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Salute: The true story of an unsung Australian hero
the landy era: from nowhere to the top of the world World class athletics was something that happened overseas, not in Australia. And then, on 13 December 1952, John Landy ran a mile at Melbourne’s Olympic park in four minutes 2.1 seconds. In those few minutes he reignited the race for the sub four minute mile and inspired a generation of Australian athletes to challenge the world at distances from 880 yards to the marathon. Others, notably the charismatic coach Percy Cerutty, and Landy’s Helsinki Olympics teammates Don Macmillan and Les Perry, played significant roles in this flowering talent. Following Landy, Herb Elliott rose to the top, winning the 1500 metres at the 1960 Rome Olympics, smashing the world record. From 1954 to 1968, Landy, Dave Stephens, Elliott, Albie Thomas, Ron Clarke and Ralph Doubell broke world records. Elliott and Doubell became Olympic champions; Landy, Al Lawrence, Dave Power and Clarke took Olympic medals. Derek Clayton set world records in the marathon. Pat Clohessy, on whom Landy was a formative influence, coached Robert de Castella to a world championships gold medal in the marathon. John Landy was not only the influence, but it was undeniably his era; he was its first, and greatest, start and he directly inspired and advised many of the subsequent athletes and coaches. He led Australia from nowhere to the top of the world. The Author: Len Johnson was the Age’s athletics writer for over 20 years, covering five Olympics, ten world championships and five Commonwealth Games. He is also a former national class distance runner (2:19:32 marathon) and trained with Chris Wardlaw and Robert de Castella.
FUTURE STAR! Rosie Lawson Queensland’s Rosie Lawson made a breakthrough performance by taking out one of the most competitive events at the Pacific School Games, the 16 years girls 100m hurdles. With Australian under 16 90m hurdles record holder Carly Rodger in the field, Lawson got a fast start and held her technique through to the line take a victory by more than a tenth of a second and clock her first legal sub-14 second performance and world youth qualifier with a run of 13.58 seconds.
“I’m a firm believer that in a victory ceremoney for the Olympics there’s three guys who stand up there. Each one’s given about a square metre of God’s earth to stand on ans what any one of the three chooses to do with his little square metre of earth at that stage is entirely up to him.” - Peter Norman. This documentary, about Australian 200m record holder and 1968 Olympic silver medalist Peter Norman, his epic race against Americans Tommie Smith and John Carlos and their subsequent protest on the victory dias, is a must see for anyone interested in the history of our sport and the impact that it can have on humanity. The film, which traces the history of the three protagonists in one of the most famous images of the twentieth century, is as awe inspiring as it is thorough in its coverage of the events leading up to and surrounding the famous black power salute given by Smith and Carlos in Mexico City. Even for those who have read far and wide on the sport, this documentary will open your eyes to the momentus nature of what took place in Mexico City.