TURN the clock back 25 years, and the Cork Games, the latest edition of which took place this week-end, were of great significance to Scottish athletics.
Not that you'd have known it in 1982. The mile race in which Lenzie's Graham Williamson finished fourth, rated just two paragraphs in The Glasgow Herald the next morning. It made no mention of the fact that his time the previous night, 3min 50.65sec, was a Scottish record.
A quarter of a century on, it still is. "I take no pleasure from that," said the Springburn Harrier this week. "It's disappointing it isn't quicker."
Williamson was very under-rated, dogged by injury and officials reluctant to fight the athletes' corner. When the 18-year-old had qualified for the 1978 Commonwealth Games, finishing second to fellow Scot John Robson in the Emsley-Carr Mile ahead of Brendan Foster and Steve Cram, officials said it was too late to get him a blazer. But England managed to send Cram, who was a year younger.
"I almost went home when I saw the field for that race in Cork," Williamson recalls.
The winner (3:49.44) was Sydney Maree. A South African who could not use his real name because his father was then imprisoned on Robben Island with Nelson Mandela, Maree later held the world 1500m record. Runner-up Cram and third-placed John Walker won World and Olympic titles respectively at 1500m. Both established world records for the mile during their careeers.
On a soaking track, Williamson beat European indoor silver medallist Ray Flynn, and European 5000m champion Thomas Wessinghage. "It was my first race of the year, on five weeks' training after three months out due to a foot injury, and my finals. I was frequently fitter, but never got the right race at the right time."
Williamson won the World Student Games 1500m title at altitude in Mexico City, and European junior gold in a record which still stands. His Scottish senior records at 1000 and 2000m (2:16.82 and 4:58.38) also survive: "No satisfaction at all in that, either." He is also the only Scot who currently holds British junior (under-20) records. These date back to the 1979 Dream Mile in Oslo where he covered 1500m in 3.36:60 en route to 3.53:15 for the mile. "Craig Masback now head of US Athletics clipped my heel and I finished with only one shoe."
The next year exemplified the preferential treatment granted to English athletes. Williamson beat Cram in the Moscow Olympic trial. In defiance of the stated criteria, selectors ordered a re-run in Oslo. Williamson's kit was lost in transit and by then he'd contracted flu. Wearing borrowed gear, including spikes, he was beaten, and Cram went to Moscow.
The Geordie was to prove his nemesis. Williamson had seemed to have his measure in the 1982 Commonwealth Games 1500m final. He was flying when he drew on to Cram's shoulder with 200m to go, only to be tripped.
Williamson has been based in Germany for seven years. He is global business director for running apparel with adidas, and has two sons.
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