Quax to speak at hospice dinner

Dick Quax - silver medallist at the Edinburgh Commonwealth Games in 1970 and  the Montreal Olympics in 1976, and world record holder in 1977 - will be the guest speaker at Maungaturoto's Rotary Club dinner on Tuesday, to raise funds for the North Haven Hospice.
Quax was one of the trio of runners, along with Sir John Walker and Rod Dixon, who kept New Zealand at the forefront of running during the 1970s and'80s.
His fans will remember the excitement when, in the 5000m, Quax came down the final straight battling for gold against  legendary Finnish runner Lasse Viren. Despite his valiant effort, Quax lost by less than a metre. 
In the same race Dixon provided yet more excitement in the final straight, as he propelled himself into third place, less than  2m behind Quax, but was finally beaten out of the bronze by the desperate dive of the German runner Klaus-Peter Hildenbrand.
For Quax, winning silver at the Olympics was a significant achievement  but also a disappointment.
"The Olympics was hugely significant for me, although I guess my first reaction after running in the Olympic Games in Montreal was 'Oh my gosh how disappointing' because I had planned to be first and I guess there was some disappointment in that," he said in a recent interview.
Quax first came to the notice of athletics fans in 1970 when he demolished the then Olympic 1500m champion, Kip Keino, winning a mile race in Auckland by over 50m. But Keino triumphed in the 1970 Commonwealth Games, where Quax scored silver. Quax took silver again in the Olympics in 1976 and, in 1977, in Stockholm, Sweden, he broke the world record for 5000m with  a time of 13min 12.90sec.
Towards the end of his running career Quax turned to marathons and in 1980, he ran 2hr 10min 47sec in Eugene, US , which was then the fastest time recorded by a Kiwi.
Following his athletics career, Quax joined forces with the late John Davies and the pair organised an international track series, which continued for a decade and was screened on NZ television. 
These days Quax is a Manukau city councillor. 
President of the Maungaturoto Rotary Club, John Albert, is pleased with the early response to the hospice dinner from  the community.
"We've already had an excellent response. Ticket sales are going well.
"People are enthusiastic about supporting the hospice and are also looking forward to meeting and hearing Dick Quax," he said.