Look! Another Record

Indoor track can be a three-ring circus, with so much going on in the space of a few evening hours that the fans hardly know where to look first. This winter it is "Look quick--there goes another world's record." Three weeks ago, at the Millrose Games in New York, the Soviet Union's rubber-legged broad jumper, Igor Ter-Ovanesyan, casually smashed Ralph Boston's old record with a prodigious leap of 26 ft. 10 in. The pole-vault record has been boosted five times by four different vaulters, the last a muscular Finn named Pentti Nikula, who soared an incredible 16 ft. 8 3/4 in. How much faster, farther and higher can the athletes go? Lots, it seems.

Last week at the New York Athletic Club meet in Manhattan's Madison Square Garden, the U.S.S.R.'s handsome High Jumper Valery Brumel, 20, was out to avenge a minor blot on his otherwise sterling record. The week before, the U.S.'s John Thomas beat him for the first time in eight tries. Thomas was not around for the N.Y.A.C. meet, but Brumel gave him something to think about anyway. Brumel skimmed 7 ft. 2 in., then called for the bar to be lifted to 7 ft. 4 in., a half-inch better than the indoor record he set himself two years ago. Brumel bounded toward the pit and took off. The bar never even quivered--he cleared it by a good inch. "It's too bad John was not here,'' said Brumel. "We both do better with competition."

Even that performance was eclipsed by the mile. There, pint-sized (5 ft. 5 1/2 in., 128 Ibs.) Jim Beatty, 28, an insurance man from Los Angeles and the best miler in the U.S., was making his 1963 debut. With 15 straight meet victories behind him, Beatty was going all out to win another. As for setting a record, he was not so sure. A gangling, 20-year-old junior named Tom O'Hara from Loyola of Chicago decided the question for him.

Going into the second half-mile, Beatty opened his stride, eased out into the lead, and seemed to have the race sewed up. Not quite. Suddenly, at the three-quarter mark, O'Hara popped out of the pack and burst ahead. Sensing an upset, the crowd was on its feet as they pounded into the backstretch. Both runners kicked into the final sprint. Slowly Beatty pulled ahead of O'Hara about 60 yds. from the line, and with a quick peek over his shoulder clipped the tape to win by three yards.

Time: 3 min. 58.6 sec., three-tenths of a second better than Beatty's own year-old indoor record. There was glory, too, for Tom O'Hara; he had run his first sub-four-minute mile, with 3:59.2. "Just after Tom passed me, I decided: 'This is it,' " said Beatty. "He had a big heart. All he lacked was experience."

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