TORIAL: Knighthood bestowed on true legend
01.06.2009
GRANT HARDING
In the mid-1970s middle-distance running star John Walker wasn’t your typical New Zealand sportsman.
There was no false modesty. When it came to a race he knew he would win, he said so. It wasn’t exactly Muhammad Ali-style, nevertheless his statements were confident, even emphatic.
That didn’t sit easy with a public used to the mumblings of All Blacks. It was the very reason why I regarded him so warmly. He backed himself against the world’s best, and he delivered.
Love John Runner', or feel lukewarm towards John Talker’, there was no denying his achievements - 1974 to 1977 were golden years.
A bronze medal in the 800m at the 1974 Christchurch Commonwealth Games was followed by a silver medal in the infamous 1500m - Walker and the winner, Tanzania’s Filbert Bayi, both going under the then world record. The trailing runners also produced the fourth, fifth and seventh fastest performances to that time.
Walker was announced to a wider public watching television in colour for the first time. With his long, flowing, blondish hair and confident manner, he quickly became the glamour boy of the running world.
The following year in Sweden he also became the first man to go under 3 minutes 50 seconds for the mile and in 1976 won the Olympic 1500m gold medal at Montreal.
His European campaigns, with Rod Dixon and Dick Quax, were legendary. He ran and ran and ran, producing extraordinary results - and back here in Hawke’s Bay I ritually listened to early morning radio news to hear of his exploits.
A global superstar before athletics was fully professional, Walker was never anything but an outstanding role model for his sport.
I saw him in the flesh. Where? At the Hastings Highland Games - in the good old days when it attracted the best of the best for a track and field meet.
One morning my father came around the back of the house yelling at me, ``John Walker’s just run past’. I took my dilapidated bike from the shed, raced along Caroline Rd, down Kenilworth Rd and out onto Karamu Rd where I caught a glimpse of the tall figure with the flowing hair as he rounded Waipatu corner opposite Elwood Rd. Catching the Adonis of running with a dodgy pedal was too big an ask.
He could fly, but his feet were always on the ground and his heart was always with athletics and New Zealand.
How else do you explain a fourth place in the World Cross-Country championships to lead this country to its only title at that prestigious event?
How else do you explain him pushing his body on through the `80s - gaining another 1500m silver medal at the 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games and becoming the first man to run 100 sub-four minute miles?
They were golden years all right - you only have to look at the photos of kids running victory laps with Walker at events we can now only dream of holding in New Zealand.
In today’s world Walker would have been rich with a capital R.
But in the time since the roar of the crowd faded away he has not complained, or acted as if the world owed him a living.
On the contrary - he has moved on, raised a family, run a business, contributed to local body politics in Manukau City, started two major charities, and when asked, commented fairly and squarely on the sport he loves.
This he has done while battling Parkinson’s disease for the past 15 years.
Today a true legend of New Zealand sport was honoured in the Queen’s Birthday list. If we must have knighthoods, this is one I approve of.
Thank you for the memories, John. Arise Sir John Walker.