The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 50

14 SPORT The Sunday Age 4 February 1990 SPORT 15 THE GAMES The truth about The Kenyans all ctae alt school, ouot odh the fams 1.1 iS2: A) i yomi forget economics has saved! the ames t- -I) J' Debbie Fllntoff-KIng: Left to run the final leg of the 4 400 metre relay. Martin Vinnicombe: Moved into Auckland's Sheraton Hotel. Hayley Lewis: Beating Dawn Fraser's Commonwealth Games record meant nothing to her. "That's history. I'm not interested in history." GAMES ATT A story of rivalry, myths, egos, officialdom, individuals H.

St prepared for the marathon but it learn a lot letes are probably at a level now where it's their life. And if you're not responsible enough to look after your life DISTANCE coaches Pat Clohessy and Chris Wardlaw were determined to prevent their marathoners Robert de Castella and Moneghetti from becoming involved in the Martin fracas which almost saw her discard a certain gold medal' and instead run for money In Japan. "Lisa's line is that marathoners are so professional that they're better than anyone else," said Ward-law. "I think she's being elitist. My line is they're different.

Everybody's different. Long-jumpers and sprinters are usually explosive people. "They eat up, they rag up and play up and they create a hyped-up atmosphere. Distance runners tend to relax down. You want to sleep a lot and prepare your body for a two-hour state of relaxation." Wardlaw has a point.

It was difficult to believe that Darren Clark and Steve Moneghetti were running for the same team. Clark was so toey before his 400 metre final that he had trouble tying his shoelaces. But that didn't stop him from performing some well-known theatrics before the race. His most dangerous opponents in the race were Kenyan teammates Samson Kitur and Simeon Kipkemboi. The brash Australian approached the Kenyans before the race and asked each: "Reckon you can beat him?" while pointing at the other Kenyan.

"He reckons you can't." To top it off, Clark let off a giant "cooee" under the tunnel as the finalists made their way to the starting blocks. Several days later Moneghetti stood beside another very different Kenyan, Douglas Wakiihuri. After the medal ceremony Wakiihuri asked Moneghetti if he wanted a lift anywhere. "No mate," said Moneghetti, "I'll see you a bit later. "Great bloke," added the Ballarat runner.

"But I think that's my problem. I don't hate him enough. We've always got on well, ever since the world championships in '87 when we ran together for a while. Deek and Juma (Ikaanga) have a similar friendship. "People have asked me whether I would run the race (the Games marathon) differently In hindsight but I ran honestly say that I did everything right and I had a perfect preparation.

It was good for me because it shows me I have to go back and learn a lot more." Hopefully, where Australia's next Commonwealth games campaign is concerned, Moneghettl's attitude will be Infectious: 1 1 Julie McDonald: With Janelle Etford (left) at the end of the 800 freestyle. Elford was not at all happy about losing to her arch-rival. Games pictures: STUART HANNAGAN, RAY KENNEDY, JOHN FRENCH talk about The Kenyans as some monolithic presence. Their Olympic champion, Paul Ereng, and number one in the world during 1989, did-not come to the Games. He didn't participate in their selection trials, but his -non-selection was based more on his desire to maintain, without interruption, his studies in the United States.

Many Kenyans use the US college system for the dual purpose of study and athletics. Kenya has enormous depth in its athletic system through all the distances. The Kenyan 1600 relay team is always one of the world's best. And their 400 runners are often their 800 runners in the next year or so. There are some common elements in the Kenyan system, though, despite the very differing individuals that make up The Kenyans.

As different in personality, training, lifestyle and tactics as Ngugi, Wakiihuri, Ereng and now Tirop are, they all have come through a common system, especially through school. There is a magnificent tradition in Kenyan distance running going back to Kip Keino in the early '60s. This is linked with a strong national emphasis on only a few sports soccer, hockey, track running. Their school system brings together regularly anyone who can run right through to -their national championships. John Valzian, an English consultant to Kenyan coaches, has developed a database of 1000 times for about 11,000 potential athletes In schools.

