More evidence that New Zealand's 1500 metres gold medal winner at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, Jack Lovelock, may have intended his prospective participation in the 5000m as little more than a red herring.
New Zealand's National Library's release of its latest wave of archive newspapers includes The Timaru Herald, the paper from Lovelock's former high school town of Timaru, around the time of his Olympic Games triumph. These include more articles not seen in other publications.
The New Zealand team manager, 1924 Olympic 100 metres bronze medalist, and future New Zealand Governor-General, Sir Arthur Porritt, maintained for the rest of his life that it was his decision that led to Lovelock withdrawing from the 5000 metres.
Had Lovelock qualified for the 5000 metres and 1500 metres finals, that would have meant four races in four days.
That was despite American runners receiving news, en route to Germany, that Lovelock would run only the 1500 metres.
Dr Porritt's contentions muddy the waters. The Associated Press (AP) reported him saying after Lovelock's 1500m final triumph that Lovelock had decided only on the day before to run the 1500 metres instead of the 5000 metres.
Yet the 5000m heats were raced on August 4, the day before the 1500m heats.
The AP report said, "He wanted to start in the 5000 metres, but the competition was so strong in it that it was decided that it was not worth risking both events."
Earlier, Lovelock told the Australian Associated Press, after the Games opening on August 1, he knew he had a better chance of winning the 5000 metres. But he did not dare to run away from combat with his old rivals in the 1500 metres.
That sounds the more likely prospect from the canny Lovelock.
The United Press noted that Lovelock raced 'according to a careful plan.' After the start, he settled into fourth or fifth from the 100-metre mark until making his move just after the bell.
"This is unusually early for Lovelock, and Dr Porritt confessed afterwards that New Zealanders feared to see the champion move up so early because Lovelock usually remains at the shoulder of the man he intends to challenge until near the straight.
"Nevertheless, making an earlier effort, which his friends had long urged Lovelock to adopt, proved so successful that nobody was able to hold him in the last lap, despite the great pace of the third lap which was run in 59 seconds," the report said.
These comments suggest that even as the manager of the New Zealand team, Porritt was not privy to Lovelock's plans. Nor is there any evidence in his diaries of pressure from 'his friends' to challenge from 300 metres out.
In spite of the magnificence of his victory and the world record achieved, Porritt said he still believed that Lovelock was better over 5000m than 1500m.
Lovelock said he didn't mind an incorrect starting line meant he ran three metres further than defending champion Italy's Luigi Beccali, who had the inside running.
"I knew myself to be in the best possible condition, and I believe I was never fitter. Today's race was easier than the Princeton mile against [Glenn] Cunningham and [Bill] Bonthron. I was not surprised at the time, in view of the class of competitors. I don't think I will ever surpass today's time," he said.
Lovelock's career ended with defeat in his last Mile of the Century, run at Princeton when he was en route for a Government-sponsored tour of New Zealand. He finished second, behind the fourth place-getter in Berlin, rising American star Archie San Romani.
That allowed one of the leading track and field writers of the time, the Manchester Guardian's E.P. Montague, to pronounce the Berlin final the end of an era and San Romani's success at Princeton the start of another.
"Up to 1932, the world had seen two consummate milers – W.G. George running in peerless splendour in the 'eighties, and [Paavo] Nurmi. Since 1932 there have been four, Lovelock of New Zealand, [Luigi] Beccali of Italy, [Glenn] Cunningham and [Bill] Bonthron of the United States. They have made the last four years a golden age of miling. Races were arranged between them to which half the world listened. They became household words among many thousands of people who took no other interest in athletics.
"They demonstrated, with supreme skill, the art of running the most scientific of all races. Incidentally, between them, they made five new world's records for the mile and 1500 metres, which is the Continental and Olympic equivalent of the mile, and is fast displacing it in the United States…
"The art of these men, even inciting each other to greater heights of achievement, reached its most complete and thrilling expression in the Olympic 1500 metres at Berlin.
"It seemed then, and it seems now to at least one spectator, that in that race he saw for the first time running that was perfect in all its elements – grace, skill, speed, judgment and courage. It was a supreme exposition by the three supreme performers. Lovelock, Cunningham, and Beccali, who were first, second and third.
"It was their greatest triumph and, as one can see now, it was their last, for San Romani was knocking at the door…
"The golden age is over. Lovelock has finished; Bonthron has finished; Cunningham's powers are waning; Beccali with ten year's running and three Olympic Games behind him, cannot last much longer.
"The new age starts with San Romani, 19 years old, and the greatest miler in the world today.
"It may be an age as great as the last, or greater; [Sydney] Wooderson, still only 21, may join San Romani before long on heights which the great runners of the past four years never attained.
"But it will be a different age, for genius is individual and irreplaceable, and though we may see a greater runner than Lovelock we shall never see one like him again."