Modest Miler

The day after his 17th birthday, New Zealander Murray Halberg learned a hard fact of life. He was playing a game of Rugby football for Avondale College when he was brought to earth with a hard-driving tackle. Halberg had a hard time getting back on his feet. His left side was paralyzed, his left arm useless. Halberg, a natural lefthander, had to learn to do everything all over again with his right. An enthusiastic runner, he was told he might never run again. Halberg did not believe the doctors. As soon as he was up and about, he began to run, holding his left arm against his chest, using his right in the traditional pumping movement necessary for balanced momentum.

Running as much as 80 miles a week, the frail (5 ft.11 in., 136 Ibs.) redhead built up his endurance and learned to live with his useless left arm. Last February, 3 1/2 years after the accident, he ran the fastest mile ever run in New Zealand and one of the fastest ever run anywhere: 4:04.4, three seconds off the world record. Last week he was in Philadelphia, on leave from college, where he is studying to be a teacher, as a special guest for the invitation mile at the Penn Relays. Another special guest: Mai Whitfield, two-time Olympic champion half-miler, who was making his mile debut.

Whitfield, a star attraction at any distance, seemed confident of his chances: "I moved up from a half mile to 1,000 yds. and set a world record. Why not up to the mile?" Whitfield even figured he had a good chance to become the first man ever to run the four-minute mile: "Why not? I can run as fast as anybody else, and I feel that both my physical and mental conditioning are perfect." Halberg was modestly and remarkably uninterested in the four-minute mile: "I don't care one way or the other. I certainly won't strain myself to do it." In short, Halberg was just interested in winning.

At the start of the race, with some 31,000 fans watching Whitfield, Halberg jumped to a quick lead. Running with short, choppy strides in sharp contrast to Whitfield's flowing glide, Halberg built up a 15-yd. advantage at the end of the first quarter. He kept right on increasing the advantage through each quarter. At the end, without ever bothering to look back and without ever being pressed, Halberg short-strided across the finish line in a respectable 4:10. Whitfield was timed in 4:16.7, a full 35 yds. behind.

Whitfield. now 30, plans to keep right on running. Halberg, 20, has other plans. "I've got to put my career first," he says. "As soon as track interferes with my career, I'll drop track." Now in his second year at Auckland's Teachers' Training College, Halberg wants to be a teacher "in a primary school, where I can work with youngsters."

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