Editorial: Kudos came late for our finest coach

Opinion

New Zealand stands only rarely at the epicentre of international sport. Such is the lot of a country which, in the main, excels at games - rugby, cricket and so on - that lack a true global reach. But one afternoon at the 1960 Rome Olympics, there was no doubting the focus of world attention. No sooner had Peter Snell won the 800m gold medal than Murray Halberg did the same in the 5000m. It was a startling feat for a small country. It was also the finest of the many fine hours enjoyed by Arthur Lydiard, New Zealand's greatest coach.

The tributes that have flowed for Lydiard following his death, at 87, during a United States coaching tour have concentrated on that time, and the fabulous years following when New Zealand dominated international middle-distance athletics. For a remote country of small population and limited resources to achieve such eminence required something innovative and special. Lydiard supplied that. His coaching philosophy, based on stamina-building high mileage, revolutionised athletics. It endures today, even if too often modified for its creator's taste.

The esteem in which this philosophy continues to be held was, in fact, the reason that Lydiard, at an age when many are happily ensconced in retirement villages, was on a two-month tour of the US. The determination that had fuelled both his running and coaching careers still burned. In a way, it was even apt that he died away from these shores. Not for nothing has it often been said that his fame was greater in the US and Europe than in his own country. In part, this bore testament to the wisdom of the philosophy, and the time and effort he put into spreading it round the world. Sadly, it also reflected a lack of recognition here.

That led him to take his talents abroad, most notably to oversee the development of Finnish athletes who were to win five gold medals at the 1972 and 1976 Olympics. In Finland he set up a national training programme for athletes. Astonishingly, he was never asked to do the same thing here. Others were not so unappreciative. The great Moroccan, Said Aouita, for example, modelled his training schedule on that used by the New Zealand team who won the 1975 world cross-country championships in his home town of Rabat.

Perhaps Lydiard was the victim of a particularly unappealing New Zealand trait. Certainly, he is not the only great coach to have been treated dismissively. Rusty Robertson, the orchestrator of the rowing eight's gold medal at the 1972 Munich Olympics, was to return to world championships there nine years later with the Australian team. But no coach provided as much as Lydiard, and was so little feted or respected in return.

Only lately has that changed. In 1990 he was awarded membership of the Order of New Zealand. But he had to wait much longer for recognition from his own sport. Lydiard made little secret of his disillusionment with athletics here, especially the failure to produce world champions. Both coaches and athletes, he said scornfully, had been allowed to go "soft". His sentiments, no matter how requisite, kept him at arm's length from the sport's governors. Only last year did Athletics New Zealand make him a life member.

Lydiard's influence spread well beyond his stable of champions. It is instructive that he named Auckland's Round the Bays run as his most satisfying achievement. If Lydiard did not invent jogging, he was hugely influential in popularising it. Thus he made a major contribution to the nation's wellbeing. Other sports that demand stamina, rugby included, also benefited from his philosophy.

Perhaps Peter Snell has delivered the ultimate tribute. "I was a run-of-the-mill runner and he encouraged me to dream big dreams," he said. When those dreams came to fruition, the country bathed in international adulation. Yet many failed to appreciate the innovation and inspiration that underpinned it - the winning edge supplied by Arthur Lydiard, master coach.