Dick Quax, RIP

i joined in a one off run with quax and anne audain in the auckland domain, a nice social occasion, but no fun having jetlag at the time.

he seemed like a nice fellow, there is incredible magic around elite athletes. dixon, walker, quax were like viking gods.

quax other best performances were a 335 solo in the 4 x 1500

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_New_Zealand_records_in_athletics

quax also ran for silver in the 1970 commonwealth games, smashing foster, and gave Kenio a run for his money until the final 100m.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukTwvscpqsY

quax was also one of the first guys to use altitude training, that is guys from the flat lands...

his WR 1312, was a time that dixon could have done, and probably walker,

dixon despite his excellent career, was the one who should have had a gold 5000 m and world record plus world several cross country wins.

i believe that this life, paradigm is but one of many trips and realities, quax had a great trip,

despite the tragic end today, if you look at it like that.

no RIP, good luck in your next go.

I think this is the link that Malmo intended to use.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mykXodmCmLY

Wow. Marty pulled a Yifter on Yifter en route to 13:16 (AR at the time?).

And those times by Irena Szewinska and Juantorena (49.? at 400!) would win most Diamond League meets today, 40 years later.

Impre------sive.

You're right, Malmo. This is a real treasure.

One of my favs.

taro wrote:

I think this is the link that Malmo intended to use.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mykXodmCmLY

The 800m was impressive, the 1500m was great but why did Walker leave the door open? Dwight Stones in a Micky-Mouse t-shirt. That 5000m was great to watch, it was really a race that summarized the entire 1975-1981 era/period in a one off.

Sad news. RIP.

Ackley wrote:

One of my favorite running photos is the finish of the 1976 5,000 final.

I saw in one of the linked articles that there is a statue of the finish in Atlanta, Georgia.

Oh what sad news. I had heard he was living with cancer. What a guy!

I remember traveling with him to xc races in Europe At the time, NIKE was measuring , I forget what exactly, though they needed a tad of your muscle from your quad.

I passed.

Dick however didn't and ran a 30km xc race the day after. He was in so much pain...but what a trooper. He didn't complain, but said I was good on passing up the bio.

He was great! He was one of the toughest runners and the best guy to enjoy a brew. (or two, or three).

One of the all time great mustaches in track and field. He had a fantastic running career and a super second act in politics. Farewell flying kiwi.

Wasn't he involved with Mary Decker for awhile?

He was my coach at Athletics West back in the '80s. All-around good-guy. Lots of fun. Forever the encourager. Humble to a fault...never talked about his glory days when he was a stud. Part of quite the New Zealand Threesome. Arbogast, Quax, Pasencia, Hunter were buddies and training partners back in the AW days. Two are no longer with us...I vote for me to go next, Steve...

woginw wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewWEgQnQlc4

One of my favorite videos on Youtube.

3 gods dixon quax viren in perfect battle, so beautiful the way viren took them out. bitter sweet that the guy juiced.

viren had his transfusion after the heats.

quax had used altitude.

dixon, did nothin.

taro wrote:

I think this is the link that Malmo intended to use.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mykXodmCmLY

Yup. I posted the wrong link.

Notice the 5000 was WSU (Kimeto, Kimombwa and Rono) vs the World (Liquori, Yifter, Quax.)

Another thing was the absolute power of Juanterena.

Theodorus Jacobus Leonardus Quax. With a name like that, he certainly wasn’t just any Tom, Dick or Harry. RIP Theodorus.

taro wrote:

Wow. Marty pulled a Yifter on Yifter en route to 13:16 (AR at the time?).

.

Yes. He set the AR. Then broke it again two weeks later in a losing effort to Yifter at the World Cup.

"Probably my best race ever. I went for a jog with Dick the day before and had to stop and let him go it alone." - Marty Liquori

malmo wrote:

taro wrote:

Wow. Marty pulled a Yifter on Yifter en route to 13:16 (AR at the time?).

.

Yes. He set the AR. Then broke it again two weeks later in a losing effort to Yifter at the World Cup.

"Probably my best race ever. I went for a jog with Dick the day before and had to stop and let him go it alone." - Marty Liquori

Malmo, ever here the one that Yifter was really born in 1937? That would make him 40 without a sprint to match Marty or Dick. Interesting.

RIP- I grew up idolizing Quax and his fellow New Zealanders.

Guys like him are why track used to be cool.

Dumb question, but why didn't Quax move to the roads like Dixon did early 80s?

FFF wrote:

Dumb question, but why didn't Quax move to the roads like Dixon did early 80s?

He did run numerous road races (including a 2:10:47 win in the 1980 Nike OTC Marathon), but was not as successful as Dixon.