Dick Quax

“If New Zealand owes its athletic revival of the 1970’s to one man more than any other, that man is Theodorus Jacobus Leonardus Quax, the son of Dutch parents who migrated to New Zealand when Theodorus was six years old,” wrote Ivan Agnew in Kiwis Can Fly (1976).

Bold on the track and briskly direct in person, Dick Quax spearheaded the 1970’s upsurge that produced such triumphs as John Walker’s world records and Olympic gold, Rod Dixon’s versatile achievements, the world cross-country team’s victory in 1975, and Quax’s own medals and records from 1500 metres to marathon. In March 1970, the 22-year-old from Hamilton began the new decade for Auckland’s track fans by beating the visiting Olympic 1500 metres champion, Kip Keino (Kenya), with a 3:57.8 mile. The highlight of that year was the Edinburgh Commonwealth Games, where in the 1500m final, Quax in typically fearless style pushed Keino all the way to take the silver medal (3:38.15).

He went to the 1972 Olympics in Munich as New Zealand’s Athlete of the Year for 1971, and best hope for a track medal. But painful shin splints reduced him to a disappointed hobble in the 5000m heats, and he had to sit out a final that would have perfectly suited his pragmatic tactical ability. He recovered to enjoy successes in a 1973 tour of Europe that included the then fifth best 5000m in history, 13:18.33, only five seconds outside the world record. But the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch brought another bitter disappointment, when Quax had to withdraw days before the race because of a stress fracture in his foot. “I’m in the best form of my life. I believed I could break Puttemans’ world record. After Munich, I promised myself a gold medal…before my own public,” he said, as quoted by Agnew.

The resilient Quax came back to Christchurch a year later to win the 5000 against a fully international field in the New Zealand Games. When the persistent shin and calf pain almost broke him, he finally found a solution in September 1975 in surgery that sliced the muscle sheath and allowed the muscles to move freely at last. That freed Quax to fulfil his potential, and he had the best four years of his career. On the tracks of Europe, with Walker and Dixon, he led (and skilfully negotiated financially) the travels of that legendary trio of flowing-haired adventurers, beloved by the crowds and vividly colourful in their all black. With no manager, no official status, and no approved income, they combined freedom of spirit with a stern dedication to their running, and ran times on the edge of the best the world had ever seen. 

Quax also raced memorably at home, in the summer of early 1976 logging a 3:57.6 mile, 13:24.8 5000m, and in February in the Auckland Championships, a superb 10,000m debut in 27:55.2, which deeply perturbed the watching world record holder, England’s Dave Bedford. An even faster 5000 in Europe in mid-1976 (13:13.10), only a tenth of a second outside the (hand-timed) world record, made him again an Olympic favourite. This time he went excitingly close. In the Montreal 5000 final, Quax and Dixon were key figures in one of the most enthralling races of all time, ending with Quax narrowly edged, by 0.4sec, by Lasse Viren (Finland) for the gold. Quax called his silver medal “bittersweet.”

Purely sweet success came the next year, July 1977, in Stockholm. Quax broke the world record for 5000m by half a second, with 13:12.86. That gave him the elite standing in New Zealand athletics history that he had striven for, since Jack Lovelock and Peter Snell are the only other New Zealanders to have broken world records at an Olympic distance. Quax’s time stood as the New Zealand record for 31 years. Peter Heidenstrom’s magisterial Athletes of the Century ranks Quax close behind Murray Halberg as New Zealand’s greatest ever 3 miles/5000m runners. Quax also ran his fastest 10,000m in 1977, 27:41.95, in London.

He raced superbly at home and overseas up to 1980. A New Zealand record for the track 15km of 43:01.7 (only five seconds outside the world record) in 1980 added to his extraordinary marathon debut in 1979 of 2:11:13, at that time the fastest debut in history. Combining a miler’s VO2Max with his distinctive and economical low-knee running action, Quax had found his true event. The road surface suited his quick gliding stride perfectly, as he often showed when racing road relay legs for Auckland University. But one more disappointment came when the New Zealand government followed America’s boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics, and Quax was deprived of what looked his greatest opportunity. In September 1980, a month after East Germany’s Waldemar Cierpinski (now known to be drugs boosted) won the Olympic marathon in 2:11.03, Quax ran 2:10:47 to win in Eugene.

With a range from a 3:56 mile to a 2:10 marathon, Quax was one of New Zealand’s most versatile runners ever, behind only Rod Dixon, who had the extra dimension of third place in the World Cross Country.

In the early 1980s, Quax kept racing in New Zealand, winning the Manukau City Marathon in 1982, and running fast road relay legs. But his focus was shifting to sports management, following his athlete recruiting role with the successful South Pacific TV track series over several summers in the late 1970s, and to coaching, employed at Nike’s “Athletics West” post-collegiate team in Eugene, Oregon. Among his athletes was the volatile American Mary Decker (later Slaney), but his most successful coaching came after parting from Athletics West, when he guided Lorraine Moller to win the Olympic bronze medal for New Zealand in the 1992 Olympics.

Remarried, and back in New Zealand, Quax then turned to politics. He was an ACT party candidate and on their list as a potential MP, and then, from 2001, was elected to the Manukau City Council. He stood unsuccessfully for Mayor of Manukau, but kept his Council seat, highly regarded for his forthright support of his electorate. (Quax’s famous and feared personal directness was perhaps the main evidence of his Dutch heritage.) He was elected to the Auckland Council in 2011, and re-elected in 2013 and 2016. His death from cancer in 2018 brought tributes from politicians of all parties for his service, as well as national eulogies for his career as a great New Zealand runner.

Dick Quax, 1 Jan 1948-28 May 2018; born Alkmaar, Netherlands, arrived in New Zealand 1954, New Zealand citizen 1969.

Best times: 1500m 3:36.7; mile 3:56.23; 5000m 13:12.86; 10,000m 27:41.95; marathon 2:10:47.

Silver medal, 1970 Commonwealth Games 1500m; silver medal 1976 Olympic 5000m; world record, 5000m, 1977. Dick had two sons and a daughter, one of whom, Theo, has followed his father as (to date) a sub-four-minute miler.

Written by Roger Robinson