifth place while Wohlhuter faded to sixth. Moorcroft faded in the last 100 to 200 metres.
I wasn't getting worked up over that at all. Walker was a great runner & all-time great. I was more interested in pointing out that the split times I gave were correct after someone doubted them. The Montreal & Moscow runs were v. different races. In 76 there was a strong kick at 300 & Walker hung on to the pace the best and slowed down the least in the last 100. Moscow was a gradual increase from 700 out with Coe able to increase pace in last 100. Many splits published in T&FN & AW are wrong.
well fasanotampa obviously you don't know much about middle distance running!!!! Walker was the 1st person to break the 3:50 mile, 1st person to run 100 sub 4 minute miles (135 completed by career end), numerous world records and is one if the greatest middle distance runners of all time and Olympic GOLD!!
What's more surprising with Cacho's fastest closing 200m is that he's repeatedly looking around with 100m to go disbelieving that he's actually winning the Olympic final. Cacho even raises his arms aloft 5m from the line. Barcelona final had 800m split of 2:06 with a 3:40 winning time while Montreal had 2:03 with a 3:39.
@broadjumper1 Not true. Bayi acknowledged that during that time he was still suffering the effects of an attack of malaria. Bayi would have not been in condition to challenge Walker. Winning the Olympic is about luck too - just look at Steve Cram's career. His greatest seasons were off-Olympic years.
RIP Ivo van Damme. @futurmodal, Ovett did contest the 1500 at Montreal and was eliminated in his SF. Just. If he'd been in the final, and unlike his performance in the epic 800, Ovett would have won the race. Walker won this race by force of mind, not fleetness of foot... he was surrounded by 1:43 800m runners (Van Damme, Wohlhuter) and justifiably feared their finishes. This was pure mental domination.
Wow the last 300 in 38secs or thereabouts? That is world class even now! Heartbreak for Coghlan but glad he got his moment of glory 7yrs later. I was wondering where is Filbert Bayi but yes this was the year of African boycott...
Question-why is it that 1 or 2 runners run really fast and try to speed up the race when they know they know they wont win or win anything?Is it to tire out their opposition?
Luckily I have all the heats for the Moscow 800 & 1500 on dvd also, and on one of the heats you can clearly see the 200m from home mark. Ovett's last 200m in the 800 was 25.0 and Coe hit the same point (the middle of the shot put circle which can clearly be seen on both recordings) 22.5 secs from the finish, as Ovett did:- Ovett 1:22.9, Coe 3:15.9. You're not telling me that in the c.20m between 200 from home and that point, that Coe ran it 0.4 secs slower than Ovett!
Unfortunately, I was in the air coming home from New Orleans when this race took place. I often wonder what would have happened if Bayi and the rest of the African runners had competed. It probably wouldn't have been a tactical race and maybe we might have gotten a world or Olympic record.
Bayi was injured long before there was any talk of a boycott. Tanzania were the first nation to boycott but likely if Bayi was healthy there wouldn't have been a boycott at all.
New Zealand's greatest Gold Medal victory, second only to Peter Snell's effort of the = 800 and 1500metre Gold Medals in the Tokyo and the gold medal in the 1500 in Rome. As well as, the Perth Commonwealth games golds in the middle distances.
The key to Walker's win here was a 52.5 second last lap and he didn't start his sprint until about 270 metres to go! No one was going to catch him! Not even Seb Coe or Steve Ovett would have caught him! Only El Guerrouj has run a faster last 200-250m in an Olympic final (Coe's 2 1500m wins were both won off full last lap sprints but were better but in a different way.) But Walker's sprint was typical of the 1970s tactics for the 1500m, i.e. to go from 250 - 200m out.
@Wouldman2 Well actually.. Black is our (NZ) national colour. All our sport teams (most famously the All Blacks rugby team) wear black uniforms. football is the only national team which wears white, to oppose our All Black rugby team.. (All whites..get it?). There was protest in relation to the NZ rugby tour of south africa, resulting in the boycott of the olympics by the africas - however the black singlet of walker had no relation to this.
