The last British World 10,000m record holder could have gone Faster!
A.A “When you were running well and broke the 10,000m World record, some athletics fans pointed out that your run at Portsmouth, in the AAA’s Championships was perhaps an even better run than the World record run, as it was in very hot conditions?
D.B “It was 2 years before the World record. It was at Portsmouth for the AAA’s title and in a match v France at the same time. I ran 27:47 on the cinder track, which turned to sand very quickly so, to do 27:47 that day was probably a better run than the World record time of 27:30, on an all-weather, tartan t:ack. I remember finishing and my feet were shredded, with blisters. It took me ages to start running again, because it was so bad. I won by a significant margin. That race in 1971 was the race that really got me noticed as someone who had the potential to run faster . If I had not got all the injury problems I would probably have run 30 seconds faster in the right conditions. 27:30 was the fastest I was able to go.’
A.A ‘I remember interviewing you in Kensington, about five days before you broke the World record and you had a few day’s rest, which must have been a blessing as, you had been such a high mileage trainer?
D.B “ Maybe that rest helped me a little bit, but I think I only had 4 strong weeks before that. When you look back and say whether I was doing too much training or not, it is very difficult to come up with a proper evaluation, as to whether it was right or not. What I do know is that when I started running and I was 73rd in the English Schoolboys cross country Championships when I was 14 and, 10 years later I broke the World 10,000 record so, I have no idea if I had trained in a different way with a different coach, who did not think mileage was important but what I do know is being a good kid coming 73rd and later being the fastest man in the World within 10 years and, the only British man to have held the 10k World record, something even Mo Farah could not do.”