Why They Lost

TRACK & FIELD

"It's no fun being the coach of the only team that ever lost to the Russians," groused U.S. Track Coach Brutus Hamilton. He was bemoaning the fact that the U.S. men's team, which has whipped the Soviets in dual track meets for six years in a row, was tipped over by the Russians, in Kiev last week. 118-112.

Post-meet analysis naturally produced a variety of explanations for the poor showing. Many American coaches criticized the Amateur Athletic Union for allowing members of the U.S. team to compete in track meets throughout Europe before going on to Kiev. Along the way, Olympic 5,000-meter Champion Bob Schul caught a cold that so weakened him that he lost to 35-year-old Pyotr Bolotnikov. Another outstanding U.S. distance runner, 19-year-old Gerry Lingren, got tonsilitis and finished third in the 10,000-meter race.

A.A.U. men complained that the U.S. team had been sabotaged by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The N.C.A.A., which controls college-level athletics, had forbidden collegiate athletes to participate in the A.A.U. meet in June, when the team was selected for the Soviet meet. As a result, several star college runners were absent from the U.S. team, and those who defied the N.C.A.A. ban and competed anyhow were worried about possible N.C.A.A. reprisals. Says St. John's University's Half-Miler Tommy Farrell: "There are always distractions and damage to morale when your country's sports officials are divided."

The chief Soviet track coach, Gavriil Korobkov, had an explanation, too. The Americans, he said were overconfident after the decisive U.S. victory in the 1964 dual meet and the poor Soviet performances in the Tokyo Olympics that followed. There was something to that. In Kiev, the U.S. men's sprint relay team had practiced passing the baton for only two hours prior to the meet. Not surprisingly, it bobbled an exchange in the race and was disqualified.

The inquest into the U.S. defeat tended to overlook perhaps the most significant fact. The Russians have simply gotten better in recent years. They improved measurably in the sprints and pole vault, and regained their superiority in the distances. And, as usual, their women beat the less-experienced U.S. women. Brutus Hamilton was only the first U.S. coach to lose a meet to the Russians.

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