Your speaking for alot for yuppy's (young blokes with a degree and a good income) who sit in offices, do an 8 hour day and pay people to do practical work. Do not forget NZ is full of practical types such as farmers and trades people who will always use their ingenuity to fix something themselves over paying somebody to do it. These characters have never changed and never will and still make NZ the great place it is to live to this very day.
I remember watching this on TV in new Zealand as a young child. Walker instantly became my hero. I thought he could do no wrong.
Eamonn went too soon , he could've had a bronze, running front fro 880m was brave but just took that extra buzz out of his legs, Legend
First man to run the mile under 3.50. First man to run 100 sub 4 minute mile races. Olympic gold medalist. Absolute legend.
Pre ran like 22mph!!!
Walker was one of the all time greats at 1500/mile. I think he was the natural progressor from Peter Snell . Very strong. I dont know his 400 m.PB but I dont think either of them would have been suited to a world class 5000m in the way that Keino was or Moorcroft was or Elliott probably would have been.
@@keirbateman267 absolutely correct. Bigger size men so would find the 5000 meter distance difficult to be really competitive in.
he was good, van damm the greatest, big ups to dixon and quax
Great Walker! Sad to remember that Van Damme died just a few months after these Olympic games, on December 29, 1976, owing to a car accident. We lost another great runner.
I didn't know. He was beautiful to watch.
He was only 22
I was a few rows back in turn 4 watching this race. It was electifying. The crowd noise you hear during the race is for the men's high jump final. Greg Joy won the host nation's only medal, a silver.
When Walker flicked the switch he was awesome to watch!
Ivo Van Damme...Belgian legend...like Prefontaine, he died in an auto crash, in France, later in 1976... Check out the video of his second place finish in the 1976 Olympic 800m, behind Alberto Juantorena....Van Damme was only 22y/o when he died. Though the Africans boycotted in 76, his Olympic double silvers, showed the awesome potential of the man
I remember reading about this in Track and Field News in 1976.
Walker, you are such an inspiration and great Kiwi role model.
Walker is one of my all time favorites. The way he started the sprint nearly 300 yards to go and maintained it, is very impressive. Great race tactics.
An intelligent observation. He ran HIS race. I liked John Walker too.
Same
I was 12 when this was run and we had English relatives staying with us in our house in Bantry in West Cork. We crowded round the dining table in our living room to watch the race on our black and white rental TV, which was up high on a shelf in the corner. Coghlan didn't get a medal but that scene in our house remains a great childhood memory.
I was there and saw this live back in '76
Walker is impressive!
John Walker was poetry in motion, while the others were struggling to keep up.
What an incredible field of runners!
Walker kicked the last 300 metres in just under 38 seconds, which sufficed for a narrow victory over Van Damme - 0.10 seconds. Wellmann ran the best race of his career by finishing third. Coghlan was disappointed in his fourth place, but in 1983 he won the 5,000-metre World Championship. Clement finished fifth, but closed in on Coghlan in the final tens of metres. Wohlhuter faded on the home straight, Moorcroft, Crouch and Zemen already earlier. This was a classic kicker's race.
If it was a kickers race, why didn't Coughlan win? Slow pace. I really thought JW had blown it w 400 to go. Remember, he and Filbert were on another level at that time, and JW risked all by allowing a slow pace. Coughlan was correct to be disappointed - he was not gaining in the final straight, which was not the formbook at all. He could easily have won.
BTW Scots like to say Frank was the fastest finisher, which as you see here he was not, and was hardly slowed by the bump. He was always going to be 5th.
@@jstevenson7121But he didn't. If's, but's, maybe's....
This is exactly how I remember the 1970s--just a blur.
One of those great sporting moments for New Zealand.
What a great run by John Walker! He laid down his genius.
I saw Walker win a mile race down 5th Avenue, NYC, 1982. He said its easy to win when you are running for money!
