Word: zealander
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...will be provided by the track and field athletes performing in the $700 million concrete stadium that hovers over the Olympic Park like the fossil of some monstrous crustacean. And immediately the absence of Black Africa's runners was felt. In the first day of track heats, New Zealand's John Walker, the world's fastest miler, failed even to qualify for the 800-meter semifinals. This was only a tune-up for the 1,500-meter race Walker runs this Saturday-an event that will not include Tanzania's record-holding Filbert Bayi...
...Games one of the gloomier landmarks in Olympic history, a further explosive political issue cast a pall over the event. Led by Tanzania, 18 Black African countries made good on their threat to boycott Montreal, along with five Arab neighbors. Their complaint was the I.O.C. refusal to ban New Zealand from the Games after that country sent a rugby team to South Africa, which has been banned from Olympic competition since 1968 because of its racial policies...
...most memorable foot races of modern times would have been the 1,500-meter final on Saturday, July 31, the last full day of the Olympics. Tanzania's Filbert Bayi, the world record holder in the 1,500 (3:32.2), was expected to confront New Zealand's John Walker, the fastest man ever to run the slightly longer-by 120 yds.-mile (3:49.4). Walker's best time in the 1,500 is only a hairbreadth two-tenths of a second off Bayi's record, set in the Commonwealth Games at Christchurch, New Zealand...
...kept them from meeting outdoors in the 1,500 or the mile since June 1974. Again last Friday, just when their long-awaited encounter seemed certain, misfortune intervened, this time in the form of the announcement that Tanzania was withdrawing its athletes from the Olympics if New Zealand was allowed to compete. Despite the threat of an Olympic boycott by the Organization of African Unity (O.A.U.), New Zealand last month had sent its internationally esteemed "All Blacks" rugby team (a reference to the color of its uniforms, not skin) on a South African tour, a move that seemed doubly offensive...
...beat Bayi in the 1,500, New Zealand's (6 ft. 1 in., 165 Ibs.) national hero was aiming at a 3:30 time. His coach, Arch Jelley, a man not known for optimistic pronouncements, thinks Walker can still set that record. His performance the past two weeks makes the mark seem possible. Walker has been preparing for Montreal by competing ferociously in Europe. On a windy day in Oslo, he broke Michel Jazy's 2,000-meter world record by nearly five seconds (the new mark: 4:51.4). Five days later in Stockholm...