Today we celebrate yet another milestone in the life of Clonliffe Harriers and Morton Stadium. The famous 1958 Sports was a two day affair. Herb Elliott had set a World Mile Record on August 6th. The following day, and a month after he had set a World 3 Mile Record in the stadium the great Albie Thomas (AUS) was at it again. 62 years ago today.
August 7th 1958 dawned and day 2 of the ‘August International Sports’. The feature event on the programme was the 2 mile open before an estimated attendance of 8,000 people. Herb Elliott true to the agreement he had reached with Albie Thomas agreed to pace the 2 Mile race. The first mile was reached in four minutes 22 seconds, Elliott led the field with Thomas on his shoulder. Thomas powered on to set his 2nd World Record 8.32.0
Albie Thomas said:
‘When I heard the mile time I said to myself bang goes our hopes of a record, but I decided to have a go. It was tough going and in the second quarter of the last mile I felt like turning it in. Then came that wonderful Dublin cheer. I felt I was running for the crowd as much as for myself and I just ran as hard as I possibly could. When I heard I had actually beaten the record I could hardly believe it. Imagine I ran the last mile in four minutes 11 seconds’.