Their champions often do begin by running to and from school, but there is a good deal more to their success than this! The essential point is that each Kenyan champion is as individual as any of our distance runners. But there is more depth and structure to the Kenyan system than ours. Our champions are more likely to succeed by accident or circumstances than any Kenyan. Yet we can hold our own Lloyd and Moneghetti (and indeed Darren Clark at 400 in) have proved that in Auckland. In fact, Ngugi more than anything showed that African-style tactics can lose races as well as win them.

Probably Ngugi ran an arrogant race. Once he fell and got up, normally a runner would have worked to get on a pack and relax (like Lasse Viren in the 1972 Olympic 10,000 m). But no. He flew by, ran an incredible lap, then proceeded to sprint and jog. Lloyd and others ran their own even pace, and when opportunity knocked with 400 to go, took the chance with open hands and a super kick.

Wakiihuri, on the other hand, ran as evenly as possible, reserving his kick for the end. Wakiihuri's tactics were as conservative as Ngugi's were radical. Ngugi was exciting, and the race was one of the most-, dramatic distance races ever run. But he lost, though clearly the best runner in the field. While The Kenyans can be a useful term to catch the public interest, and there is some basis for the generalisations associated with the phrase, it is wise to remember that each of their athletes may have come through a common system, but they are as diverse a group of athletes as from any other country.

And they will continue to excite the world through to the next century. By Chris Wardlaw THE Kenyans have almost become a cliche. We see them on our television screens as each major Games track and field meet comes and goes. They excite the world with their dominant, flowing running. They take far more than their fair share of medals and records.

But the media image is often so fleeting that I'm certain a popular view of The Kenyans is that they come off their farms, don the red uniform, tear up track races all over the world, and then return to tend their cattle. In Auckland the Kenyan presence was again larger than life. More so probably this time because two of their greatest runners duelled with Australians Douglas Wakiihuri defeated Steve Moneghetti in the marathon, and in a stunning upset Andrew Lloyd defeated John Ngugi in the 5000 metres. Make no mistake, Wakiihuri and Ngugi are champions. Wakiihuri is the reigning world marathon champion, John Ngugi the reigning world cross country champion (four times in succession and likely to be five in March) and Olympic 5000 champion.

Yet, if we look at their lifestyles and the way they run their races, we can see the fallacy of the generalisation of The Kenyans. Wakiihuri hides in the pack in his races, never expending an ounce of energy. He is the classic "sit and bright, efficient, and blessed with a magnificent physique and style. Ngugi lopes along with giant strides, arms held seemingly too low. He sprints, jogs, looks around, indeed does everything the coaching manuals would argue against.

Yet he is seldom beaten. Wakiihuri spends his time between New Zealand, Japan and Kenya. Ngugi is based in Kenya and races in Europe. Wakiihuri is coached in Japan, Ngugi in Kenya. Wakiihuri trains along more traditional lines of a year-round system; Ngugi more in the Kenyan system of intense training bursts of eight to 10 weeks, followed by a racing phase with rests between.

Ben Jipcho, the great Kenyan middle distance runner of early '70s, was known to run eight miles easy eight miles hard, eight miles easy and eight miles hard as four separate sessions in one day. This sort of training can only be maintained in short bursts! Consequently, there have been many one-season wonders from Kenya champion medallists or record-holders who burst on to the scene and disappear Samson Kimwomba, Billy Konchellah, Paul Kipkoech and Kipkemboi Kimeli. The intensity of some of their training gets them up, but there are casualties. Last European season, John Ngugi opened with an eighth-place, 14-min-ute 5000 metres and then ran a world class 13 mins 14 sees less than a month later. Similarly, at cross country Ngugi has been vulnerable in January, then invincible in March at the World Cross Country Championships.

If we move down from distance to look at the 800 metres we can also Illustrate 'why It Is too easy to Jut The hope that the Commonwealth Games should be merrier than the Olympics was probably naive in the 1930s and is a lost cause in 1990, says Matthew Engel. NEW Zealand newspapers are not very big on reporting events from distant and trivial parts of the world, like Europe, the United States or Australia. Word has reached here, however, that the Commonwealth Games have gone down rather well with Australian viewers. Likewise, I hear that Australian competitors have done rather well at the Games. This is based on a certain amount of first-hand observation at those events It was possible to get to and from looking at the medals table.

