Still Running (weakly). Issue 36

PAST – inspiration – “Good leg by Hartley,” intoned David Coleman, as the burly Liverpool athlete handed the baton to Alan Pascoe for the third lap of the 4x400 metres relay at the 1974 European Athletics Championships. After Glen Cohen’s somewhat lacklustre first leg, Bill Hartley had put the British team in with a chance, which Pascoe (gold in the 400 hurdles) and David Jenkins (silver in the individual 400) duly took.

Hartley was an immensely popular athlete, although as a 400 hurdler himself, he played second fiddle to Pascoe throughout most of his career. I can remember an announcement at Crystal Palace during the semi-final of the European Athletics Cup in 1975, telling the crowd that Pascoe was injured and would not be running, but that his replacement was Hartley. Instead of a groan, there was a huge cheer!

Buoyed with such support, how could he not win?

PRESENT – perspiration – And it was Bill’s son, Tom Hartley, who took seven wickets for 62 runs in the second innings of the first test against India at Hyderabad last week, propelling England to a win that looked improbable when we trailed the hosts by 190 after the first innings. Hartley’s 7-62 haul was the best by an English spin bowler on his debut since Jim Laker in 1948!

One would not have thought that the physical gifts of a 400 hurdler would translate into those required for a spin bowler. But then, whilst there are many examples of the direct inheritance of identical characteristics – think Liz McColgan and Peter McColgan (international steeplechaser) producing Eilish – there’s also Ann and Robbie Brightwell (400 runners) having sons who played football for Manchester City, Steve Ovett’s son, Freddy, being a pro cyclist (not a runner), and even Bruce Springsteen’s daughter, Jessica, competing for the USA in showjumping

FUTURE – suggestion – But perhaps we are looking at the wrong characteristics. Perhaps what these parents pass on is not so much physical, but mental, emotional, temperamental, if you like. The lung capacity, the muscular strength, the hand-eye co-ordination, perhaps these are less important than the drive, the determination, the work ethic that offspring either inherit from their parent(s) or see every day and copy.

On the one hand, in Chariots of Fire, you have Sam Mussabini telling Harold Abrahams, “You can’t put in what God left out,” and on the other you have Malcolm Gladwell and others opining that you can become expert at anything with 10,000 hours of mindful practice!

I’ll just leave you with golfer Gary Player’s famous quote, supposedly after someone commented on a lucky shot of his: “The more I practise, the luckier I get.”