When the world’s best met at lake oval: By Len Johnson

When Emmanuel Bett, Bitan Karoki and Micah Kogo took on Ben St Lawrence, David McNeill and Craig Mottram and Joyce Chepkirui and Emily Chebet  met Emily Brichacek and Jess Trengove, it was not the first time the best from Kenya met the best from Australia at Lakeside Stadium.

In fact, in its former guise as Lake Oval, the venue had featured a meeting between the best two distance runners in the world.  

On 21 December, 1965, Ron Clarke raced Kip Keino over 5000 metres on a grass track marked out on the South Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Lakeside Stadium was then Lake Oval, home to the South Melbourne Victorian Football League team (now the AFL’s Sydney Swans) and South Melbourne Cricket Club.

In 1965, Clarke and Keino were playing their own game of pass-the-parcel with the 5000 metres world record. Clarke took it down from 13 minutes 35.0 seconds to 13:25.8 in three steps – in Hobart in January, Auckland in February, and Los Angeles in June – before Keino ran 13:24.2 in Auckland on 30 November.

The two men were re-defining track distance running. Keino was the first Kenyan superstar, but it was Clarke who was the main man. He was voted athlete of the year by US magazine Track & Field News (Keino was ranked fourth).

Keino’s world record in New Zealand was followed by two races in Australia. The first was a two miles in Sydney on 17 December which he won in near world record time.

Four days later, he was in Melbourne to race Clarke over 5000. South Melbourne was the venue, though none of the participants can remember precisely why.

Most probably it was the lights* – South Melbourne staged VFL night football matches; its lighting was superior to Olympic Park’s. Channel Seven covered the race (see: http://www.thoughtequity.com/video/clip/48050225_9200.do?keywords=keino ).

Keino’s trademark was an orange peaked cap, which he would toss away as he launched his sprint. You can see him in the cap early in the race, but he has doffed it by the time he and Clarke battle over the closing stages.

Keino won in 13:40.6, with Clarke second in 13:47.2 ahead of Glenhuntly teammate John Coyle, 13:51.6.

Other winners at the meeting, staged by Athletics International, included soon-to-be 1968 Olympic 800 metres champion Ralph Doubell, who took the 880 yards in 1:49.0. Second was 1966 Commonwealth Games champion Noel Clough and third was current Athletics Victoria president Ian Jones.

A few days later, on New Year’s Day 1966, Clarke beat Glenhuntly teammates Trevor Vincent and Pat Clohessy over 5000 metres in 13:39.6.

Clarke’s time remains the pacesetter record for the new stadium, surviving Craig Mottram’s assault in the Victorian championships. A check of the track distance after Clarke’s run showed it to be 2-1/2 yards per lap long, so his time was worth about 13:32-33 and Keino’s 13:33-34.

The stadium ‘record’ should not survive the Melbourne Track Classic, but funnier things have happened.

Turning to some thoughts on the 2011 Zatopek, you can’t help but start with the weather:

Into each Zatopek some rain must fall, it would seem. I haven’t got the exact stats – too many smudged notebooks! – but I would think it has rained on the majority of the last 10 races. Given that all but the two most recent were staged in the midst of Melbourne’s 10-year drought, that’s some run of bad luck!

Is the need for qualifying times and/or selection an inhibiting factor on racing? Ben St Lawrence said as much himself, commenting after the race that he may have gone with the Kenyans’ decisive move with nine laps to go, but with Olympic selection on the line was more concerned with ensuring he was first Australian. Admittedly we have seen great racing in the past two Australian 5000 metres titles – ‘Saint’ v Bernard Lagat in Melbourne earlier this year and again running down Collis Birmingham’s breakaway in Perth in 2010 – but we have too few classic distance races to see any of them restricted by other considerations.

Is Bitan Karoki the next big thing in Kenyan distance running. He didn’t win, but the 20-year-old’s aggressive running was a joy to watch. This is the runner who caused consternation amongst the commentators at the Stanford race this year with his move with eight laps to go. They thought he was ruining a race set-up to produce mass qualifying times, but both he and the race still delivered. He tried the same tactic in the Kenyan championship only to get the staggers in the last lap and fail to finish. And what about 28-year-old Bett? His first 10,000 a 26:51 in Brussels, his second a win over the Olympic bronze medallist – that’s some record

Speaking of uninhibited racing, the night’s best example of it was surely Reuben Kosgei. The Sydney 2000 Olympic champion shot off the line in the 3000 metres steeple at 8:15 pace. It was more than he could sustain, but his pursuers, led ultimately by James Nipperess, were unable to close the gap.

She obviously has a long way to go to get back to anything approaching her best, but it was great to see Jana Pittman back in action in the final of the Victorian women’s 4x400 championship. Her fellow-Osaka 2007 world champion, Nathan Deakes, virtually clinched an Olympic spot in the 50km walk the following morning.

Despite the rain, it was a promising debut for Melbourne’s new stadium. A wet blue track comes up beautifully under lights! 

* At the time, South Melbourne Cricket Ground was the only stadium in Melbourne with floodlighting powerful enough to play, and watch, first-class sport. The VFL played its night competition there and the Victorian Athletics League staged weekly handicap meetings in the run-up to its main post-Christmas season. Baseball was another sport to be played “under the lights”.