Track Stats

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2016 Editions
Volume 54, No. 4, October 2016
	Retrospectives of Rio Some statistics, and a few antics, you may have missed - The Editor A woman in the circle? Whatever would Malcolm have said! - Ian Tempest A new British Olympic “record”, too, for KJT - David Cocksedge GB’s achievements at the Olympic Games since 1896 - Mike Dagg-Jenden GB in 4th place - Trevor Clowes Athletics in the 1920s and 1930s Sergeant Cotterell takes command: the first venture towards a truly International Cross-Country Championships - The Editor “For the furtherance of all athletic sports in the universities” - Neil Shuttleworth Tommy Price, the reluctant machine-gunner, sets the target for Godiva - Colin Kirkham “Rufe” of the rainbow robe: America’s lost miler (Rufus Kiser) - The Editor The closing years of the career of Mike Boit - Thomas S. Hurst Harry Webster, champion race-walker of the 1870s. But was it “unfair going”? How the best 400 metres runners rank - Trevor Clowes The Blaydon racer lost to history in the dark blue shadows (Joe Keating) Trouble afoot: a National title that eluded Godiva for 77 years - Colin Kirkham The 3000 metres: how it preceded the 5000 and 10,000 in the 19th Century running order My imagined version of how the women’s Olympic 800 metres of 1928 was won - Carrie Snyder Lina, in real life the first of the Olympic women’s 800 metres champions (Lina Radke) The story of New Zealand’s greatest athlete (Yvette Williams) - Peter Heidenstrom The momentum of the great perfect jump (Yvette Williams) - Norman Harris Book Reviews (Pat Butcher’s biography of Emil Zátopek) - The Editor, Ferdie Gilson Books Extra: Irish Olympians at the 1912 Olympic Games - Ian Tempest Books Extra: the athletics content of Fowler’s “usage” - Neil Shuttleworth Stranded by the roadside: the longest surviving national marathon records - I.E.G. Green … and other surprising marathon stats Olympic post-script: World record, no gold, for the “son-in-law” (Bob LeGendre)
Volume 54, No. 3, July 2016
	Editorial Comment: A newly balanced view of 41st place against 1st Eric Shirley, aged 87: "I love pure athletics and have always been a fan of the life-blood of our sport – club athletics. I continue to compete and I love every time I put on a pair of trainers" - Bob Phillips The steeplechasing career of Eric Shirley: 49 races in nine years Barriers, bars, batons and bobsleigh: the diverse sporting life of Gus McKenzie - Brian Hatch Tractors, tracks and temperatures: a Devon farmer at the Rome Olympics (Brian Kent-Smith) - Michael Sheridan A Lancashire lass's unrecognised world record that paved the way for Sally Gunnell (Sandra Dyson, origins of the women's 400 metres hurdles) - Bob Phillips Early memories of women's 400 metres hurdling (Ken Oakley, Peter Warden, Liz Sutherland) Some exaggerated claims of the 18th Century . . . and some true facts of the 19th Century Relay Racing Re-evaluated Part I: How the best 4 x 100 metres and 4 x 110 yards relay runners rank – Trevor Clowes Part II: Great Britain and the USA – triumph and tragedy as 4 x 100 gold is won or lost - Mike Dagg-Jenden Part III: National records – 4 x 200 metres relay - Miguel Villaseñor "British Athletics 1866 to 1880": the background - Peter Lovesey, Stuart Mazdon "That most imposing instrument": Clay Thomas and the early days of athletics - N.N Simons Won't you come home, Bill Baillie? How he broke the hour record - Andy Milroy The last of the "Flying Dutchmen" ... but an "All-Black" by adoption (Dick Quax) - Bob Phillips Dick Quax's World-record breaking year of 1977 3000 years of javelin history - Tony Isaacs Sign here, please! (hobbies) - Colm Murphy Great Britain's achievements at the Olympic Games - Mike Dagg-Jenden The formative years of women's hammer-throwing in Great Britain - Ian Tempest Book Reviews (the Zátopek biographies, the "Miracle Mile" and the 1954 Empire Games, the 1928 Olympic Games (imagined) - Ferdie Gilson, John Cobley, The Editor The career record of Mike Boit, Part I: 1968 to 1977 - Thomas S. Hurst
Volume 54, No. 2, May 2016
	Editorial Comment: A debt that Lamine Diack owes to Molly Levene Noel Brettell: a compassionate observer of an "arcadia of jacaranda and sunshine" who ran with the ghost of Tom Knocker - The Editor Keith Pearce – an "iron man" of four different countries and 70 years of running - The Editor South Africa’s Olympic gift to Britain (Barbara Burke) How I won and lost my Olympic gold – as if I was looking down from the top of the Empire State Building - Mildred "Babe" Didrikson The forgotten junior champions of 1941 How the best ever 200 metres runners rank – in Great Britain, the Commonwealth, Europe and the World - Trevor Clowes The quick-silver master of the photo-finish (Reggie Pearman) - The Editor Progress in women’s miling 1973 to 1977, Part III of a series - Thomas S. Hurst & Stuart Mazdon A happy day out at the National League in 1970: “approaching the afternoon’s labours in fine fettle” - C.D. Miles The 200th Centurion: Stampfl’s least-known record-breaker (Frank Harmer) An introduction to the career of Mike Boit, for whom the 800 metres was to >become an “afterthought” - Thomas S. Hurst Jenny Pawsey – memories of an international career spanning 15 years Writer to writer: Peter Lovesey interviews David Town about his biography of Walter Knox, athlete, coach, gold prospector Book Reviews (biographies of Walter Knox and K.G. Macleod, British Athletics 1866-80, Other book news) - Peter Lovesey, The Editor “The Pole ran faster last week, John. So I’m sorry to tell you that you’re not the world record-holder after all” (John Disley) - Clive Williams How the National compares – 1986, 2016 Helter-skelter with the jigging mob! A poetic postscript - Noel Brettell
Volume 54, No. 1, February 2016
	Editorial Comment; Where the flamingoes fly and the palm trees stir idly in the balmy breeze Bill Adcocks talks to “Track Stats” about the two-hour marathon, his Olympic experience, professionalism, “stickability” and the Africans How the best 100 metres runners rank – in Great Britain, the Commonwealth, Europe and the World - Trevor Clowes Nothing could match the magnificence, the blinding brilliance of Snell ... yet was it all worth it? - Norman Harris From first-class hurdler to top-class cop: the athletics career of Joseph Simpson - Neil Shuttleworth Fred, the East End fireman, blazing the trail for His Lordship (Fred Blackett) - Bob Phillips From 4:10 per man to under 3:36: how the 4 x 1500 metres record has improved National records – 4 x 1500 metres relay - Miguel Villaseñor Unravelling the abiding mysteries surrounding Britain’s first noted woman shot-putter (Bevis Shergold) - Bob Phillips “Flying all over the place” – how I won the US Championships single-handed - Mildred “Babe” Didrikson The Jack Price story: a revised view of the 1908 Olympic marathon - Charles Gains Jack Price’s marathon-running career - Alex Wilson Into the abyss: athletes as victims of war - Michael Sheridan Book Reviews: Dorothy Tyler’s biography, World all-time rankings - Ian Tempest, Bob Phillips Progress in women’s miling 1967 to 1972 - Thomas S. Hurst & Stuart Mazdon Australia’s “vegetarian marvel” who allegedly ran a World-record mile in 1942 (George Campbell) Revealed! The identity of the joyous jumper