2010
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Running off at the mouth
Ron Reed From: Herald Sun September 10, 2010 8:31PM
Herb Elliott after his gold medal win in the 1500m at the Rome Olympics in 1960. Source: Herald Sun
IT WENT largely unacknowledged, but this week’s 50th anniversary of Herb Elliott’s mighty win in the 1500m at the Rome Olympics was a reminder that Australian track and field deserves more respect than it sometimes gets.
Next week’s 10th anniversary of the Sydney Games, which will focus on Cathy Freeman’s starring role on and off the track, will be another one.
The sport has thrown up no more admirable figures, although John Landy, Betty Cuthbert, Marjorie Jackson, Raelene Boyle, Rob de Castella, Steve Moneghetti, Ralph Doubell and others have also helped form a high-quality honour roll.
It’s not just the glow of old glory, either - the good times seem to be coming back.
The Beijing Olympics and last year’s world championships were pleasingly successful and that momentum should continue at the Commonwealth Games, where athletics is one sport that offers a decent challenge.
With 20 athletes ranked in the top 20 in the world - including authentic stars in pole vaulter Steve Hooker, hurdler Sally Pearson and discus thrower Dani Samuels - the sport is in a good place, especially after getting more than $5.5 million from the Sports Commission last week.
Then along came a dark cloud. Outspoken 400m specialist John Steffensen, mounted on his high horse as usual, announced he would boycott the Games because Athletics Australia had made life difficult for him.
The temptation is to ignore Steffensen - plenty of competitors are more deserving of the limited media space available to athletics - but his story is actually a salient lesson in how not to go about it.
With a striking appearance, a showman’s personality, a certain gift of the gab and enough talent to win a relay silver medal at the Olympics and an individual gold at the Commonwealth Games in one of the most demanding events, Steffensen had all the makings of a star.
He should have been very good for a sport always in need of headline acts.
Sadly, though, he has never seemed to grasp a couple of other essentials, such as professionalism and respect for authority.
Despite the media running with the story yesterday, he still hadn’t bothered to inform AA of his plans officially.
Two years ago he beat a charge of verbally abusing Olympic champion Glynis Nunn-Cearns, a national selector, on a technicality and now he refers to Athletics Australia as “egotistical and outdated”.
As frustrated and angry as some heavies are, a senior source denied Steffensen was in danger of being charged with bringing the sport into disrepute.
But there is not much sympathy, either, among other athletes or sports fans who had their say on the internet.
Steffensen would command more credibility if he turned up and let his feet do the talking, not his mouth.
But perhaps part of the problem is that, having not raced competitively since April, he doesn’t want to put himself on the line.
Whatever the truth of that, it’s a futile way to protest.
Moneghetti, chief of the Games team, got it right: “Is this going to change the system? No chance.”
WITHOUT comment, we offer this related result from a 400m race in Italy the other night: Australia’s one-lappers in Delhi will include Ben Offereins, Joel Milburn and Kevin Moore. Oscar Pistorius, the South African disabled athlete who has no feet, beat two of them and failed by 1/100th of a second to claim all three.