Kiwis aren’t exactly renowned for flying in the very longest or shortest running events at the Olympic Games. In the extreme distance events it’s really just been Lorraine Moller’s Barcelona bronze to impact the medal table.
In the sprints you have to go back over a century to future Governor General, Knight and Baron Arthur Porritt who came third behind Harold Abrahams in the Chariots of Fire 100m. The two of them got on so well that they dined together at 7pm on the 7th of July every year for the rest of their lives.
In the middle distance races it’s been a very different story, starting with Jack Lovelock at the infamous Berlin Olympics of 1936. Memorably, it was his good friend and Kiwiphile Abrahams who was full of emotion on comms for the BBC: “Come on Jack! My God, he’s done it! Jack, come on… Lovelock wins! Five yards, six yards…”
In the ’60s, the mastermind was Arthur Lydiard, whom the global magazine Runner’s World considered the greatest running coach of all time. He knew what worked and what caused burnout through rigorous scientific study – evidence that led both to Olympic glory and millions of people taking up jogging to keep fit. That’s some legacy.
When coaching in Auckland, Lydiard had his elite charges running unprecedented distances up the Waitakeres to build endurance early in the season. Strength and speed work came later so that athletes would peak for the Olympics.
And boy did they peak. In 1960, Kiwis revelled in their Roman golden hour, with Peter Snell winning the 800m and Murray Halberg the 5k. Four years later it was Snell winning both the 800 and 1500, one of only two men in history to achieve this prestigious double.
After Lydiard left, Arch Jelley fused his methods with other ideas to keep the medals flowing. The greatest of these was John Walker with another 1500m Olympic gold in 1976. There was then a lull, but Nick Willis won metric mile medals in the new millenium and the future looks bright as Sam Ruthe has just broken by over a second the under 16 world record of double Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen. Watch this space.
The Super Rugby metric mile
Marathons are largely about endurance and the 100m raw speed, but in the mile and metric mile tactics play a huge role. How much energy do you conserve in the final lap and when do you make your move? Go too early and you can run out of juice. Too late and you can be left behind.
On the face of it, Clayton McMillan’s Chiefs have made both mistakes in the past two years. In 2023 they led through the whole season, with just one defeat while resting most of their best forwards against the Reds. Even in the final they led into the last eight minutes before hitting the red and black wall. The Cantabs had been fifth after two thirds of the regular season but still crucially qualified second.
On the other hand, Robertson’s team had easily triumphed in his previous six seasons. Perhaps they were simply the best and always likely to win once they hit their straps late on. Maybe the Chiefs did very well to run them so much closer than anyone else had.
Sam Darry and Akira Ioane of the Blues share a moment during the Super Rugby Pacific Grand Final (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)
Then last year the Chiefs rotated frequently, even against the defending champions, and finished fourth. This might have given them the energy to win the first versus fourth semi in Wellington, but that was a hugely attritional contest and they had nothing left to give in the final. Conversely, they had been behind the Hurricanes and Blues all year and it might be that they timed their run perfectly to overachieve in the semis.
Finding the right balance
So what’s the best strategy? In the 1500m, there’s no one right answer. Lovelock surprised everyone by racing clear 300m out. Walker hit the front at the bell and just refused to let anyone past. Willis conserved energy at the back before sprinting into the medals on the home straight as an unfancied outsider in 2008 and the oldest 1500 medallist ever eight years later.
The trade-off is between energy and position in the home straight. In Super Rugby it’s the same, with “position” meaning a relatively easy run through the playoffs.
You need to keep enough energy and form to win the final, which means that you can’t give too much early in the season… but you also can’t have too tough a run through the knockouts. It’s a difficult balance and luck of the draw can be crucial.
This balance means that it’s impossible for coaches to structure a season as radically as Lydiard did to peak for the Olympic Games. Or for a player to take the attitude of Lovelock who knew he could only be at his best for one event a year and lost plenty of other races. There are too many hard hits to take and games you need to win during the comp.
How late is too late?
So how do you conserve energy and how much do you need to hold back? Roarer Andrew has my favourite theory.
“You want a solid start, a mid season slump, then come roaring back. I have no data to back this up, but believe in this strategy wholeheartedly.”
The ‘99 Crusaders took this route to the extreme. After beating the Chiefs and Blues first up, they arrived at Loftus Versfeld in Round 9 still on two wins and needing to sweep their remaining matches just to qualify.
A point down in the dying stages, Andrew Mehrtens must have copped all sorts of stick from the Main Stand when he missed a sideline penalty. Just a few minutes later, he memorably “threw his hands in the air” towards them after nailing the winning droppie. What a quaint piece of commentary that was.
https://youtu.be/6LXqeh-Upeg?feature=shared (Mehrtens’ Drop Goal vs Bulls)
Of course the ‘Saders duly went on a winning run to evict the Highlanders from the House of Pain in the final. However, most people forget the huge advantage lady luck gave them.
They would have expected a long journey from Brisbane to Cape Town for the big dance, but 1999 was the year that the Stormers began their inglorious tradition of blowing home ground advantage in the playoffs. Therefore it was the Southern Men who ended up making a huge transoceanic round trip.
After even the perennial champs benefitted from that sort of luck to win from outside the top two, it’s perhaps not surprising that it’s only happened a couple of times – the other example being the 2015 Highlanders who won in Sydney and Wellington. A lack of long-haul flights might make it easier in future, but history shows that you don’t want to leave your run so late that you miss out on a home semi.
You might be able to put in a herculean effort to beat one of your two top opponents away from home one week, but it’s then almost impossible to find the same energy the following Saturday to beat the other one away. Especially if they had an easier dress rehearsal, like the lucky second-placed Blues did before they thrashed the exhausted Chiefs last year.
The curse of the February champion
At the other extreme, the only team ever to win the final after a 100 per cent year was the Crusaders in 2002.
It’s very difficult to win your first few games and then stay at the top all the way to grab the trophy. In fact, since the Bulls did it in 2010, only Razor’s septuple champions have emulated them, and even they came from behind most years.
It takes a lot of mental and physical energy to keep on winning and if you’re raring to go in February you’re less likely to have your maximum edge in June. Even in a 400m race like the World Cup, Ireland were widely criticised for playing their best players in all four pool matches, robbing them of energy for the quarter-final. There’s also nothing like defeat to increase your desperation and work out what’s going wrong.
With the increased speed of this year’s games, it’s only going to be harder to keep up energy levels through the season. That could be bad news for this year’s February champions the Chiefs, who have been going strong in the fourth quarter while their opponents have fatigued. They also have two matches in the tropical Pacific Islands in three weeks and could be vulnerable to a fast finishing challenger.
On the other hand, perhaps they’ve built up a lot of endurance in pre-season which might still be the difference in the playoffs. They also made seven changes after their first game in an effort to keep players fresh. Time will tell.
My theory is that the ideal campaign is to expend as little energy as possible to finish in the top two, while hitting your best possible peak in the final. Of course that’s easier said than done.
And you could still face the toughest semi-final opponent, like the top qualifying Canes did last year. Never underestimate that luck of the draw.
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