Tony Polhill

Tony Polhill, born in Waipawa in 1947, was an important figure in one of the great eras of New Zealand middle-distance running. He grew up in Waipukurau and boarded at Whanganui Collegiate. After school he had two years at Massey University, studying agriculture.

Coached by Hawke’s Bay’s Brian Wilson, and later by Arthur Lydiard, Polhill reached the final of the 1972 Munich Olympics 1500m and of the 1974 Christchurch Commonwealth Games 1500m, was part of a world record 4 x mile relay team and was one of the flying Kiwis who blazed a trail around the tracks in Europe in the early 1970s.

John Walker, Dick Quax and Rod Dixon grabbed a lot of the headlines, but Dick Tayler, Polhill, Kevin Ross, Stuart Melville and others were also world-class athletes of the time.

Polhill won the British AAA title in 1971 from Peter Stewart and Brendan Foster. It was a distinguished honours board to be included on – Dixon won in 1973 and 1976 and later winners included Steve Ovett, Steve Cram and Sebastian Coe.

He also won the first Queen St mile, in December 1972, in 3min 47.6s. It was a slightly gimmicky race, but drew massive attention and a strong field, so the victory is not be dismissed lightly.

At Munich in 1972, Polhill finished second to Mike Boit of Kenya in his heat of the 1500m, running 3min 42.3s, the same time as Boit, to qualify comfortably for the semi-finals. His semi-final time of 3min 41.8s earned him a berth in the final.

Polhill, hindered by an achilles tendon injury, ran 3min 41.8s to finish 9th in the final. It was frustrating, he said. He’d felt in good form but had not been able to do himself justice. New Zealand attention in that race focused on Dixon, who grabbed the bronze medal behind Pekka Vasala and Kip Keino.

Shortly after the Olympics, Polhill lined up in a strong 1500m field at Crystal Palace, London. The headline figure was former world record-holder Jim Ryun, who’d fallen during his heat in Munich and had a point to prove. Polhill outsprinted Ryun to win in 3min 37s. Several other stars, such as Dave Wottle, the Olympic 800m champion, were left in Polhill’s wake. “That was a big win. Ryun was very eager to win. I was near the back then sprinted home. I’ve watched the race since. The commentator was shouting and screaming about Ryun and Foster and then there’s a quiet moment and he says, almost stunned, ‘…and Tony Polhill has won.’”

At the 1974 Christchurch Commonwealth Games, Polhill qualified for the 1500m final by running 3min 40.3s in his heat. However, he was unable to take his place in the final, again due to troublesome achilles tendon. That was the final in which Filbert Bayi of Tanzania beat Walker in a sensational race in which both went under the previous world record.

“I was really disappointed I wasn’t part of that race,” he said. “Bayi set such a fast pace he dragged everyone along to records and personal bests. The Australian, Graham Crouch, finished 5th in 3min 34. I’d raced him quite often and he’d never beaten me.”

That injury virtually signalled the end of Polhill’s career. He had an operation on his achilles tendon, but afterwards every time he ran, the tendon would swell up and he’d be forced to take another rest.

Polhill ran well on the European circuit in the early 1970s. There was a big moment during the Bislett Games in Oslo in 1973 when Polhill, Walker, Dixon and Quax, a really crack team, made an attempt on the world 4 x 1500m record. They succeeded with a time of 14min 40.4s, but the record was never ratified because of a technicality.

“That was a big occasion. Quax was brilliant, bringing our team home with a 3min 35s run. We were denied the world record because someone had jumped on to the track and paced the runners for maybe half a lap. It was ridiculous, especially when you look at how carefully organised the pace making is now.”

In 1972, Kevin Ross, Polhill, Dick Tayler and Quax ran 16min 02.8s to set a world 4 x mile record at Mt Smart Stadium, Auckland.

Polhill won two New Zealand titles over 1500m, in 1972 and 1973. In 1972 in Hamilton, Dixon, virtually unheard of then, steamed down the home straight and chased Polhill home. The new figure in athletics garnered most of the headlines and won a place in the Olympic team for his effort. But, after all, Polhill ran 3min 41.7s and won the race!

After his running career, Polhill settled in Auckland and made a career out of property development. There was, however one spell of six years when he sailed a yacht around the coast of Australia and the southern Pacific – “a wonderful time in my life.”