Anyone relying entirely on New Zealand television for their information may be only dimly aware that 54 nations other than New Zealand, are participating. The spirit of Kiwl-firstlsm reached its apogee during the women's 800 metres when the local runner began losing touch with the rest of the field: "1 think she's pacing herself," said the commentator. The intention of the Commonwealth Games' founders was that they should not imitate the Olympic obsession with national success and should be more Individualist. That is why team games were excluded. "They should be merrier and less stern," said the organisers of the first Games, "and will substitute the stimulus of novel adventure for the pressure of international rivalry." It was probably a naive hope In 1930 It is certainly a lost cause In 1990.

But I suppose there have not been many weeks In history when the rest of us have felt overwhelmed by New Zealand's national arrogance. So let us give credit where it is due. The past week has been run efficiently and warmly, if not In the grand manner, and the New Zea-landers have saved the Commonwealth Games. Even a few months ago well-informed people were convinced that the Africans would find a reason to stay away. Two boycotts in a row would surely have meant the end.

Suddenly, we are one big family again. Happy family? Well, no one Is rushing around suggesting we should all meet again before 1994. The New Zealanders have certainly lost money on these Games. The size of the deficit depends on how you assess it. Throw In all the transport and policing costs and it could be more than $100 million but then equally you must allow for the tourism publicity It has generated.

Auckland really has not gone Games-crazy (television commentators always excluded). Only the ceremonials filled the house. For the pure athletics days, the stadium had to be "wall-papered" by selling tickets through a special offer with the local brewery. i If New Zealand, traditionally the most Empire-minded member of the club, cannot make a profit staging the Games who can? Today, Commonwealth sports ministers meeting to discuss the problem, have before them a Canadian proposal which suggests an injection of money to enable the Games to have a professional secretariat (there Is now an honorary secretary and a typist) and the finance and expertise to stage the Games outside the old white Commonwealth. We have become used to Canadian sport feeling guilty over the past 18 months, but this is a different manifestation of it.

Victoria, British Columbia site of the 1994 Games pinched the Games from the favorites, New Delhi, by offering travel subsidies to smaller countries, an idea which went down well in the Caribbean. There now appears to be a consensus among officials that the 1998 Games ought to go to somewhere fresh New Delhi or perhaps Kuala Lumpur which could be bad news for Adelaide, or maybe good news considering the recent financial track record of host countries. One of the best parts of the Games has been the way all kinds of unlikely countries have got themselves to the medals table Jersey and Guernsey; Papua New Guinea and Western Samoa; Malta and Cyprus. Take tiny Malta, for Instance. Most of its international sporting contacts are with the big European countries.

The soccer team regularly gets thumped by its neighbors. Even In the Eurovision Song Contest the annual televised festival of Junk music Malta often manages to get no votes at all. Now a young man called Laurie Pace has won a bronze In the judo. The response back home, said team manager Bertie Muscat, has been He thinks it will be a big boost for Maltese sport, judo in particular. That is absolutely In tune with the spirit of the Commonwealth Games.

It is less becoming when larger countries take the same line. After the 1978 Games in Edmonton the Canadian sports minister marched Into a press conference and announced: "We won the Games." Someone in Australia Is probably doing that right now. Originally there was something called the Lonsdale Trophy to be given to the most successful nation. It was melted down in 1934 to avoid that kind of national scoring. Australia's sportsmen and women achieved a number of Individual triumphs over adversity, epitomised by Andrew the silver, go for Lloyd.

So did competitors from New Zealand, England, Canada and Malta. It would be nice to think that those triumphs will stand out in the memory rather than anything else. If anyone won the Games, the Commonwealth did. It came through the week Intact, which probably constitutes the biggest triumph over ad-iverslty of them all, Steve Moneghetti: He was perfectly showed him he has to "go back and their village rooms. It has not yet been clarified whether Tunstall actually made long-threatened bed-checks but no bolters were exposed.

