 |
| The sad sight of Jim Peters repeatedly collapsing at the Commonwealth Games of 1954. |
Runners
with a sense of history will wince at this news, for the Commonwealth ('Empire') Games
marathon of exactly 60 years ago was played out in similar conditions and truly
horrific scenes resulted. The race favourite, Jim Peters of Essex Beagles, was
so badly affected by the heat that day he suffered multiple collapses near the finish
line and very nearly died.
Peters
was a runner who suffered with a sensitive stomach, which meant he didn’t take
on water during races, however hot and dehydrated he got. He was also a worrier,
always scared to moderate his pace in case he was caught, even when holding
huge leads. These two handicaps nearly caused him to pay the ultimate penalty
at the Vancouver games of 1954. To compound things further on this occasion, he’d
even tried to accelerate in the closing stages “in order to get the race over
with”. The resulting meltdown was a sickening sight for the thousands who
witnessed it, a big crowd that included dignitaries such as the Duke of
Edinburgh.
Vehicles
carrying helpers were banned from the race to avoid a build-up of exhaust fumes,
which meant Peters and the others raced without assistance or information. Around
halfway Peters was at least 300 yards ahead, but instead of relaxing became
desperate to increase that lead and sped up, even though he was already finding
the heat “overwhelming.”
He craved
a wet sponge to cool his burning head and neck, but such luxuries weren’t on
hand. By the 20-mile point, unbeknown to him, he’d forged a remarkable lead of
at least one mile and rivals behind were dropping like flies. Had he known this,
he could have dropped into a nearby house for a leisurely shower and a cold
beer, and still emerged with a healthy lead!
But Peters
was running like a frightened rabbit, seemingly oblivious to the damage the heat
was doing him. He reached the packed stadium which housed the finish line in
around 2 hours and 20 minutes. In the circumstances it was a phenomenal time,
and anyone but Peters would surely have eased up and jogged in. But, desperate to
end the agony, he pushed hard on the uphill section towards the stadium entrance
only to suddenly find his legs wobbling like crazy. He careered down to the running
track to great roars from the 33,000 crowd and suddenly collapsed with less than
400 yards to go.
“I
just couldn’t understand what had happened,” he said later. “For a moment I was
completely bewildered. Then I made my mind up I was going to finish. I didn’t
want to disgrace my wife and kids. I thought of them at that moment and said to
myself I’m going on, there’s a tape you’ve got to break, you don’t stop till
you hit that tape.”
Here began
the awful sequence seen so often on newsreel clips for years afterwards. He
repeatedly collapsed, dragging himself up, falling again, momentarily
motionless, then writhing on the floor, rising and falling again. In total
there were 12 falls. His soiled clothing showed he’d lost control of bodily
functions and he was also evidently slipping in and out of consciousness. It
was a truly sickening and distressing sight. But nobody came forward to help, worried
this brave but pathetic figure would be disqualified if assisted and his gold
medal would be lost.
When
researching my 2011 book on Peters (details below!), his gut-wrenching
slow-motion journey to the finish line was described to me by an eye-witness,
the Australian runner Geoff Warren: “It was actually more like a walk, his arms
grasping in the air in front, his legs also reaching forward like a puppet and
his head mostly tilted back. And, every few steps he would fall over backwards,
turn over, climb to his feet again and continue his awful progress. There had
been a roar from the crowd at the first sight of Jim arriving on the track, but
it was now replaced by a horrified silence.”
England
teammate Chris Brasher said: “Jim was suffering from dehydration, salt deficiency
and overheating and his balance was gone. It was a hell of a scene and one of
the most horrific in athletic history. They took his temperature [later] and it
was about 107 or 108 degrees. It is something absolutely unbelievable in
medical circles. He was on the verge of cooking his brain.”
News
reporters told how people in the crowd couldn’t bear to watch, some even fainting
and others being physically sick: “Women wept and strong men lost their lunch” was
one headline. New Zealand runner Murray Halberg recalled: “There was a stark,
shocked silence in the crowd and I felt like being sick. I wished someone would
stop this agony. It was beyond everything that is sport to see that stricken
man, all alone before thousands of horrified spectators, lurching in virtual
collapse.”
The
crowd began to shout for Peters to be helped, but the only response was a stadium
announcer calling for order and "respect for sportsmanship". The grotesque torment
lasted around 11 awful minutes before Peters tottered across a white line into
the arms of England trainer/masseur Mick Mays and official Ernest Clynes. Initially
it was thought he had made the finish line, but it soon became clear he was
still half-a-lap short and officials had no alternative but to disqualify him,
announcing this sad fact just as he was laid on a stretcher!
There
were loud jeers from the stands, but those gathered around Peters were by now more concerned
about whether he would live, rather than whether he’d won. He was whisked to
hospital, put in an oxygen tent and given a saline drip. Nearly 15 minutes after
Peters stumbled into the stadium, Scotland’s Joe McGhee, who’d run a more
sensible and measured race, progressed smoothly and untroubled to the gold medal
in 2:39.36.
Early
next day a rumour spread that Peters had died during the night in hospital, but
thankfully this proved false and several days later a shaky figure emerged,
miler Roger Bannister at his side, for the flight back to England. Shaken and
damaged beyond repair, Peters quit his beloved sport at the age of 35. He
accepted his approach to running had made him a danger to himself, and there
was no point carrying on for the 1956 Melbourne Olympics which would also be
held in hot conditions.
Peters’
exploits and world records of earlier meant his place in history was already secured.
He returned to his family and his work as an optician in Essex and slowly
regained full health - but never ran another competitive step. His life would end
nearly 44 years later at the Fairhavens Hospice in Westcliff-on-Sea in 1999.
However
hot it gets in Glasgow this weekend, thankfully nobody is likely to suffer like
Peters did, thanks to vastly improved knowledge about preparation and rehydration,
better race organisation and medical support. It’s also true that we probably
won’t see an Englishman leading the race either; the last Commonwealth men’s
marathon gold going to Ian Thompson of Luton, way back in 1974.
- To read more about the remarkable running career of Jim Peters, my 2011 biography ‘Plimsolls On, Eyeballs Out’ can be obtained via the following links:
- http://www.amazon.co.uk/Plimsolls-Eyeballs-Out-Horrendous-Athletics-ebook/dp/B005YNKK9Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406297983&sr=8-1&keywords=plimsolls+on+eyeballs+out