Bruce is one of the most amazing people of all times. He not only is a champion in sports, he is a champion in life! I admire him and feel he deserves a lot more than the media craving wife and daughters he fell into...but I guess maybe that is what that family needs, a good positive energy to balance everything.
Tremendous athlete John Walker.
Wow! What a last lap. Walker's a true legend.
Walker ran the perfect last lap surging at the right time but Van Damme also ran smart conserving his energy until the last lap-shame he passed away later that year. Overall a great Olympic 1500 m final despite the African boycott
Walker acellerated at the right moment, and he won. It was a great victory.
john walker is my idol
I remember as a 10yr old. Had been on holiday where we could get no reception. Got back home just in time to see this on new colour TV. So exciting. I thought that Dixon and Quax were in that final too.
He ran the final 300m in 37.95, on pace for a 50.6 400m. Guts over fear. What an athlete.
They all ran that fast over that last 300...you saw how tightly bunched they were. Walker just had ever so slightly more, even though he was the first to break. But they all followed closely.
Coughlan book is out now and he was sick the day before in this race. Walker played him perfect with the early sprint. I remember this night all too well and cried for an hour. I think Athletics Ireland's budget was similar in size to that of Malta's then.
I'm reading my comment 15 years later. lol Did I write that? Impressive!
That happened to me once on TH-cam. I was about to wholeheartedly agree with a comment that was saying exactly what I would have said, and then I realised it was my own comment from a few years earlier!
NZ represent! Good to see a kiwi win one of the Olympic's distinguished events.
Update:
1972: Vasala last 200m: 26.3 s
1976: Walker last 200m: 25.2 s
1980: Coe last 200m: 25.4 s (est)
1984: Coe last 200m: 25.9 s
1988: Peter Rono last 200m: 26.1 s
1992: Fermin Cacho last 200m: 25.1 seconds!
1996: Nourredine Morceli last 200m: 27.6 s
2000: Noah Ngeny last 200m: 26.3 s
2004: El Guerrouj last 200m: 26.1 s
2012: Makhloufi last 200m: 27.0 s
So the surprise is Fermin Cacho of Spain ran the fastest last 200m! Walker a very close second and Coe a very close 3rd!
I wonder what Centrowitz's last 200m in 2016 was. I believe his final lap was almost as fast, if not faster than Cacho's.
I do not get what these statistics are supposed to prove. It is about the 1500m race, not the 200m race, so the final sprint is dependent on the pace that went before it, which in turn is dependent on tactics.
Cacho won in 3:42 - pedestrian with a 50 last lap
Walker a Legend 👍
Walker's running action and cadence flat out down the home straight were quite similar to that of Seb Coe in Moscow four years later.
I remember the road in Manurewa Auck, name after him John walker, cool hero from our kiwi land of Aotearoa.
J. Walker was brilliant during this era.
@SavageArfad Yes, but Walker predated those guys and was past his prime by the time they came along.
Sad to hear that. I'm from NZ so I didn't know the story about Van Damme. At only 22 he had a lot of good running years ahead of him. I saw the movie on Prefontaine, he was another one that would have pushed on in another 4 years time.
both died in car crashes - which used to claim a lot of lives then - cars are much safer now - the last famous person killed that way was princess diana 2 decades ago? certainly it is much rarer now anyway
@@mrgobrien Paul Walker fast and furious died in a car crash too. Would say he he was the last famous person. RIP
He is a Legend!!! Amazing.
John L. Parker, Jr.'s sequel, Again to Carthage is out now after a LONG wait. It is a more difficult read, but in many ways a more mature book. Very good and worth the purchase. And apparently Once A Runner is being printed again so if you are someone who doesn't have it, better get on the stick. I've got one of the first editions! :)
@bitrot66 - We'll never know. Yes, Bayi was recovering from malaria, but it's hard to imagine that he couldn't have challenged a 3:39 pace...the rest of these guys were just a little too wary of Walker.
Walker...you are a GOD!!!