Many of Lisa Martin's teammates, not to mention some understanding officials, were angry with the marathon runner for drawing attention to this long-accepted rule of the Games. But Martin wanted to take a stand and was furious at being forced to leave Canberra earlier than planned. Martin's coach Dick Telford flew to Auckland with her fiance, the Kenyan 5000 metre runner Yobes On-dieki. Martin had planned to come to the Games with them, and not earlier, with the rest of the team. "The Kenyans weren't worried when Yobes arrived," said Telford.

"They know how to treat their elite athletes." GOLD medallists Darren Clark and Martin Vinnicombe, along with Vinnicombe's girlfriend, 400 metre runner Maree Holland, ali moved into Auckland's Sheraton Hotel after the Games started. Clark had Jeff Fenech sleeping on the floor of his room. It was instant Inspiration, he said. Sebastian Coe and several of Coe's British teammates were at the same hotel and nobody tried to hide the fact. Not so where Australia was concerned.

A Sydney journalist heard Flintoff-King was living outside the village and checked the story with one of Australia's team managers. The manager told the Journalist that if he wrote such a story at least a dozen athletes would have to be brought back into the village to face bed-checks. He was begged not to pursue the issue and warned that he would be snubbed by the track and field team If he did. While Lisa Martin believes that marathon runners should be treated as special cases because of the nature of the sport, Steve Moneghetti actually enjoys village life up to a point. Moneghetti was happy to stay among teammates until several nights before the marathon.

But he was forced to alter his schedule slightly to fit in with the Arthur Tunstall dictum and it was only his easy-going nature which prevented a public outburst. "It's easy to forget early problems when you've run well and couldn't have run much better. But I think they need to be a little bit more flexible. "I think It's very good to have a close-knit team and a tight manage- ment but they need to become more aware of Individual differences Ath HE By Caroline Wilson THE Commonwealth Games are big enough to mean something, but small and occasionally petty enough to be dismissed. Perhaps the trials and tribulations suffered by Debbie Flin-toff-King in three consecutive 400 metre relay teams say a lot about our Increasingly expensive imperial party.

The Olympic gold medallist was told during the week she had to run the last lap for Australia In yesterday's 4 400 metre relay. Her time was not the fastest of the team but nobody else wanted to take the last baton change. Who wants to be passed on the home stretch on national television? But Flintoff-King has probably stopped being surprised by such behavior. In 1982, she was told to run the third leg because Raelene Boyle and Denise Boyd, who had been known to spit as they ran past each other on the track, would not share a baton change. In fact the four women in Brisbane never even practised a baton change.

Australia won silver the young Flintoff ran a personal best but was passed by her English opponent. One of her teammates came up after the race and asked: "What happened to you?" In 1986, Laurie Lawrence was called in to help with the baton changes but when the swimming coach arrived at the Edinburgh training track, nobody had a baton. So Lawrence produced a cucumber. Jenny Laurendet, who had run almost two seconds faster over 400 metres than at least one of her teammates, was left out. The team won bronze.

Lawrence said he shed a tear for Flintoff-King when her last hurdle fell this week. He asked me to give her a cucumber when I saw her. "Tell Deb It's from Laurie," he said from Brisbane. "She needs to lighten up a little." LAWRENCE said before the meet that the one-upmanship between Janelle Elford and his swimmer Julie McDonald would stop once competition began. It didn't.

Elford phoned home after losing by a fingernail to her teammate McDonald in the 800 metre freestyle and sobbed to her coach, Dick Caine. The hardest part, said Elford, was having to sit next to the jubilant McDonald after the race and listen to her crow to the press. Caine said Elford's state of mind Indicated she would retire once and for all, such was the agony endured here. "Once they put her on show in that swimsuit she was finished," said Caine. "I spent $70 on the phone to her trying to convince her she was a real Australian.

But I watched her kick In the relay the next night and I knew then she wouldn't beat Julie." But the bitchiness might pay off to a certain extent. A Sydney printing company has offered to put up $30,000 prizemoney for a winner-take-all swim-off between the two women and Hayley Lewis. Kate Farrow won a bronze medal in the javelin and then said she had not spoken once to her teammate, silver medallist Sue Howland, in Auckland. "It did get to me," she said, referring to her lack of recognition in Australia in contrast to that of Howland. Kerry Johnson said she was sick of reading that sprint champion Raelene Boyle thought Australia had no sprinters.

