Amazing John Landy story

Let me try that link one more time.

Never mind. The link is being truncated. If you're still interested, run a Google Images search on "john landy," then click on the picture showing Landy jumping over a fallen runner (Ron Clarke).

If I may be so presumptious, this might be your story.

Got it on some Aussie sports site.

Landy was one of Australia’s greatest athletes in the early 1950s. At the time, he was a serious contender for becoming the first person ever to run a mile in less than four minutes, and with the 1956 Melbourne Olympics looming, Landy was under immense pressure to create a new world record at the 1956 National Mile Championship.

A crowd of around 22,000 were watching when Ron Clarke and Landy began the third lap at a cracking pace, and it seemed as though a world record was about to fall. As the two of them turned into the corner, Clarke fell. The field of runners jumped over him.

Landy too leaped over the falling figure in front of him and his sharp spikes tore into Clarke’s shoulder. In a spontaneous gesture that cost him that world record, Landy stopped running, bent down to help Clarke up, and apologised. Together, Clarke and Landy set off after the rest of the field, who were now some 55 metres ahead.

John Landy, 1985

Image courtesy of the National Archives of Australia

A6135; K2/85/53

Turning into the home straight, Landy powered down the track to win in four minutes, four seconds. He went on to break the four-minute mile, as well as a number of world records, and later became the Governor of Victoria.

Yep, thanks. That's the abridged version. Here's the version I was fumbling with, sans photos and biblical quotations:

When I was a young athlete, the greatest Australian athlete was John Landy. Every second week during the summers 1952 and 1953 I watched Landy attempt to break the four minute mile. Incidentally, on Thursday night I met with Sir Christopher Chatterway, who with Roger Banister was in the first four minute mile in 1953. There were powerful runners in those days. But there was no one in those days of the stature of John Landy.

He became the world champion miler in 1954, None was faster week after week in the world over the mile and three miles than John Landy. Ron Clarke already held the Australian and World Junior Mile record. As we came close to the Olympic Games everybody was looking to John Landy to set a new world record. The greatest race I've ever seen in my life was at the 1956 National Championships in Melbourne. I was along the side fence inside a crowd of 22,000 people when the entrants lined up for the start of the 1956 National Mile Championship. Everyone knew that if John Landy got a fast start in the early part of the race he would set a new world record. We were all wanting Landy to run and win.

When the gun went off the young men each representing their states sped to the first turn and at the end of the first lap Robbie Morgan-Morris had completed the first quarter mile in 59 seconds, followed by Ron Clarke, Alec Henderson, John Plummer and then John Landy. The time was right on target for a world record. At the half mile Robbie Morgan-Morris was still leading and the time was two minutes two seconds. At the start of the third lap young Ron Clarke and Landy moved forward at a cracking pace. The world record was on!

Landy jumps over Clarke

Landy had only to go with him and a new world record would be in his grasp. Then occurred an event which is etched into my mind so clearly that I can see it being replayed as if in slow motion. I can never think of the event without my eyes filling with tears. Clarke was moving to the lead as they came into the corner on the third lap. John Landy was on his shoulder. Alec Henderson tried to squeeze between the two runners and the inside edge of the curb. In doing so Clarke, with his spikes, clipped his heel. Clarke sprawled forward onto the cinder track while Henderson was knocked onto the inside arena. Landy leaped over the falling body of Clarke in front of him and as he did his sharp spikes tore into the flesh of Clarke's shoulder. The whole field either jumped over Clarke or ran round him. The crowd which had been chanting "Landy, Landy, Landy, Landy" with every stride suddenly responded with an enormous gasp.

Landy then did the most incredibly stupid, beautiful, foolish, gentlemanly act I have ever seen. He stopped, ran back to the fallen young Ron Clarke and helped him up to his feet, brushed cinders from knees and checking his bloodied shoulder said "Sorry". Clarke was all right. He said to Landy "Keep going, I'm all right. Run! Run!". Landy had forgotten everything. The Australian mile title, his bid for a world record, even the approaching Olympic Games in a spontaneous gesture of sportsmanship.

Clarke got to his feet and together Landy and Clarke set off after the other runners. They were 60 yards behind the rest of the field which had kept on running and the crowd did not expect them to continue. John Plummer, Merv Lincoln and Alec Henderson were leading the pack. Clarke and Landy sprinted off on that last half mile.

The crowd was shouting as with every stride Landy hauled in the front runners. He quickly ran round the rest of the field, came into the home straight leaving Clarke behind with the most powerful finish I have ever seen in my life. He stormed down the track and in the last ten yards passed Henderson and Lincoln to win the Australian Championship in four minutes, four seconds.

I doubt if there has ever been a reception given an athlete in all of history as those 22,000 people gave Gentlemen John Landy that day. The cheers and the applause would not die down. It continued minute after minute as Landy completed a victory lap. There was no question he could have set a new world record that day. Stopping and going back, picking up Clarke and then running back over his tracks had cost him eight or ten seconds. But it also unleashed in him a finish that was beyond anything that we had ever seen before. We had seen the greatest mile race in history. Landy was to go on and set new world records and become a hero at the 1956 Olympic Games but nothing compares with the race that summer night in the Melbourne Olympic Park in 1956 when he stopped, picked up young Ron Clarke and forgot himself into athletic immortality.

I have occasionally met that quiet gentleman, John Landy, and reminded him of that day when we saw one of the great moments of Australian sporting history. I have witnessed many sporting competitions since, both Olympic and Commonwealth Games and other world championships but I have never witnessed a moment like that which belongs to Gentleman John Landy. His was the act of a great sportsman and fine gentleman who was also the world champion.

This story is mentioned in "The Perfect Mile" by Neal Bascomb and Ron Clarke gives his account (including 3 photographs) of that race in his book "The Unforgiving Minute".

If you can find a copy of The Unforgiving Minute, it is a great book. Clarke includes a letter sent to him by John Landy describing the type of training he did and suggestions for Clarke to do (Clarke was only 17 at the time, Landy was the World Record Holder)

John Landy was an outstanding runner and is a very fine person as well.

http://www.wesleymission.org.au/reachout2000/sermons/landy.1.jpg

Tom Landry was the most overrated football coach of all time.

Nice hat, though.