Marathon man

QUEENSTOWN — It was strange for long-distance runner Rio de la Cruz to choose as his sports hero a Czech marathoner who was born 60 years before him.

De la Cruz had never seen Emil Zatopek of Czechoslovakia in action. There is no film of Zatopek available in Philippine libraries. But he read about Zatopek’s exploits in books recommended by his personal conditioning coach Lemuel de la Cruz, an Ateneo physical education teacher and was inspired.

The eagerness to learn is what propels De la Cruz to strive harder on the track. He doesn’t forget the lessons of the past because they are the building blocks of the future. He absorbs whatever he can from his coaches, his readings, his peers and his competitors like a sponge.

Reading isn’t usually big among athletes who’d rather go to movies or watch TV or play video games when not training or competing. So when De la Cruz mentioned he looked up to Zatopek, it meant he’d gone the extra mile to check out the Czech’s history in the library.

De la Cruz, 23, has a year left before earning a physical education degree at the University of the Philippines. He’s not thinking beyond graduation or a life after running. What is consuming him is his ambition to someday represent his country in the Olympics.

The first step is to qualify for the Southeast Asian Games in Manila late this year. Then, the Asian Games and finally, the Beijing Olympics in 2008. It’s a tall order considering the likes of Eduardo Buenavista, Allan Ballester and Julius Sermona are way ahead in the pecking order in the national track squad. But De la Cruz, recently recruited to join the national pool, isn’t shirking from the challenge–just as Zatopek didn’t back down from challenging world record holder Jim Peters of England in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics despite never having run a marathon previously.

De la Cruz was the lone Filipino competitor at the New Balance Queenstown Marathon in this New Zealand alpine resort last Saturday. He finished sixth in the 21-kilometer event.

Zatopek, a carpenter’s son like De la Cruz, was born in Northern Moravia. He represented Czechoslovakia in bagging the gold in the 10,000-meter event and silver in the 5,000 at the 1948 London Olympics.

Whenever he ran, Zatopek never smiled. His face was contorted as if he suffered from a terrible pain. His shoulders and back were hunched like he carried a huge burden. "I was not talented enough to run and smile at the same time," he once said.

At the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, Zatopek won the gold in both the 5,000 and 10,000-meter events. Although he’d never run a marathon, the Czech decided to try his luck and attempt a third gold medal.

Before the race, Zatopek researched on the marathon favorite, Peters. Only six weeks before, Peters had set a new world record in the killer distance.

Zatopek knew what Peters looked like from pictures he saw in the newspapers and sought him out at the starting line. He wanted to be close to the favorite so he could keep pace. After 15 kilometers, the pacesetters were Peters, Zatopek and Gustaf Jansson.

At the halfway mark, Peters was 10 seconds behind Zatopek who spoke to the Englishman during the run and asked if the pace was too slow. When Peters said it was, Zatopek stepped on the gas and zoomed ahead.

Peters dropped out of the race with leg cramps at the 20-mile mark. Jansson also faded, leaving Zatopek the undisputed leader of the pack. Zatopek entered the stadium alone to the roar of the crowd and was hoisted by the Jamaican 4.400 meter relay team around the oval after the final lap. Zatopek’s time was 2:23:03.2, a new Olympic record. Second placer was Argentina’s Reinaldo Gorno who clocked 2:25:35.0.

"I was unable to walk for a whole week after that, so much did the race take out of me," said Zatopek. "But it was the most pleasant exhaustion I have ever known."

In May 1954, Zatopek set a new world record of 13:57.2 in the 5,000-meter distance in Paris and a few days later in Brussels, clocked 28:54.2 to establish a new world record in the 10,000-meter race. The new world records were set three days of each other.

Zatopek underwent an hernia operation six weeks before the 1956 Olympics and despite doctors orders to rest for two months, competed in the marathon. He developed the hernia by running with his wife Dana on his shoulders. Zatopek wasn’t in shape to win and managed to finish sixth.

Because of his celebrity status, Zatopek became a lieutenant colonel in the Czech Army and a prominent Communist Party official. But in 1968, he supported the movement for a free Czechoslovakia. The Soviets eventually crushed the movement and expelled Zatopek from the Communist Party. He was exiled in a uranium mine to do manual labor, digging ditches and hauling sacks of cement for a geological survey team. Adding to the insult, the authoritarian state ordered Zatopek to drive a sprinkler truck for the Prague sanitation department.

Zatopek was rescued from exile after seven torturous years and became a "sports spy,: translating sports periodicals in a search for tips from foreign coaches. He retired in 1982 and died in 2000 at the age of 78.

De la Cruz will always remember Zatopek for his four Olympic gold medals, 18 world records and his passion for running.