John Walker a Middle Distance Legend. FACT!
In 1976, ran Governor's Island circle In NYC ,in 21 minutes,I was in a radar class at age 18,,it was during Bi Centennial Operation sail,it was a massive sail ship celebration
Walker's last lap in this, of all places to produce your best, the Olympic final, was a staggering 52.4 seconds! That is as fast as anyone has gone in a last lap of a 1500m race, including, Coe, Ovett, Cram, Aouita, Morceli and El Guerrouj. No wonder no one could catch him! And, he didn't even put the hammer down until 300m to go! Walker was deceptively fast in 1975 and 1976. Unfortunately, he just lost this edge from 1977 onwards. Great athlete though. A legend.
Feel so sorry for Éamon Coghlan to this very day. I was only a 9 year old boy watching the race and the whole of Ireland had high hopes for Eamon. His devastating finishing kick just deserted him on the day if it was there he would have won 3:39 pace was tailor made for his big finish he was devastated.
I was 12 and we had relations staying with us. I remember us all gathered around the TV in our living room in Bantry rooting for Coghlan.
Do you think he went to the front too early and why on earth did he not move out in the last 100m when he had the chance instead of getting boxed in, mentally he knew he was doomed at that stage,your right his legs didn't have it in the end.
@@marksmyth5505 he wrote somewhere that he had an achillies injury in the lead up and his training was severely affected perhaps that was a factor
Boxed in he was so even with the kick may not have helped
Well, viewing this again after so many years, have to say that Walker may have won the race, but not by much at all. Four men there all equally capable of being champ. Walker, by a margin, left nothing on the track. Great race by all.
Remember it like yesterday. I wonder what Walker did that last 250-300 metres in? That was real power running to hold off those guys with quick 800's.
38*00 last 300 metres !!!!!!
I just finished that book for about the 20th time, and yes, didn't Cassidy get silver. Ha. I always wondered what John Walker thought of that book, which in many ways was quite a nod to the great New Zealander who was my idol growing up. I wish someone could come up with footage of Walker's 3:49.4 mile from Goteberg. I still recall the finish line photo which showed the strain of the race.
Agree. The winning time would've been 3:32 or so and the pack would've been strung out big time. Walker once said him getting beat in the semis(?) of the 800 was probably a blessing in disguise and allowed him to regather. Van Damme was hitting his peak; too bad he would soon be dead as well as the Polish steeplechaser Bronislaw Malinowski (I think) who medaled in the 3000SC.
Awesome last lap 52 flat and I think an even faster last last 300m looks like a sub 38.0 ??
But for his death Van Damme would have given Coe/Ovett etc a lot more competition in the 80s and the history of middle distance running might well have been very different. By Moscow 80 Ivo would have been the original 'monster coming over the hill.'
walker is the man
coghlan was the man here...the man who blew it...to be Ireland that day was like a funeral...expectations were well high
I was born in 1952 in Australia and started a track and field career at university in 1971
Walker ran his last 400 in 52 seconds and was still strong at the finish.
Fckn A
Walker a Legend. Coughlan got his tactics wrong. A sprint would have seen him 2nd
Seems like the one who wants to win most takes the race by scruff of the neck and goes for it. 👍 🥇
This TV commentary had him as favorite. The TV commentary I had at the time had me wondering, like, " What is this ? Can you get 9 - 2 about Walker winning this ? ". He'd been mentioned in sports news dispatches for word record runs. Anyway, I'm gonna lie here and watch him win this, and he did.
So Johnny Walker can also run!
Nonetheless a huge moment for NZ in the Olympics.
Pity the video wasn't any clearer, but thanks all the same.
The video perfect
Worlds fastest Walker😁🏃
Really brave to go for home from so far out-it paid off though so he obviously knew what he was doing
In reply to gakaface. It is interesting to compare splits from champions from different eras. Walker's last 200 split being slightly faster than Coe's does not mean his performance was better. The 1980 race had a blisreing last 700M where as the 1976 race was an even slow pace until the last 300 from which point Walker and everyone else kicked. In fact you will find the the 2nd and 3rd place runners had similar splits. Coe only went into top gear in the last 100M in 1980 - which was covered, according to Deano in 12.1
I'm not comparing them to qualify any value to them. They're all just different.
