Just a Run

For any other runner, a faster-than-four-minute mile would be fast enough, but not for Australia's John Landy. For him, the swift figures have been no sure formula for success. He holds the world's record (3:58), but he has also accomplished the improbable feat of being beaten twice while breaking the four-minute barrier (by Dr. Roger Bannister two years ago in Vancouver, B.C.. by Aussie Jim Bailey a fortnight ago in Los Angeles). Last week, at the West Coast Relays in Fresno, Calif., John Landy shaded four minutes for the sixth time in his career-and once more he was disappointed.

Landy expected to win, and he did. His strongest competitor, Villanova's Ron Delany, is clearly not in his class. But he had come to the U.S. in the first place to beat the drum for the Olympics by breaking his own record. With no one to breathe down his neck on the last lap, he ran an easy and unsatisfying 3:59.1. "It was just a run," he said later. "It's a little ridiculous to break four minutes so often and still not break my record."

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