June 30, 2022
George Brose, John Cobley, Geoff Williams
Yesterday I received news from John Cobley (Racingpast.ca) here on Vancouver Island that our mutual friend Geoff Williams is seriously ill and in hospital, not expected to recover. Geoff is one of those unassuming yet fervent members of the track and field community. He has provided us with numerous leads to great stories over the years and has connected me with many people more knowledgeable than myself about our sport. Geoff attended school in England and as a youngster was often seen riding his bicycle into London to watch 'athletics' competitions at White City Stadium and witnessed some of the great races (think Kuts vs. Chataway, 5,000m world record) of the 1950's before he emigrated to western Canada and became a banker in Vancouver and Victoria. He is the proud possessor of Roger Bannister's autobiography signed by Sir Roger and John Landy. He once offered to send it to me for a read, but I was too afraid to accept such a loan for fear it might be lost in the mail or in my dotage I might forget where it came from. I hope that one of his grandsons will come to appreciate that book some day. One of his school chums was Ian Boyd, who ran in the Miracle Mile in the 1954 Empire/Commonwealth Games. While the pandemic has kept us apart the past two years, Geoff has remained in close touch and last May provided me with a commentary about Canada's Olympic Decathlete Champion Damian Warner. Tomorrow July 1 is Canada Day, and I salute Geoff, a man adopted by that country. I'm honoring him by printing this commentary as well as a link (below) to another commentary he gave us in 2020, worth the read.
May 31, 2022 from Geoff Williams
Monday's Toronto Globe and Mail newspaper had an item under the general heading “Sports in Brief” and the subhead of “Warner tops sixth straight Gotzis Decathlon Event”. The entire article contained 44 words. I could stop there and we would all know where I am going with this but I feel compelled to take issue with this non-reporting of an exceptional athletic performance on a grand global scale. To my mind Warner at this moment is the finest athlete in the world bar none. His achievements deserve the cheers and undying adulation of the entire country let alone the sporting populace. He won the Decathlon Gold in Tokyo-and that event is readily identified as one of the very toughest of individual sports. During that event he achieved an Olympic record in several events and above all beat the Canadian Mens Long Jump record that had stood for nearly three decades. His 100m run time would have got him into the mens final and he repeated the time in Gotzis this year( which time equalled the best this year by a Canadian) and he could have likely represented Canada in the 110m hurdles in Tokyo if he had the time. I do not know the figures but would hazard a guess that he was not doing it for the money( likely the last finishers in Sundays PGA golf tournament almost certainly earned more for that event than he has for all his combined efforts for some years.)
He is doubtless near the end of his remarkable career and I think it is time he received the proper recognition-in all forms-for what he has achieved.
Best wishes to one and all. Maybe one of you will be producing a book on his career.
Geoff
1 comment:
Nicely done Geoff! Certainly this giant of the sport deserves every accolade that can be attributed to his efforts in the most demanding of all of the sport's events. I'll keep in mind your note that his career may be coming to an end when we hopefully watch him perform at the World Champs in a couple of weeks. Get well-Geoff. We need more men like you!
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