Word: ryun
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...been a long, hard, frustrating year for Jim Ryun. The lanky, 19-year-old University of Kansas sophomore had faithfully logged his usual 120 miles a week in practice and competed in 30 meets from New York to California. He set U.S. records for 800 meters and two miles, ran the fastest half mile (1 min. 44.9 sec.) in history. But he failed by one-tenth of a second to tie Michel Jazy's world record for the mile. That mile mark was Jim's real goal-no American had held it in 29 years...
Last week at the U.S. Track and Field Federation meet in Terre Haute, Ind., Miler Ryun loafed through his specialty in 4 min. 2.8 sec.-just fast enough to leave his nearest competitor 15 yds. behind. But he also competed in the half mile, an event he has entered "only five times before," ran the 880 yds. in 1 min. 44.9 sec.-beating Peter Snell's four-year-old world mark by .2 sec. Shrugged Ryun: "I had to do something to break the monotony...
...teen-ager who goes to church twice on Sundays, doesn't smoke, drink or dance, addresses his elders as "sir" and "ma'am," and never even says "shucks" in the presence of ladies, Jim Ryun inspires an awful lot of antagonism. New Zealand's Peter Snell, who was then the world record holder for the mile, explained why on the eve of last summer's A.A.U. championships. Snarled Snell: "I resent having anybody that young in my kind of race." He resented it a good deal more next day, when Ryun won the A.A.U. mile, beating...
...Ryun has run faster since. Distance runners traditionally do not reach their peak before their mid-20s-Britain's Roger Bannister was 25 when he broke the 4-min. barrier in 1954, and France's Michel Jazy, the current record holder, is 30. Ryun, at the tender age of 19, is already the second-fastest miler in history. In this month's Compton Invitational track meet at Los Angeles, he sped the distance in 3 min. 53.7 sec.-just .1 sec. off Jazy's world record. Afterward, he complained mildly that the official who was supposed...
...Terribly Boring. Tall (6 ft. 2 in.) and scrawny (160 Ibs.), Ryun runs with about as much style as a drunken sailor -head lolling, shoulders rotating. His pulse rate (about 70) is abnormally high for a miler, his breathing rate is unusually slow, and he is prone to dizzy spells caused by a malformed bone structure in his inner...