Record Run

"Look out, Wilt! Gehrmann's behind you!" shouted a wag as the runners pounded around the first turn of Madison Square Garden's indoor track. FBI Man Fred Wilt, running in a special two-mile race in the IC4A meet last week, ignored the gibe, but he could hardly miss hearing the excited murmur of the crowd when the time at the mile mark was announced: 4:25.1. Racing once more at his favorite distance, Wilt was no longer playing pacesetter for Don Gehrmann's come-from-behind winning sprints at the mile.

Bill Ashenfelter, A.A.U. cross-country champion, had set the early pace, but he dropped out soon after the mile mark. He turned the pacesetter's role over to his brother Horace Ashenfelter, Wilt's brother FBI man. At the mile-and-a-half mark, Official Timer Greg Rice, holder of the world indoor record, took a look at his watch (6:41.2) and shrugged. "Well," he said, "there goes my record."

By the time Wilt and Ashenfelter hit the last quarter-mile, the track-wise crowd was doing more than buzzing; they had already started applauding. And for the full minute-plus of the last quarter, the handclapping grew in volume. They burst into cheers when Wilt tore into the lead at the gun lap. As he pounded into the final turn, six yards ahead of Ashenfelter, the crowd stood up in spontaneous ovation. Wilt hit the wire in 8:50.7, the fastest two-mile ever run indoors, breaking Rice's 1943 record by three-tenths of a second.* Ashenfelter's effort, his best ever, was four-tenths behind the old record.

Rice was one of the first to congratulate the two FBI men. Wilt, winded and gasping for breath after his effort, was characteristically modest: "The two Ashenfelters deserve all the credit. They went all out. I'm not used to a long pace after running all those miles with Gehrmann. I said my prayers the last few laps that I'd hold up."

In a special half-mile race the same night, Gehrmann, who had set a world indoor record a fortnight ago at 1,000 yards, did not fare so well. He was nipped at the tape by Reggie Pearman in 1:51.3, a tenth of a second faster than John Borican's 1942 Garden record.

*World outdoor record: 8:42.8, set by Sweden's Gunder Haegg in 1944. Haegg also holds the mile record: 4:01.4.

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