Sir John Walker

With a long mane of blond hair, trademark beads and distinctive black singlet, the sight of Sir John Walker destroying the world’s best middle-distance runners is perhaps one of the most iconic images in New Zealand athletics history.

From becoming the first man in history to run a sub-3:50 mile to winning Olympic 1500m gold as well as later becoming the first athlete to post a staggering century of sub-four-minute miles, few athletes hold quite the same stature as the Kiwi middle-distance hero.

Raised one of three children in Manurewa, John was unwittingly honing his future running talent from the age of five.

“I ran the mile to and from the shops to pick up the paper for dad, and thought nothing of it,” adds John, 68. “At the top of the hill there was a dog I was scared of, so I used to run home as fast as I could.”

John’s first taste of formal athletics competition came at Manurewa Normal School, where he quickly established himself as the leading cross country runner.

Later as a Manurewa High School student he continued to impress on the local cross country scene while also featuring as a promising tennis player.

Stretched by his training commitments in both sports, at the age of 17 he faced a decision on where his sporting future lay and he opted for running.

“I didn’t have the temperament for tennis and found I could control my nerves better, and I was more sure of myself, when running,” he explains.

Determined to progress to the next level he sought a coach, where it was recommended he link up with Arch Jelley – an intelligent and wily headteacher, who adopted the Arthur Lydiard principle of distance-running training.

It proved an inspired choice. For the next 21 years of his career until retirement, John was successfully guided by Jelley as the pair formed a special bond.  

“I believed in him from the start,” explains John. “I followed his schedules and never had any reason to lose faith. I remember once turning up at Mt Smart Stadium and it was flooded. He explained how I should get out and complete the session, even if it was at half pace. He always gave me a great reason for completing the training session.

“Arch was never a great motivator by speaking but he was a genius writer. He used to write notes for me on BNZ paper. If ever I was having a down time or I had lost a race, I would look back and read Arch’s notes.”

Gradually building up his endurance base by completing the legendary 35km Waiatarua training loop, John made a major breakthrough at the 1972 New Year’s Day meet in Tauranga.

Having already completed his training session earlier that day, John had only intended to watch the meet but was persuaded to race the 800m.

Borrowing spikes, shorts and a singlet the then 19-year-old caused a stir to defeat New Zealand’s leading middle-distance runner at the time, Dick Quax, setting a PB of 1:51.

“It gave Dick a hell of a shock and me a hell of a shock too,” he adds of the surprise victory.

Later that summer he landed his first New Zealand senior title in the 800m – one of 15 national track titles won during his glittering career – and missed out by just half-a-second on qualifying for the Munich Olympics over the two-lap distance. 

Arch pleaded with selectors to take John but they declined. The next season – John’s first on the European circuit – he made a point by defeating the 1972 Olympic 800m champion Dave Wottle over the two-lap distance at the World Games in Helsinki.

Meanwhile, that year he also posted his first sub-four-minute mile with a 3:58.8 clocking when winning the B Grade race in Victoria, Canada.

Competing on the European athletics circuit for the first time that year was an education. Racing more than 40 times that season was gruelling “at one point I got so exhausted, I couldn’t get out of bed.” But John learned from the experience to trim his race schedule for future years.

If John hinted at his world-class ability in 1973 he truly arrived at the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch.

Aged 22 at the time, he secured 800m bronze in a personal best of 1:44.92 – a mark which still ranks John number two on the all-time New Zealand rankings behind Peter Snell.

Yet if the 800m was good nobody could have quite predicted what was to follow in the 1500m.

In a race commonly regarded as the greatest in middle-distance history, Tanzania’s Filbert Bayi blasted through 800m in 1:52 and opened up a huge gap on the field. By the bell that lead had been whittled down to around 15m but the chasing pack led by John could not quite reel in the classy Bayi. The Tanzanian crossed the line in a world record time of 3:32.16 with John taking silver some 0.36 further back in a New Zealand record and the second fastest time in history.

In a remarkable race, five of the seven fastest times in history were recorded in that race and five national records were set.

“What Bayi did that night was nothing short of super-natural,” explains John. “He led all the way despite having already gone through three rounds of the 800m and the heats of the 1500m. He deserved to win.”

Seeking to build his strength and endurance, John was selected for New Zealand to compete at the 1975 World Cross Country Championships in Rabat.

Finishing fourth and the top Kiwi counter, despite suffering an untimely stitch, he helped inspire New Zealand to the senior men’s team gold for the first and only time.

“It was probably the most unified team I’ve ever been in and that is why we ran so well,” he explains. “We would eat together, play together and laugh together. It was a great trip.”

John emerged following his successful outing for the World Cross Country Championships in outstanding form for the 1975 European track season. A winner of all 19 races on the European circuit that year he was confident of a crack at Bayi’s world mile record of 3:51.0 so requested that organisers of the Gothenburg meet change the scheduled 1500m to the mile.

The meet director agreed and John, who for the preceding three weeks had reined back the speedwork in favour of a more high mileage programme of 80 miles per week, was in outstanding shape.

Despite the windy conditions and a hapless Swedish pacemaker who ran at an uneven pace and dropped out at 700m – 100m short of the intended distance – John was still on track to lower the mark when he hit the front with 800m remaining.

In a sublime piece of distance-running he went on to stop the clock in a stunning 3:49.4 to wipe 1.6secs from the previous world mile record mark to become the first man to run a sub-3:50 mile.

