Former Australian star Albie Thomas dies aged 78

The death has taken place of former Australian middle-distance runner Albie Thomas, a contemporary of Ronnie Delany who set two world records in Dublin in the summer of 1958.

Thomas, who was 78, competed in three consecutive Olympic Games in what was a golden age of Australian athletics during which he rubbed shoulders with compatriots Herb Elliot, Ron Clarke and John Landy.

But it is for that summer of 1958 that Thomas is best remembered here. At a time when Billy Morton regularly succeeded in bringing some of the world's best runners to race in what was then called Clonliffe Stadium in Santry, Thomas not only set a couple of world records of his own but was also a key man in what came to be known as the greatest mile race of its time.

On August 6th, in front of a crowd variously estimated to have been between 25,000 and 30,000, five men went under four minutes for the mile. Thomas was the pacemaker and thanks to his efforts, Elliot ended up taking a massive four seconds off the world mile record running 3:54.5, followed by Mervyn Lincoln, Delany, Murray Halberg and Thomas in fifth place in 3:58.6. It was Thomas' first sub-four minute mile.

He returned the following night to set a new world two-mile record of 8:32.

“We remained very dear friends throughout our lives,” said Delany yesterday. “I got back to Australia quite a bit and we stayed close. He was an extraordinarily happy and witty human being. It was very sad to hear he had slipped away.

“I remember him for Elliot’s mile record, the strategy was that Albie would take them through the half mile in a flying time and Elliot would do the rest. And of course, Elliot killed us all.

“The deal was that the next night, Elliot would pace Albie for his two-mile record attempt. But Albie told me afterwards that he had to pass Elliot out because he just wasn’t going fast enough. He had to ignore him as the pacesetter and bolt off on his own. No better man.”