|
The Successors In the two years after winning his Olympic title, Delany would only twice more achieve the four-minute mile - on both occasions in world-record races. In July, 1957, England's Derek Ibbotson ran 3:57.2 in London's White City to break Landy's world record, and Delany was second in 3:58.8.
"That to me was when the mile race entered its next era, the modern era if you like. Before that, the top milers like myself would never do more than 40 or 50 miles a week, but Elliott would have doubled that, and was so much more strength based." In just two years the mile had moved on from Delany and his contemporaries. But Ireland's next four-minute miler was a long time coming, and came in the unlikely form of Basil Clifford. Though first shining in the Irish Youths mile of 1957, Clifford - a native of Inchicore - seemed a long way from the refined talents of Delany. He worked for the Tony Farrell bakery in Blackrock and part of his training involved running up the steps of the shop with bags of flour on his back. Clifford was running well in 1964, but that August only accepted an invitation to run the Emsley Carr mile in London after Tom O'Riordan pulled out with injury. John Whetton of England won as expected in 3:58.95, and Clifford surprised even himself by running 3:59.80. Thus, over eight years after Delany, he became only the second Irish athlete to run the four-minute mile. Later, he worked in a gun factory in Birmingham, where a tragic explosion in 1973 ended his life. The third man, Derek Graham, was a more established miler and in August 1966 ran 3:59.40, later representing Britain. Only after Frank Murphy in 1968 and John Hartnett in 1973 - two more of the Villanova milers - did the Irish four-minute mile club accept a more open policy.
|
The Record Breakers - 1975-1983  |
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
