Tanzanian Filbert Bayi donates historic singlet to Museum of World Athletics
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Reading Time: 2min | Sat. 11.01.25. | 22:00
The great front runner held his 1500m world record until 1979
Tanzania's first-ever Olympic medalist Filbert Bayi has donated his 1500m record-breaking singlet to the Museum of World Athletics (MOWA).
Bayi who has since gone into talent nurturing through his Foundation back home competed throughout the 1970's setting world records in 1500 metres in 1974 and the mile in 1975, the former standing as the Commonwealth Games record until 2022.
On 2 February 1974, Bayi produced the stunning gun-to-tape 1500m performance that sent shock waves reverberating around the track and field world.
Chased down by New Zealander John Walker, he applied his foot on the pedal sufficiently to keep two steps ahead.
“I had another gear if I needed it,” Bayi maintained, after crossing the line in 3:32.2 (3:32.16, with electric timing) – 0.9 inside the world record.
Walker was also inside the record with 3:32.5 in second place. Kenya's Ben Jipcho snatched third place in 3:33.2, breaking Kipchoge Keino’s Kenyan record.
The then 20-year-old Tanzanian did not just destroy Jim Ryun’s seven-year-old world record of 3:33.1; he left his rivals as distant also-ran in a performance Mel Watman described in the Athletics 74 annual as “the most uncompromising run ever seen in a major international 1500m championship”.
“Nobody was talking about me before the race,” Bayi reflected. “I was the underdog. I said to myself, ‘Ok, don’t talk about me; I’ll surprise you people’. I thought I needed to do the same thing I had done in 1973 at the African Games when I beat Keino.
I made my move from the beginning and people thought they would catch me. I saw John Walker was coming behind me in the home straight and I just accelerated. I said, ‘Ok, catch me if you can’.”
Fittingly, Bayi’s autobiography, which details not just his running career but his life as an inspiring educator in his homeland and as a leading sports administrator, echoes the challenge he issued that day: “Catch me if you can.”
The great front-runner held his 1500m world record until 1979.
Fittingly, it fell to a devotee who had adopted Bayi’s bold tactics after watching his televised Christchurch masterclass as a star-struck teenager.
Sebastian Coe took particular pride in shaving 0.1 off the Tanzanian’s time with his 3:32.1 run in Zurich.
“It was one of the best world records on the books,” said Coe, “and it was the hardest of the 11 I broke."
Additional reporting by World Athletics
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