Still Running (weakly). Issue 62

PAST – inspiration – I might as well call this edition, “Never give up,” after some of the races we have witnessed from Paris. But as for past Games, watch Dave Wottle in the 1972 Olympic 800 final. See how far back he is after only half a lap; notice how Arzhanov, the favourite in red, panics with 300 to go and kicks too hard down the back straight; and marvel at Wottle’s even 200 splits – all in the 26 point something range.

Then there’s Debbie Flintoff in the 1988 400 hurdles final – why did the Russian lean back at the tape instead of forward? There’s Pinsent, Coode, Cracknell and Williams in the men’s fours rowing in 2004. Michael Phelps in the 100 metres butterfly in 2008. And Spirig and Norden in the women’s Olympic triathlon in 2012.

PRESENT – perspiration – Lola Anderson wrote that her biggest dream would be to go to an Olympics and if possible, win gold. That was in 2012, when she was 13. Later, embarrassed, she tore that page out of her diary and chucked in the bin. Her father, Don, fished it out and put it in a safety deposit box.

Seven years later, when he was dying from cancer and knew he did not have long left, he asked Lola to fetch the box. He showed her what she had written and told her to believe in herself. Last Wednesday, she, along with Georgie Brayshaw, Lauren Henry and Hannah Scott, won Olympic gold in the women’s quad sculls, overtaking the Netherlands boat with their last stroke.

She said that the note was her most treasured possession – now joined by her gold medal.

She didn’t give up, neither did Tom Pidcock (whom we talked about last week) or Alex Yee. Deep into the last lap of the last discipline of the men’s triathlon, Yee was trailing Hayden Wilde of New Zealand by a significant margin – and two Frenchmen looked as if they might catch the Brit for the other medals too.

Fortunately, Alistair Brownlee, British winner of the event in 2012 and 2016, was standing by the road and shouted, “Anything can happen, mate,” which was, “A moment of belief,” said Yee later. Even more fortunately, Yee is a world-class runner and a great finisher, who then recovered from the bad patch that let Wilde get away, and amazingly powered past the Kiwi, who was extremely gracious in defeat, to take gold.

There is not giving up over the course of a race, and not giving up over the course of a career. Keely Hodgkinson did not give up either. After silvers in the 2020 (held 2021) Olympics, 2022 Commonwealth and 2022 and 2023 World Championships, we all know what happened on Monday!

FUTURE – suggestion – Derek Turnbull would have sympathised with compatriot Wilde. This tough sheep farmer was the greatest veteran runner in the world in the 1990s, setting world records for his age group at every distance from 800 metres to the marathon.

I was fortunate enough to stay on his farm in 1992, and to run with (behind!) him, shortly before he set the latter of those records, running 2:41:57 in the London Marathon at the age of 65. When we came to leave, I shyly asked him for his autograph, and he duly obliged, adding just three words, “Never give up.”