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[georgebi]

[georgebi]

[georgebi]

From Richard Amery‘s book


In early 1981, Henry it was hard to believe that he was the same athlete of three years earlier. His weight had gone up, his fitness had gone down, and the once clamorous European meet promoters saw him more as a liability than an asset.

His major sponsor – Nike – had sent him to Boulder, Colorado to try and have him sober up, and try to get in some sort of form for the upcoming European summer.

It seemed a hopeless task. He was greatly overweight, and resembled more an out of condition office worker than an athlete hoping to take on the world’s best in a few months.

Once in Europe, being accepted into races proved almost impossible. Meet directors took one look, and what they saw was not a pretty sight. Rather than the lean world beater of 1978, they saw someone several kilograms overweight with a pronounced beer gut.


In April, while training in Boulder, he met up with Steve Cram. He told a somewhat bemused Cram that he intended to break a world record during the European summer. One did not need to be a world class runner to see how unbelievable such a proposition was. Even more unbelievable was the fact that just over four months later, Cram himself would be pacing Rono in a race to do just that.


In September 13 in Knarvik, Norway, Henry was ready to make good on his promise to Steve Cram, made earlier in the year. Helped over the first four laps by British runners Cram, Ian Stewart, and James Espir, Rono then pulled steadily away. Until the final stages he set a remarkably even pace, with each of the first four kilometres taking between 2:38 and 2:38.5.

However, he clearly had something in reserve, running the final kilometre in 2:33.2, his last lap taking just 56 seconds, finishing in 13:06.20.


It would surely have been one of the great sporting comebacks of all time.

[georgebi]

.....however, that would really be his last hurrah

.....as in Oslo he would be in the very race that dethroned him as the five kilometre record holder.

The Englishman, Dave Moorcroft took an early lead and went on to produce one of the most unexpected of all athletic records. His time of 13:00.41 took a huge chunk off the old mark



.....with Rono himself finishing in fourth place almost 25 seconds behind.

After that, most aspects of his life went steadily downhill – except his weight.

Whereas his best racing weight was about 63 kilograms , he was now an almost unrecognizable 100 kilograms .

After a couple of early season runs in 1983 he essentially disappeared from the athletic landscape. For three years he did little – except continue to drink....

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δείτε στο 28:00
O Πομάσκι λέει ότι ο προπονητής της Ντόνκοβας πρόβλεψε οτι η Πατουλίδου θα βγει πρώτη και οτι η Ντίβερς θα πέσει επειδή πατάει στραβά

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Τό'βλεπε. Τό'παιξε;

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