Last weekend, Johnson broke Boyle's long-standing national 100 metre record, a record set when Johnson was five. "It did annoy me," said Johnson. "Especially when I was running the third fastest time in Australia. One of the team managers said to me that it would be nice if Raelene sent me a message or something. But she said not to expect it." THE Commonwealth Games is not a team competition, not when it really counts.

The team aspect is a myth, perpetuated by the green and gold of opening and closing ceremonies, just as standing on a dais and crying to 'Advance Australia Fair' perpetuates the myth that our champions are running for their country. Athletes work and struggle for too many hours to be doing it for anyone but themselves. Carolyn Schuwalow, who ran the 1500 and 3000 metres in Auckland, watched her husband Andrew Lloyd shock the Australian distance fraternity with his victory in the 5000 metres. She tried to congratulate Lloyd after his win but abandoned the impossible task of grappling with gate officials and went for a run instead. (The women officials have looked very smart each day in crisp white and navy sailor outfits but their efficiency has not matched their ofriciousness.) Just ask the English marathoner Geoff Wightman, who was asked by one if he required ice, during much pain, after the race on Tuesday.

"Yes please," gasped Wightman. "I'm afraid I don't have any," replied the official. "But you look like you could use some." (Wightman's reply is unprintable.) 1. 1 Schuwalow had a heat the next day and did not even get to share a glass of Bollinger with Lloyd. "It is easier being married to an athlete," said Schuwalow, "I've had boyfriends who weren't involved and they just didn't understand.

They don't help at all. Some of them even try to make you give it up." On the morning of Lloyd's race, Schuwalow looked him in the eye and said firmly: "Nobody deserves a medal. They have to earn It." But the Frankston woman did not expect her husband to win even a bronze medal. "I thought he had a chance of finishing In the first five," she said. It has been good to watch the satisfaction which spreads over the face of a winner on the dais the peaceful joy of Douglas Wakiihuri, the youthful beam of discus thrower Lisa-Marie Vizaniari, and Tessa Sanderson's superior grin as she looked down at Sue Howland, runner-up in the javelin.

But what are they really thinking? Some, like the cocky but agonised prodigy Hayley Lewis are simply glad it's all over. Perhaps others are thinking business. The national anthem adds a small piece of icing to the cake but the real rewards come later. LISA Curry is said to be entering a new contract with Uncle Toby's worth 11 million but stardom does not always come hand in hand with winning. Three members of an Australian track relay team met for a motivational dinner on Friday night but the fourth was too busy wooing a potential sponsor.

Australia's 317 sportsmen and women won 52 gold medals, more than ever before, and yet for most of them that national tally will count for nothing. i This is not to say we are a nation of bad sports or that our athletes are unpatriotic. It's just that sport has gone beyond that. Somebody made the mistake of putting two of our highjumpers in a room together when they arrived in Auckland. They lasted two nights before asking to be moved.

Kayley Lewis won five gold and one bronze medal to beat Dawn Fraser's enduring Commonwealth Games record. But Lewis said it meant nothing to her. "That's history," said the 15-year-old. "I'm not interested in history." Australia's success here says plenty for our sporting future but there are lessons to be learned too. One of the most important messages from Auckland is that our elite athletes are individuals and should be treated as such.

And perhaps next time around it would be smart to blend sporting professionalism with a management to match. Team manager Sol Spital-nic, an old boxing croney of Arthur Tunstall's, wandered dazed into the sweaty village press tent yesterday, slumped in a chair and wiped his furrowed brow for the last time. "None of them have got passports," he muttered to another Australian offical, referring to the team. "They're a shambles. I'm not having a go at you mate but jeez it's been a long night." It's been a long fortnight Sol, and thanks for the memories.

Forcing professional athletes to behave like truants from boarding school was a mistake which should not be repeated. For decades our leading athletes have been sneaking out of the Games village following a nod and a wink from an official. But even now they must leave some of their clothes strewn around.