Ready for Anyfhing

Ambition has driven black-haired Jim Beatty to lengths that most men would not dream of going. He has run perhaps 10,000 miles in circles, trained his mind to tick like a clock, worked four hours a day for three years on a job that will never pay him a cent. "You have to keep your eyes firmly on your goal," he says, "and try not to waver." Last week Beatty's flying feet carried him closer than ever before to his elusive goal: the fastest mile in history. Before a crowd of 8,000 in Helsinki's Olympic Stadium, Jim Beatty ran the mile in 3 min. 56.3 sec., best time ever recorded by an American, and just 1.9 seconds off the world record set last January by New Zealand's Peter Snell.

Five Under Four. Beatty's ambition seems almost too big for his breeding. The U.S. has never been noted for producing distance runners; no U.S. miler has held the world record, even momentarily, in the past 25 years. But little (5 ft. 5 in., 128 lbs.) Jim Beatty has long since outrun his national pedigree. He holds the world record for the outdoor two-mile (8 min. 29.8 sec.) and the indoor mile (3 min. 58.9 sec.), as well as the American record for 1,500 meters, 3,000 meters and 5,000 meters. By this week, as he wound up a triumphal tour of France, England and Scandinavia, European track fans were willing to concede that Beatty can go the distance as well as anyone.

SENSATIONNEL, JIM BEATTY ! read a six-column headline in Paris' L'Aurore, after Beatty sped 3,000 meters over a muddy track in 7 min. 54.2 sec.--just 5 sec. off Michel Jazy's world record. FANTASTIC ! echoed Britain's Daily Herald, when Beatty ran the mile in 3 min. 56.5 sec. over a notoriously slow track at White City stadium--pulling four other competitors over the finish in less than four minutes. Moving up to a longer distance at Turku, Finland, Beatty then ran the 5,000 meters in 13 min. 45 sec., beating his own listed American record by 6.8 seconds.

The man most responsible for Beatty's success is Coach Mihail Igloi, 53, who defected to the U.S. in 1956 from his job as head coach of the Hungarian Olympic track and field squad. Says Igloi, whose runners have broken 25 world records, 48 Hungarian records and 23 American records: "Any country I can make good runner--Japan, Germany, United States--as long as I have a free hand and somebody with a little background. If I have 30,000 bricks, I can build a small house or a beautiful palace. It depends on how I put them together."

Planned Racing. Nobody is quite sure how Igloi goes about getting the most out of his runners--not even Beatty or his Los Angeles Track Club Teammates Jim Grelle and Bob Seaman. "I give them schedules," says Igloi, "but then I change my mind three times. Many times I change my mind. They don't know why. This is the secret of the training." Says Beatty: "It's like being taught mathematics. You do what the teacher says to achieve the right results."

Igloi plans every race in minute detail. Last week's plan at Helsinki: Seaman was to lead the first quarter-mile, run it in 55.5 sec.; Grelle was to take over for the second quarter, do a 61-sec. lap; Beatty was to set a 2-min. 56-sec. pace through three quarters. After that, said Igloi, all three runners were on their own. Igloi's target: a 3-min. 54-sec. mile. Seaman broke fast--perhaps too fast; Grelle and Beatty took turns leading the parade through three quarters; then Beatty turned on his blistering kick in the stretch, beat Grelle to the tape by 20 yards. Sweat dripping down his face, he trotted anxiously back toward a spectator who was holding a stop watch. "What did you get?" he pleaded. "What did you get?" The timer told him, and Beatty's face fell. "Somewhere in there, I must be relaxing," he worried. "That's where I'm losing time."

Any other miler would undoubtedly have been happy with a 3-min. 56.3 clocking. Not Beatty. "I'm at my best peak ever," he says, "but I hope to keep on building. I'm not restricted to being a follower or a leader. I can do a fast early pace. I can maintain sustained drive well. I have instantaneous acceleration. But I need an adrenalin shock on the last lap--somebody to make the adrenalin come." The man Beatty hopes will provide the shock he needs to smash Peter Snell's world record: Snell himself. "If I met Snell right now," he says, "I think it would be a very good race. I'm mentally ready for anything."

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