1974 Commonwealth Games 1500m

John Walker and Filbert Bayi fight for medals!

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• 1974
• Commonwealth
• Games
• 1500m
• John
• Walker
• Mike
• Boit
• Filbert
• Bayi

[mc1703]

do you have this from the start? what a fantastic piece of front running.

[athlete5399]

I'm afraid that's all the footage I have of this race

[knightsxc06]

David Coleman, before he became a gurgling shadow of his former self at the Sydney Olympics, could, in his heyday, add almost as much to a race as the athletes. His commentary is unsurpassed.

Also: Bayi had the biggest, steeliest balls in track and field history. Simply running away from the greatest mile runners in the world and daring them to catch you is incredibly insane and wonderfully beautiful.

[ervtheswerve100]

The greatest 1500 metre race of all time !! Truly magnificent. The most brilliant display of front running ever seen, and the most fantastic fight back by the chasing group. Bayi is the greatest miler of all time because no one before or since has ever led from gun to tape and won a major chamionship. 36 years on and I still feel the tingle of excitement I felt when I saw it live on February 2nd 1974 !!!!

[bootymanager]

I rate '99 world champs as slightly above this one. Seb Coe agrees. It had the fast time, competitive race and all the best guys there. El G ran the fastest championship time ever (3.27.65), beating Ngeny (2000 olympic champ), Reyes Estevez, Fermin Cacho, Dias, Morceli and the rest. What other great races are there? Anything to challenge that?

[ARRISIPPY]

It's rather sad how often I end up looking at this race!!There were many claims to"Mile Of The Century"races,but in Championship finals they were rare.Perhaps Lovelock/Cunningham in '36 ,Bannister/Landy in '54, or even Coe's title defense in '84,but this is still,for me,the greatest of them all.Still sends a tingle down my spine!

[ChampionDark1]

I was there that day in Christchurch I remember the race well. If Bayi had of turn up in 76 walker would have won. He beat Bayi many time after this event and had worked him out. But Africa did not turn up to busy being cry babies about the Mighty All Blacks

[LesbianVampireLover]

Given your great posts, I would be interested to know what format and equipment was used here and when they were finally transferred to digital. These are just superb quality; many of my old tapes deteriorated and broke! These guys used to be my heroes, back in the day, especially Walker and Dixon. I got to meet Dixon in person at a road race in 1986 and all the girls were flocking around him, as he was such a good looking guy (probably still is!).

[stonekeeper86]

Bayi held that blistering pace and still outkicked Walker......I think we know who would have won in '76, if they had raced again......

[flaxonx3]

Always remember the anticipation for Walker v Bayi at the Montreal Olympics in 1976 was just as big as for Coe V Ovett four years later. Montreal was the first Olympics I was old enough to be interested in so the disappointment of the African boycott scuppering the race was immense. 

[eelsOllie98]

bahahahahahhaha my PE teacher told us to look at this in class and he said that john walker won XD and it was reallly close

[BillBordelon]

If you go to the QE II stadium in Christchurch NZ and you have "Tagwhat" installed on your smartphone (android or Iphone) you can intercept an augmented reality link to this video and (eventually) other videos and media on great middle distance races like this. You can also go to the Tagwhat site and add /CatoAnt/5823 to the url to view the web version of the information.

[FinnMove]

They said that Bayi "did all the results" in this race. Maybe that´s true. They did because of that all their personal bests using Bayi who did all the work and however won this game.