All the numbers show is that if you run as fast as Walker, or Coe or Cacho did in their last 200m in their respective wins, then you're going to win!
What I was pointing out specifically though, was that on his day, and this was it for Walker, he ran as fast as Coe or Cacho, or anyone else has ever ran over the last 200m, to within a margin of 10cm or 4 inches. So whoever is the chief protagonist with 200m to go, if they run that fast, and they are a metre up on the second or joint-favourite, they're going to win. Happens every time.
Walker would never run a last 200m as fast as this ever again. Not even close.
Storming last 50 by Clement, what a shame he got impeded left, right and centre.
I was there and saw this!
Amazing ! What’s your main memory of the race ?
When did WALKER become a RUNNER?
(I see myself out)
Walker overcame his elimination in the 800-metre semifinals or 2nd round. He sprinted the last 300 metres in about 38 seconds.
Van Damme ran great, but didn't find the
final gear needed to win this race. Wellmann ran his best race in Montreal,
while Coghlan paid for his poor or
mediocre tactics - leading the race for
700 metres at a rather slow pace.
Clement managed to rise to fifth place
while Wohlhuter faded to sixth. Moorcroft
faded in the last 100 to 200 metres.
I wasn't getting worked up over that at all. Walker was a great runner & all-time great. I was more interested in pointing out that the split times I gave were correct after someone doubted them. The Montreal & Moscow runs were v. different races. In 76 there was a strong kick at 300 & Walker hung on to the pace the best and slowed down the least in the last 100. Moscow was a gradual increase from 700 out with Coe able to increase pace in last 100. Many splits published in T&FN & AW are wrong.
Which pixel was John Walker?
well fasanotampa obviously you don't know much about middle distance running!!!!
Walker was the 1st person to break the 3:50 mile, 1st person to run 100 sub 4 minute miles (135 completed by career end), numerous world records and is one if the greatest middle distance runners of all time and Olympic GOLD!!
John walker. .my hero
he's from Papakura in auckland, where I am from.
And also Sir Edmund Hillary is also from there.
As am I.
Wiki it to check.
RIP David Coleman (the commentator)
What's more surprising with Cacho's fastest closing 200m is that he's repeatedly looking around with 100m to go disbelieving that he's actually winning the Olympic final. Cacho even raises his arms aloft 5m from the line. Barcelona final had 800m split of 2:06 with a 3:40 winning time while Montreal had 2:03 with a 3:39.
Exciting finish. I was expecting to see Quenton Cassidy up there in 2nd. LOL.
one of my idols is john walker
@broadjumper1
Not true. Bayi acknowledged that during that time he was still suffering the effects of an attack of malaria. Bayi would have not been in condition to challenge Walker. Winning the Olympic is about luck too - just look at Steve Cram's career. His greatest seasons were off-Olympic years.
JOHN WALKER IS MY IDOL
RIP Ivo van Damme. @futurmodal, Ovett did contest the 1500 at Montreal and was eliminated in his SF. Just. If he'd been in the final, and unlike his performance in the epic 800, Ovett would have won the race. Walker won this race by force of mind, not fleetness of foot... he was surrounded by 1:43 800m runners (Van Damme, Wohlhuter) and justifiably feared their finishes. This was pure mental domination.
If, biff, wiff, woulda, coulda, shoulda......Ovett wasn't good enough in 76!! Stop telling tales!!
Wow the last 300 in 38secs or thereabouts? That is world class even now! Heartbreak for Coghlan but glad he got his moment of glory 7yrs later. I was wondering where is Filbert Bayi but yes this was the year of African boycott...
Это точно 1976-й год?Не покидает ощущение что на дворе 1896-й!
