Bob Schul, 1964 Olympic 5000m champion, dies aged 86

The only American to win Olympic 5000m gold used his withering sprint finish to beat a top-class field 60 years ago

When Bob Schul sprinted past Michel Jazy to victory in the 5000m in Tokyo in 1964, he won Olympic gold and earned athletics immortality. It is 60 years since his famous triumph at those Games and he remains the only American – man or woman – to win that title.

Schul died on June 16 aged 86 after living with dementia in recent years. But the memories of his brilliant win in 1964 will live on.

In a race where the early pace had been slow and cagey, Schul won by eight tenths of a second in 13:48.8 from Harald Norpoth of Germany and Bill Dellinger of the United States with Jazy, who led with 100m to go, fading to fourth. Such was the quality of the line-up, Kip Keino of Kenya was fifth and multiple world record-breaker Ron Clarke of Australia ninth. It completed a glorious distance running Games for the Americans as Billy Mills had won the 10,000m a few days earlier.

Despite suffering from asthma as a child, where he grew up on a farm in Ohio, he prospered under the training of Hungarian coach Mihály Iglói and became a feared athlete in the early 1960s.

Unlike the surprise package Mills at those Tokyo Games, Schul came into his race expected to do well, though. Earlier that year he set US records at three miles indoors, 5000m outdoors and had set a world two miles record of 8:26.4.

The Olympic final was run on a rain-sodden cinder track which sapped the energy of the runners. But Schul prevailed with an inspired finishing burst.

Here is an extract from Mel Watman’s report for AW at the time. We pick it up from around halfway…

“The race came to life halfway around the next lap when Clarke made the first of many killing bursts. The Australian introduced at least one such burst (of some 100m) into each lap (he covered the 6th, lap in 62.4) but most of the field stayed within contact. It looked for all the word like a bunch of clubmen working through an interval training session on a Sunday morning! What was noticeable was that one man refused to alter his speed in order to match Clarke’s bursts: Schul. He merely kept going at a level pace, wise fellow. Clarke reached 3000m in 8:22.2, followed by Jazy (8:22.4), Norpoth (8:22.8), Dutov (8:23.2), Baillie (8:24.2) and Schul (8:25.0).

“Shortly before 4000m Clarke relinquished the lead, broken by his own tactics, leaving out in front – to…