Ryun sets new mark
JIM RYUN
Jim Ryun, who has more control over the mile than most major league pitchers do over a fast ball, settled at least one perennial question in running his 3:51.1 mile Friday. Sportswriters forever wanted Ryun to say if he thought he could run a 3:50 mile; now the only question they can ask is: When? Ryun said he wasn't even tired after setting the new world mark, only 1.1 seconds less than the mile's new magic number.
For the third time, KU miler Jim Ryun broke the world record in the mile, this time without the help of pacers.
Ryun galloped four times around the track Friday night at the annual National Amateur Athletic Union Track and Field Championship in the dazzling time of 3:51.1, at Bakersfield, Calif.
This was .2 seconds off his former record time he ran last July in Berkeley, Calif.
THE LEAN but powerful Kansan had to set his own pace Friday night and did so in exemplary fashion. But it was the 20-year-old running star's blistering on the final lap that enabled him to set a new mark.
Ryun, however, was disappointed. "You know that should have been the 3:50 mile," he was quoted as saying. "I had the 3:50 in the back of my mind and it could have happened if the pace had just been right.
"I wanted the pack to go a little faster in the first lap," said Ryun. "When it lagged a little, I decided to go out on the pace by myself. I knew it would be harder, but it was the only way.
"WHEN I heard the timers say 1:59 at the first half, I didn't think I would get the record," Ryun added, but he turned in a 58.6 third quarter, then sprinted away from the field, bringing the screaming crowd to its feet with his classic finish.
Ryun's quarter - mile splits were 59.2, 59.8, 58.6 and 53.5, compared with 57.7, 57.7, 59.6 and 56.3 in his 3:51.3 last year.
Incredibly, the next six finishers also broke the once-formidable 4-minute mark.
JIM GRELLE of the Multno-
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mah Track Club was second in 3:56.1; Dave Wilborn of Oregon, 3:56.2; Tom Von Ruden of Long Beach, Calif., 49ers track club, 3:56.9; Roscoe Divine of Oregon, 3:57.2; Sam Bair of Kent State, 3:58.7, and high school sensation Martin Liquori of Essex, N.J., 3:59.8.
Grelle, a 30-year-old veteran of 19 sub-4-minute miles, said admiringly of Ryun: "He's the only runner today who can go out and set his own pace like that."
AMONG THOSE watching were his parents from Wichita,
Block challenged
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—(UPI) The cross body block should be outlawed in football because it causes 54 per cent of all significant football leg injuries, a doctor reports.
The cross body block is a technique whereby a defender throws his body in a horizontal position at an opponent. Dr. Thomas R. Peterson of the University of Michigan says the effect of such a block is the same as if a railroad tie has been slammed into the attacker. Peterson said studies reveal, in addition, that the cross body block is usually an unnecessary technique.
Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Ryun, and 15 - year - old sister Jeanette They had planned a West Coast vacation to include the NCAA championships in Provo and the AAU finals at Bakersfield. But not even they were in on Jim's secret. When they met at the motel later, Mrs. Ryun was sitting in the foyer.
"I'm exhausted," she said, and she looked it. Ryun immediately donned swim trunks to jump into the motel pool with Oregon shot putter Neil Steinhauer.
Ryun will have only one more mile race this summer, that in London, Aug. 9. He will run a 1,500-meter race in the U.S.-Commonwealth meet in the Los Angeles Coliseum July 8 and 1,500 meters in Dusseldorf, Germany, later in August.
The final stop of the American team's European tour will be a triangular meet with Spain and Italy. Ryun asked AAU track administrator Ollan Cassell and the team coach, Yale's Bob Geigenback, to run either an 800 or 3,000 meters there.
Summer Kansan Tuesday, June 27, 1967
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