Yvo Vandamme, on ne t'a jamais oublié!
Mort sur les routes du sud de la France
12 rather than 9, I mean. I guess he had every reason to be the most confident man in the field, and ran like it.
Question-why is it that 1 or 2 runners run really fast and try to speed up the race when they know they know they wont win or win anything?Is it to tire out their opposition?
amazing what you see/hear when you watch again years later, I say to this commentator 'a yard is as good as a mile'?
Exactly! I actually think Walker buttoned off in the last few strides, knowing that he had it won.
NICE TO WATCH THIS
Luckily I have all the heats for the Moscow 800 & 1500 on dvd also, and on one of the heats you can clearly see the 200m from home mark. Ovett's last 200m in the 800 was 25.0 and Coe hit the same point (the middle of the shot put circle which can clearly be seen on both recordings) 22.5 secs from the finish, as Ovett did:- Ovett 1:22.9, Coe 3:15.9. You're not telling me that in the c.20m between 200 from home and that point, that Coe ran it 0.4 secs slower than Ovett!
Sir John Walker
Walked ran the perfect race.
And he did it with 3m people in his shoulders.
Kiwis can fly.
Unfortunately, I was in the air coming home from New Orleans when this race took place. I often wonder what would have happened if Bayi and the rest of the African runners had competed. It probably wouldn't have been a tactical race and maybe we might have gotten a world or Olympic record.
Bayi was injured long before there was any talk of a boycott. Tanzania were the first nation to boycott but likely if Bayi was healthy there wouldn't have been a boycott at all.
@@tewaewae Okie doke. I still think about what might have been.
New Zealand's greatest Gold Medal victory, second only to Peter Snell's effort of the = 800 and 1500metre Gold Medals in the Tokyo and the gold medal in the 1500 in Rome. As well as, the Perth Commonwealth games golds in the middle distances.
Snell did not win the 1500 in Rome. He won the 800.
Is this because Arthur Lydiard trained them? I know he trained Snell.
The key to Walker's win here was a 52.5 second last lap and he didn't start his sprint until about 270 metres to go! No one was going to catch him! Not even Seb Coe or Steve Ovett would have caught him! Only El Guerrouj has run a faster last 200-250m in an Olympic final (Coe's 2 1500m wins were both won off full last lap sprints but were better but in a different way.) But Walker's sprint was typical of the 1970s tactics for the 1500m, i.e. to go from 250 - 200m out.
I met John walker at a BBQ in Brisbane. I wore a Moroccan bead for the rest of my life
Eamonn Coghlan had two 4th place finishes at the Olympics. That's got to have left a bitter taste in his mouth
Ivo van Damme could have become one of the best,, maybe even the best one. He died in a car accident in dec 1976. Too bad
if CLEMENT had only been a bit closer with 100 to go..bumped wolhuter and finished the fastest
@Wouldman2 Well actually.. Black is our (NZ) national colour. All our sport teams (most famously the All Blacks rugby team) wear black uniforms. football is the only national team which wears white, to oppose our All Black rugby team.. (All whites..get it?). There was protest in relation to the NZ rugby tour of south africa, resulting in the boycott of the olympics by the africas - however the black singlet of walker had no relation to this.
@mooca513 you know if arthur lydiard was his coach?
Big difference between 1500m runners then and now.
True, but I wonder if he couldn't have forced the pace himself a bit. Still he got there I suppose.
True, but it was a very slow race even for those times and just about the opposite of what Walker wanted.
A Walker won it.
Great by Walker but that was basically his only international win of note.
@raysalsa1 Nah, he was coached by Arch Jelly.
Your speaking for alot for yuppy's (young blokes with a degree and a good income) who sit in offices, do an 8 hour day and pay people to do practical work. Do not forget NZ is full of practical types such as farmers and trades people who will always use their ingenuity to fix something themselves over paying somebody to do it. These characters have never changed and never will and still make NZ the great place it is to live to this very day.
I can fully believe ur comment to be right..
Would Pre had won this?