Aussie on the Run

Whenever they start worrying about the strong Iron Curtain track teams that threaten to run off with the next Olympics, some Western trackmen suddenly remember that foot racing is, after all, a sport for amateurs. Those Iron Curtain athletes are state-supported pros, runs the complaint. They have no financial worries, and they train all the time. How can the West compete with a racket like that?

Last week in Melbourne, a slim, strong-willed Australian showed that he had found a simple answer: beat the Reds at their own game, and train harder than they do. Amateur Dave Stephens, 25, a professional milkman, ran away from Hungary's somber Sandor Iharos in a 3-mile exhibition race. His 25-yd. victory in 13:37.6 was no fluke. Only four days before, the "Flying Milkman" beat the holder of five world records-- by the same margin in a 5,000-meter run.

Dave Stephens' determination to run up track records drives even his wife into a state of healthful exhaustion. Until recently, he got up at 4:45 a.m. every weekday, tossed off a lemonade and studied an hour for a correspondence-course physical-education degree. Then he woke his wife Beverly, hustled her into running togs and took her off to Malvern Oval for some companionable jogging and wind sprints. After breakfast, Dave hit the books again before he caught a train to his $14.50-a-week job as a delivery boy. Now Dave is a $47-a-week milkman, and he combines his work with his training. He trots around his 12-mile route in Madstone, a Melbourne suburb, followed by his panting horse and milkwagon.

Starting his route at midnight, Dave gets back home when most people are leaving for work. After six hours' sleep, he puts on track clothes and spends two hours running at Olympic Park. Weekends, before Dave became a seven-day-a-week milkman, the Stephenses would relax, sleep late (6 a.m.), go through only a light routine of study and running. Saturday nights they "lashed out" with a little dissipation: a movie.

Untouched by professional coaching. Dave Stephens has copied his style from the great Czech Emil Zatopek. During the World Youth Festival at Bucharest in 1953, the two men became friends. An unspectacular performer at Bucharest, Stephens came home and began to break Australian records right and left. Often the races were run in foul weather, and often Dave ran barefoot. He could not afford track shoes.

Today, Dave Stephens has well-heeled admirers who are willing to treat him to spiked shoes. His self-confidence is picking up, too. "I'd like to set new world records," says he, looking well past the coming Olympics. "I'm planning for six years ahead. By then, I hope I'll be able to run 6 miles in 27 minutes and 3 miles in 13 minutes. It's possible; after all, they climbed Everest, didn't they?"

-- 1,500 meters in 3:40.8 (shared by his countryman, Laszlo Tabori), 3,000 meters in 7:55.6, 2 miles in 8:33.4, 3 miles in 13:14.2 and 5,000 meters in 13 :4O.6.

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