Weather only real winner at Twilight
It was the kind of meet that made you want to
nestle up to your favorite shot-putter, order up a
round of hot-buttered rum, and sit and watch sprin
ters pull up lame despite an overpowering coat of
linament on their legs.
One could envision the distance runners trying
to build a bonfire out of Tinker Hatfield's Catapoles,
or a pile of once-used Nikes.
By CARL STEWARD
Of the Emerald
It was so cold even Steve Prefontaine failed to
provide enough spark to ignite any heartwarming
reconciliation for attending Saturday's Twilight Meet
at Hayward Field.
Oh, there was Hatfield’s 16-3 effort in the pole
vault, and Bruce Hill's 59-2 mark in the shot. There
was Peter Spir running an impressive 3,000-meter
steeplechase and Gary Barger’s 4:02.7 mile.
But even a Kodiak bear would be hard-pushed
to want to fork any money to see icides form on the
edge of the Stevenson Grandstand, starters warm
their hands with the smoke from a pistol, or a Lane
Community College athlete win the high jump.
Nlanook of the North has seen better evenings.
'Most of those who braved the weather for the
annual knee-knocking contest probably were there in
hopes Pre would set his long-lost world record, or
that Ronnie Lee would stick his javelin in the
steeplechase water jump.
Ronnie, however, as Hal Cowan so timely an
nounced, had walked 20 miles in the Walkathon with
two kids on his back. A javelin toss over 200 feet
was a little too much to ask, but the crowd was
grateful, anyhow. Jeff Carter, who won the event with
a mark of 247-8, passed his last attempt, and nobody
could blame him.
Similarly, Pre graced the crowd with a sterling
effort despite the conditions. Pre admitted after
wards, however, that he had no plan going into the
race (?) due to the cold.
"The elements have to be just right when you’re
running 10,000 meters,” said Pre. “That’s a long way
to be fighting Mother Nature."
Pre’s time for the 10,000 meters was 28:09.4,
about 20 seconds off his American record pace. His
six-mile time was comparably off—27:18.6, which
was dose to 30 seconds slower than the record he
set at the 1974 Twilight Meet.
“I felt good for the first three miles, but the
fourth and fifth miles, where it’s toughest, it just
wasn’t there,” he said. “There was nobody in front of
me, and nobody behind me, and my shoulders and
stomach were tightening up."
“I was amazed I ran as fast as I did.”
Luckily, the meet was not the stage for Pre’s
match-up against Finland's Lasse Viren, which will
be in the NCAA preparation meet May 29. That race
will wrap up a series of meets Pre himself is promot
ing for the visiting Finnish troupe, who will be seeing
the likes of Madras, Coos Bay, Vancouver, Wash.,
and Seattle before the Eugene meet.
Then again, Lasse may have enjoyed Saturday
night. It might have made him think about the old
country, back in Helsinki.
“If the weather conditions would have been
better, I probably could have run as fast or faster than 1
last year,” said Pre. “I am very happy with my condi
tioning. This was a good, hard work-out.”
So there was some minute consolation for Pre,
who will take a light work-out this week, plotting his
next race while avoiding AP reporters.
And for Coach Bill Dellinger—he got a few more
qualifiers—it was a mild success.
Finally, for the track team it was good prepara
tion for the return trip to Pullman for the Pacific-8
meet.
But while milers and high jumpers and discus
twirlers have shone in Twilight Meets past, there was
only one real winner in Saturday's event—the
weather.
Everybody else who attended came in last.
Photo by Warren Morgan I
The cold cut into Pre’s plans
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