“At the time I didn’t really know what it meant other than it was something unbelievable,” he says of the world record. “It was great to be a part of history.”

Breaking the world mile record was special but his greatest running accomplishment arrived the following year when striking 1500m gold at the Montreal Olympics.

Earlier in 1976, John wiped five seconds from the world 2000m record with a scintillating 4:51.4 run in Oslo only for his Olympic preparations to then suffer a double blow.

In the weeks leading into the Games he started to endure problems with a popliteal entrapment injury in his calf, which hampers blood flow.

“It was the most frustrating thing of my life,” explains John of the persistent problem, which often occurred around 20 minutes into a run.

Forced to lower his mileage his preparations were further hampered when he learned on arriving in Montreal of the African boycott of the Games, which ruled out his great rival – Filbert Bayi.

“I was devastated he wasn’t running,” explains John. “People said it would make it easier for me but I needed his pace. He was a front-runner who would have made the race quick, which would have suited me.”

As it turned out the final unfolded perfectly for the tall Kiwi. Intending to make his winning strike with 500m to go, it was instead the Irishman Eamonn Coghlan who burst to the front at this point in the final.

“I had hoped to run the other athletes into the ground from 500m out but in reality I probably wouldn’t have been able to,” explains John. “Had I done so, I would have lost and been regarded as the greatest failure in history. Eamonn going to the front saved my butt.”

Given a free ride by Coghlan, with 300m remaining Rick Wohlhuter, the Olympic 800m bronze medallist, emerged to the outside of John and threatened to move past. Rather than risk being “shuffled back like a pack of cards” John made the quick decision to burst to the front and make his winning bid with 300m remaining. It proved a masterstroke.

Leading into the home straight with a clear advantage he held off the late charge of Ivo Van Damme of Belgium to take gold by 0.10 in 3:39.17 and become the third Kiwi holder of the Olympic 1500m title after Jack Lovelock and Sir Peter Snell.

“It was the pinnacle of my career,” he explains. “At the end of the day you can win all the races under the sun or set world records but to be Olympic champion is there forever.”

Continuing to struggle with the calf injury and later undergoing surgery in an effort to correct the problem, in 1977 he suffered a chastening defeat to rising British star Steve Ovett at the World Cup in Dusseldorf.

Other great British milers were to follow with Seb Coe taking John’s world mile record in 1979 and their emergence – along with a third Brit, Steve Cram – brought a fresh challenge for the Kiwi.

“Those guys coming on the scene was the end of me as a force to be reckoned with,” he admits with typically honesty.

The New Zealand boycott denied John the chance to defend his Olympic 1500m title in Moscow and he was forced to watch Coe’s defeat of Ovett from a British TV studio.

“I was really pissed off because boycotting doesn’t really help anything,” he recalls. “I’d rather defend my title and lose rather than watch it from a TV studio. It was a tough watch.”

John may have not been the force of old but there were still high moments in the second half of his career. In 1982 he set a New Zealand mile record – which still stands today – of 3:49.08 in Oslo and later that year secured a silver medal at the 1982 Commonwealth Games, despite being hindered by Mike Boit when about to launch his sprint for the line.

No longer believing he could challenge as a medallist for the 1500m he stepped up in distance to target the 5000m at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. However, with the benefit of hindsight this proved a flawed decision as he wound up a distant 8th in the final.

“The Portuguese planned to make it a fast pace from the start to try and take the sprint out of me,” he recalls. “I was doomed from the beginning.”

Yet if Los Angeles provided one of the gloomier memories of his career the next year served up an unforgettable high as he became the first man in history to sub 100 sub-four-minute miles on his home track at Mt Smart Stadium.

“It was such a special night,” recalls John. “The Prime Minister was there, I was in good shape and knew I could do it.” 

Achilles injuries dogged the final part of his career and at the Auckland 1990 Commonwealth Games he tripped and fell in the 1500m final. He fell short of his ambitions to become the first 40-year-old to run a sub-four-minute mile and retired from the sport in 1992.

On the track, John boasted a proud reputation as a formidable competitor who never took a backward step, but in 1996 following his diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease needed to draw upon all of that resilience and determination for the biggest battle of his life.

Stoically fighting the illness for nearly 25 years he has uncomplainingly gone about his business with the same defiant spirit he revealed throughout his athletics career.

Post-athletics he moved into politics. He served on the Manukau City Council for 12 years before he was elected on to the Auckland Council in 2010.

John also founded the John Walker Find Your Field of Dreams Foundation, with the aim to encourage more of Manukau’s younger population into regular sport and physical activity.

Since its launch in 2008 it has helping tens of thousands of kids lead a more active lifestyle and the foundation is a source of immense pride to Sir John.

“We launched the Field of Dreams because I saw kids hanging around the streets with nowhere to go,” he explains. “I wanted them interested in sport, and the Foundation has organised more than one million swim lesson for youngsters.”

Forced to retire from public life in 2019 because of his ongoing battle with Parkinson’s Disease, he insists the daily challenge is to alleviate stress to best cope with the illness.

Living in the Bombay Hills with his wife, Helen, John has four children and three grandchildren. A big fan of all sports, John believes athletics at an elite level is as strong in New Zealand today since his heyday in the 1970s.

So since first starting out as an enthusiastic cross country runner at Manukau Normal School, what has the sport of running given him? 

“A sense of freedom, a sense of pride and wellbeing and a confidence that I could take on any challenge,” he says. “It taught me not to set limitations.” 

 

Written by Steve Landells