Forgotten White Athletes?

mastermulti

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not "forgotten" so much as never achieved fame - there are many very good but not excellent athletes who are never known but have a drive and commitment to the sport that is inspirational.
Such an Aussie is a rural 40 year old guy who trains a squad of young athletes and is an inspiration. His name is Jay Stone and he's been running 400m for 17 years between 2004 and now and each year achieving low 49s to low 50s.
As time goes on his world masters ranking for 200 and especially 400 has risen year on year.
I just watched him him 23.30 today into a - 3.1W. He'll do 22s on a great day and has run 21.95 just 2 years back.
He won the 400 2 days ago in 50.31.


He's the tiny man (5'4") finishing 4th here in open competition; to me these are the heroes of track. Those who put in and put back for the love of it without ever achieving money or fame. His squad of youngsters love him (as you can hear). He certainly has credibility with them.
 
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mastermulti

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Julie Brims is 54 and is age-graded above Flo-Jo. At 53 she has a 7.98/60, 12.39 (twice)/100 and a 25,49/200
Here she is in lane 2 against youngsters in open competition.

 

sprintstar

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Impressive sprinting. has nice stride. Her 60m is as fast as mine, 100m is quicker than me, I dont run the 200m anymore but that is a cracking time for a 50 yold m or f. As well this lady obviously runs clean unlike Flo Jo when she was competing
 

greyghost

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Peter Norman ...one of the great underrated ever all time ......after Aussie athletics and the press castigated him post ' 68 .....what an athlete he was ...and how much more metal he could have brought back to OZ ....Norman was highly regarded by many American sprinters who saw him as an exceptional 200 meter talent ......what a waste and what a sad life he had afterwards ....even up to the 2000 olympics Aussie athletics had issues with Norman ...while honoring Cathy freeman long after her Olympic win .....basically what a bunch of ******* idiots ...
 

greyghost

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Also the East German sprinter ....manfred kokot ...still top 5 ever over 50 meters .....in the early 70s ...he held that record til Donovan Bailey got it while having a flyer in Canada ( Bailey was no way known for his first 20/30 meters ) ...and the flyer wasn't called back ...and yes Ben Johnson had it before him etc ..,etc ..
 

greyghost

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East German Sven Matthes owned the world junior 60 meter record at 6.53 ...in the early eighties......didn't go for a decade ......he left athletics , why because he had to work ....and the old GDR didn't have great nutrition for track athletes ....
 

greyghost

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Frank emmelmann ....euro champ ..100 meters 1982 .....german 200 meter record holder til 2006 .....emmelmann left track similarly to Matthes ...in 1985 ........had to work full time low pay ( socialist broke republic ) and crap food ....
 

greyghost

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Thomas schoenlebe the great 400 meter sprinter ...who also had the European 200 meter indoor record for several seasons ......cane later to athletics and also represented a united Germany ....innocent egbunike ( Nigeria ) rated him as one off the best track athletes he ever witnessed .....ie Schoenlebe never gave up ,, and that with talent ....
 

greyghost

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also note Gilles quinervhe ....the French 200 meter talent of the 80s .....silver / gold in 1987
 

mastermulti

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yep , I have virtually all these people on tape. I remember there was maybe 1/100th in that 200 - Queneherve nearly taking Calvin Smith.
He'd been a top cyclist who transferred over to track

 

greyghost

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Yo multi ...your giving your age away ;) ......and a man who was probably robbed by a couple of Dopers ....Australian 400 legend ..Darren Clark ....what a great athlete this guy was ...and should have at least 1/2 global medals .....Darren Clark’s coach told a great ..but true story about being approached by Ben Johnson’s coach Francis ...if he was interested in buying stanazazol ..first dose 1000 dollars ......Clark’s coach obviously surprised ( but not shocked ) ....said he hadn’t that kind of money .......
 

mastermulti

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yes, I'm getting ..... well experienced in life LOL.
Darren Clark's son, Zen, is improving in leaps and bounds after starting to sprint last year.
https://www.nswathletics.org.au/news/olympic-legends-son-dominates-at-all-schools/


I hope his interest in coaching his son and seeing some success gives Darren new focus in life
https://hypericum.com/blogs/health/...printer-avoids-jail-term-with-depression-plea

They were in for a show for Darren's first Olympic medal in the mens 4 x 400in LA 1984 but (recovering from injury and underdone) Rick Mitchell just didn't have the work under his belt this year - Rick had won Silver in the individual 400 in Moscow 4 years earlier and was a beautiful runner.

That time is still our 4x400 record 36 year slater as we concentrate on money providing team sports which syphon off our cream athletes

But his swansong gave him that long awaited championship medal before he too was poached to play wing in rugby league here. He got injured almost immediately and that was when he started to lose his way in life -
This was not his lifetime best as the ignorant commentator maintains (they can get away with saying anything, including calling him David Clark for the first part of the race). He ran 44.38 in Seoul which was a great time for 1/3 century ago

 
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greyghost

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Thanks for the great videos multi .........brings back memories of my heroes as a teenager ....
 

greyghost

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And interesting news re; Darren’s son ....hopefully one for the future .....great to see Darren Clark back in athletics ....if only Aussie athletics would give him a job ...I reckon he is more than a little qualified !...
 

greyghost

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And I hear you ...in relation to commentary ....bbc , if he were GB They would have made sure his name was correct ...
 

mastermulti

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Dean Capobianco started to take sprinting seriously after school (where he didn't even make his high school 4 x 100 team).
By 1990 at 19 he had come to this (youtube of Stawell).
By 1993 he'd finished an even 4th with Mike Marsh in the world championship 200m final in 20.18
 

mastermulti

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haha! yes I was there that day. That's my home ground here in Sydney.
Crappy, windy day which did nothing for times (4 metres/sec headwind) but was still a great race.
Note that both first and second placegetters had both been professional runners who had won the Stawell Gift.

I think that most of you guys here would love a long Easter weekend at Stawell ....... people of all different abilities over distances all the way through to a mile who just love running. They had all been given handicaps dependant on form leading up to the weekend.
Heats of all distances on Friday, second rounds on Saturday, semis on Sunday, finals on Monday.
Run on a beautifully prepared grass that nevertheless slopes up in the centre of the field to allow drainage.

Here's the 100 from the same weekend that year. Again, horrible weather slowed the performances.
Four guys in this race were running into good shape for relay selection for the worlds the next season, 1995 in Sweden. They ran 38.17 in the semi and finished with a silver against the Canadians

 
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mastermulti

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they were the good old days of Australian sprinting. They knew the Olympic Games were to be held in Sydney in 6 years time so a lot of people were putting in a lot of effort. Unfortunately as life would have it, no-one in this field was around to make the Games team by then.

 
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mastermulti

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it all looked good the day prior. Damien Marsh was rounding into beautiful form, the form that saw him win the Monaco Grand Prix 2/3 weeks later - beating Bailey and Christie among others.
And the Jamaicans mustn't have discovered Yams by this stage LOL.

Listen to Jane Fleming speak of the support the athletes had been given (because the Games were coming to Sydney). They don't get that support now of course

 
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