Sydney Wooderson – Not So Much a Reverence as a Re-evaluation“Sydney Wooderson, A Very British Hero”, by Rob Hadgraft, published by The Book Guild Ltd, 9 Priory Business Park, Wistow Road, Kibworth, Leicestershire LE8 ORX, England,  freephone 0800 999 2982, [email protected], ISBN 978 1912575 350, £10.99.Rob Hadgraft has made a lasting contribution to athletics history and literature over the past 15 years with his series of intensely-researched and affectionately written biographies of Alfred Shrubb, Walter George, Louis Bennett (” Deerfoot”), Arthur Newton, Jim Peters and now Sydney Wooderson. Surprisingly, this is the first full biography of one of the very finest of all British athletes, though David Thurlow has written a profusely illustrated booklet and the late Michael Sheridan compiled a descriptive career record.

The 1936 Olympic marathon gold and the mysterious North Korean athletics legacy  The emergence of North Korea’s leader on to the international political stage has enormous connotations, and it is really a very minor issue – but interesting, nonetheless – to hope for some clarification of the country’s national records in athletics. According to the Wikipedia website, the women’s records for the five shortest track distances read in sequence 11.80, 25.10, 56.23, 1:58.0, 4:14.76, and there’s an obvious anomaly here. The long-lasting 1:58.0 for 800 metres belongs to Sin Kim Dan, who would have been an immensely tough rival for Ann Packer in the 1964 Olympic 800 metres had she been allowed to run. Furthermore, Sin Kim Dan also did 51.2 for 400 metres four days after Betty Cuthbert had beaten Packer for that year’s Olympic title in 52.0. And yet this equally credible latter performance of Sin Kim Dan’s does not appear in the Wikipedia listing.

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Do you want to take part in the Olympics? Well, join the group and you’re in the teamThe curious anomalies of the Athens Games of 1906 There was no selection process for Great Britain’s athletes at the “intercalated” Athens Olympic Games of 1906. If you wanted to compete, regardless of your ability, you merely let England’s Amateur Athletic Association know and no vetting process was applied.  When only a dozen or so prospective competitors had been in touch, the AAA even extended an open invitation for others interested in making up a party of 30 who would benefit from a group travel rate by train (2nd Class) and ferry (1st Class) for the round trip to Greece of just under £17 each (more precisely, £16 17s 6d).  “Anyone desirous of availing himself of the reduced fare should communicate at once with the hon. sec. AAA” was the published plea. In 2019 financial terms, this is equivalent to about £2000 or 2600 US dollars.

The Defeated Marathon Hero’s Own Memories “I knew I was going to be passed…it was like the progress of a martyr.” One of the most dramatic finishes in Olympic marathon history was that of the 1948 Games when Etienne Gailly, of Belgium, entered Wembley Stadium in the lead but in an exhausted state and was passed by Delfo Cabrera, of Argentina, and Tom Richards, of Great Britain, who took the gold and silver respectively, with Gailly salvaging the bronze. But then perseverance in the face of adversity was clearly a salient characteristic of Gailly’s, as his wartime adventures had shown.

The First Pan-American Games of 1937: Was the Olympic 800 Metres Champion Robbed of a World Record ?by Bob Phillips The first official Pan-American Games took place in 1951, but there had been a meeting scheduled for 1942 which, like so many other fond plans in the USA, went by the board after the Japanese bombarded Pearl Harbor in December of the previous year. Going back even before then, a Games had been held in 1937, and though it doesn’t figure in the approved records it was of sufficient standard to be well worth remembering.

Presto! Presto! Prestissimo!!!The concert violinist with another vibrant sporting string to her bow Valerie Ball, the leading British woman quarter-miler and half-miler of the late 1940s and early 1950s, would no doubt have been at complete social ease with the aristocratic president of the sport’s ruling body, theWAAA, who was the Countess of Derby. Miss Ball was the daughter of an eminent botanist, Sir Nigel Gresley Ball, and her grandfather, Sir Charles Irwin Ball, had been the most senior member of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Ireland. An uncle of her father’s was the Royal Astronomer in the 19th Century. One of her two brothers, also named Sir Charles Ball, was a director of numerous prosperous companies, including Barclay’s Bank and Sun Alliance insurance. Her ultra-fashionable address in later married life was close to her parents at Broadlands Court, alongside Kew Gardens, in south-west London.

The Native Canadian distance-runners at the 1912 Olympic Games  At least four athletes of North American Native origin competed at the 1912 Olympic Games, and the best known of them is Jim Thorpe, the dominant pentathlon and decathlon winner who was later deprived of his titles for having previously played professional baseball, and then in the fullness of time reinstated. One of his US team-mates was Lewis Tewanima (sometimes spelled “Tewanina”), who was the silver-medallist at 10,000 metres, and two of the other distance-runners at those Games were Alex Decouteau and Joe Keeper, of Canada, who were both Cree Indians by birth. Decouteau's name, like Tewanima's, was subject to other interpretation, sometimes spelled “DeCouteau” or changed to “Decoteau” and apparently pronounced “Dakota”.

The Neglected Legacy of El MabroukThe story of North Africa’s first World-class middle-distance runner The most familiar image of Patrick El Mabrouk is of him charging along in a group of athletes into the final home straight of the Olympic 1500 metres of 1952. Josy Barthel, of Luxemburg, and Bob McMillen, of the USA, were the surprising gold-medallist and silver-medallist respectively that day, ahead of the joint World record-holder, Werner Lueg, of Germany. Missing out on a place on the rostrum were Britain’s Roger Bannister, 4th, and El Mabrouk, 5th, though both set national records of 3:46.0 (actually 3:46.30 and 3:46.35).

The Shapwick Express Reaches Journey’s End Late – 111 Years Late, To Be Precise Much more than a century after his greatest triumphs, and 70 years after his death, Great Britain’s first athlete to become an Olympic champion is at last receiving the accolades due to him. At the Paris Games of 1900 Charles Bennett won the 1500 metres and led home the victorious British team in the 5000 metres team race, but his achievement has long been lightly regarded – even by informed statisticians and historians – because those events were then in their infancy and his times, though record-breaking, were of no great note. Yet the Olympic successes were only part of a highly successful athletics career which entitles Bennett to be remembered as one of the finest distance-runners of his generation … or any other, for that matter..