Herb Elliott wins1958 Empire Games 880yds title

[FrankS]

Race starts at 1min 25secs ( with a false start!) I remember watching this on the TV at the time. Herb wasn't the favourite as he'd been beaten by Brian Hewson shortly before the games. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMwbZwiT6EU

[DoubleRBar]

Looked like lots of false starts in lots of races. You don't see much of that today.

[catson52]

Interesting film clip. Great to see faces from that time, Halberg/Pirie/Ibbotson. Potgieter running in the outside lane, winning by a wide margin in a time equivalent to 49.4 for 400mH. Shame that the G Davis-Potgeiter clash did not materialize in Rome; Cushman and Howard ran great races there.

[bobguild76]

Looked like lots of false starts in lots of races. You don't see much of that today.

Yes, I was amazed at the number of false starts in the distance races. But it was almost as if the starters held the gun until someone started.

[dukehjsteve]

Interesting film clip. Great to see faces from that time, Halberg/Pirie/Ibbotson. Potgieter running in the outside lane, winning by a wide margin in a time equivalent to 49.4 for 400mH. Shame that the G Davis-Potgeiter clash did not materialize in Rome; Cushman and Howard ran great races there.

And very sadly, Cushman and Howard both had untimely and diverse departures from life.

[bambam1729]

And very sadly, Cushman and Howard both had untimely and diverse departures from life.

Very diverse departures

[richh]

Elliott's last 400m in the 1958 CG 1/2 Mile was 50.2 [50.5y] which I believe remains the fastest ever second lap in a major championship 2 lap race.

[Tuariki]

Elliott's last 400m in the 1958 CG 1/2 Mile was 50.2 [50.5y] which I believe remains the fastest ever second lap in a major championship 2 lap race.

Pretty impressive on what was presumably a cinder track

[FrankS]

Elliott's last 400m in the 1958 CG 1/2 Mile was 50.2 [50.5y] which I believe remains the fastest ever second lap in a major championship 2 lap race.

The only trouble with that statement is that Hewson. who came second. ran his last lap in 49.9secs!

[FrankS]

Just to clarify my previous comment. The 49.9secs comes from Hewson, himself, in his autobiography "Flying Feet". And, Hewson certainly was closer to Herb at the finishing line than at the bell, which means that Brian must have, indeed, have run a faster last lap than Herb.

[richh]

I'm afraid that Hewson's recollection isn't correct. At the halfway pint Hewson is on Elliott's shoulder, maybe 1/10th back - below is reference to video of the race which starts 1m35 into the file

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMwbZwiT6EU

Hewson was quick in the second half, but he lost a yard to Elliott

[richh]

Excuse my typing - A halfway pint is somewhat different to the halfway point

[tandfman]

And very sadly, Cushman and Howard both had untimely and diverse departures from life.

More on Howard's career and departure from life: https://www.santafenewmexican.com/ne...cebe3ef10.html

[FrankS]

Well, Hewson certainly didn't run a faster last than Herb but, interestingly, in his mind, he must have thought that he was quite a bit behind Herb at the bell ( the video footage, of course, shows otherwise). I would guess that Brian never saw any footage of the race before he wrote his autobiography.