Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This black-and-white clip shows seven runners competing in a mile race around a track to illustrate how tactics and the will to win make a champion runner. The clip focuses on the first five runners, which include the Australians Herb Elliott, Merv Lincoln and Albie Thomas. The narrator draws attention to the tactics and running style of Herb Elliott during the race. The final scene shows Elliot achieving a convincing victory.

Educational value points

• The clip features Herb Elliott (1938–), one of Australia’s greatest athletes. From 1958 to 1962 he won 44 consecutive victories in international competitions, was unbeaten in the mile (1,609 metres) and 1,500-metre distances and ran a sub-4-minute mile 17 times. He won an Olympic Gold medal in the 1,500 metres in 1960 by the largest margin ever recorded in Olympic history in a time of 3:35.6, breaking his own world record.

• The clip draws attention to the running style of Herb Elliott at the beginning of his career as a middle-distance runner. In 1958 he became the youngest athlete and only the third Australian to run a sub-4-minute mile. He was known as ‘Australia’s running machine’ for his performance and endurance. In 1958 he broke the 4-minute mile barrier in every one of the ten races he ran as well as setting world records in the mile and 1,500-metre races.

• Three of Australia’s earliest sub-4-minute milers are shown in the clip. In 1959 this was still an exceptional achievement. Until the Englishman Roger Banister ran the mile in 3.59.4 in 1954, it was thought that no athlete could run a mile in less than 4 minutes. Six weeks later Australian John Landy broke Banister’s record. Merv Lincoln (featured in the clip) became a sub-4-minute miler in 1957, Herb Elliott in 1958 and Albie Thomas in 1960.

• The clip is from the film What Makes a Champion (1950), which demonstrates the application of science to sport in the 1950s. This scientific approach included the analysis of the attributes of successful athletes to assist in the development of coaching and training techniques.

• In this clip reference is made to miles and yards because at the time imperial units of measure were used in Australia. Miles, yards, feet and inches were replaced by metres, centimetres and millimetres in the 1970s. One mile is equivalent to 1,609 metres and one yard is approximately 0.9 metres.

• Herb Elliott’s success helped cement the reputation of his coach Percy Cerutty (1895–1975). Cerutty coached Elliott from 1956 to 1962, during which time he was undefeated. Cerutty’s training methods were unorthodox but ultimately successful. His uncompromising views and methods, which included making his athletes run up and down sand dunes, earned him a reputation as an eccentric and he never gained full acceptance for his achievements.

• The clip comes from a documentary made by the Australian Shell Film Unit in 1959 called What Makes a Champion. Herb Elliott was a Shell employee at the time the film was made. The Shell Film Unit began producing in-house films in 1934, gaining a reputation for high-quality documentaries. Many, such as What Makes a Champion, did not directly promote Shell or its products, but associated the company with themes of aspiration and achievement.

Race commentary of the one-mile race.

Narrator Running in fourth place, Elliot, in the dark shorts, seems content to maintain contact, particularly with Lincoln in the dark singlet. Now Vaag is leading from Lincoln, Thomas and Elliot. But at the end of the second lap, Lincoln challenges, moving up past Thomas and Vaag.

Elliot moves up too, passing Vag to lie third. Running styles vary. Thomas, now second, has a clipped stride and a very straight back. The long-striding Elliot runs at a slight forward angle.

Thomas moves up, fighting Lincoln for the lead and taking it, running well with about 600 yards to go.

Vaag moves up too, disputing the lead with Thomas. Still, Elliot seems happy to maintain contact with Lincoln. Towards the end of the third lap Vaag makes the effort to pass Thomas but can’t break away. And as the lap ends, Lincoln is coming again, passing Vaag and Thomas, but Elliot, without any apparent effort, moves up with Lincoln to second place.

400 yards to go, the time Elliot usually likes to open up his sprint. And there he goes, challenging Lincoln. Elliot comes up on Lincoln but Lincoln refuses to be beaten. With the courage he’s noted for, he fights back, forcing Elliot to run wide, to run extra distance. They fight it out, level terms.

But Elliot’s strength and will to win are too much for the courageous Lincoln. He increased his lead three, four, five yards. It’s machine running as Elliot drives on, going away to an easy win.