Quax: We were ‘rock stars’

a sporting era undimmed by the passing of time.

Fair enough. Mention the name Dick Quax and two others immediately spring to mind: John Walker and Rod Dixon.

Quax (full name Theodorus Jacobus Leonardus Quax) was the oldest of the trio and very much the forerunner. The son of Dutch immigrant parents who came to New Zealand in the 50s, he grew up in South Canterbury and then Waikato, and gravitated towards running while at school. Eventually, he would discover the Arthur Lydiard training methods that propelled him, and his peers, from handy to world-class.

Quax burst into the national consciousness in 1970 when he defeated then Olympic champion and world record-holder Kip Keino over 1500m at Mt Smart.

He went to the 1972 Munich Olympics for the 5000m but came down with a bad case of compartment syndrome, and tailed out in his heat. He was devastated.

Quax had a fine 1973 season and had high hopes for the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch – only to suffer a stress fracture in his foot just days out from the event.

Then came the two defining events in his career – the 1976 Olympics in Montreal where he would claim silver; and his 5000m world record in Stockholm in 1977.

Even his Olympic breakthrough was not without its anxious moments. ‘‘I ended up with a stomach complaint, and spent most of the night before the 10,000 over or on the toilet. Luckily, by the time the 5000 came around I’d recovered.’’

What ensued was one of the great Olympic finals in which Finn Lasse Viren held off Quax, diving German Klaus-Peter Hildenbrand and Dixon (in that order) in a blanket finish.

He, Walker and Dixon were very much the golden boys of Kiwi sport at the time. ‘‘We saw ourselves as rock stars. In some ways, it was great but I felt I had very little personal life.’’

The conversation flowed. He loved the travel and people encountered as a semi-professional athlete. ‘‘It was a good lifestyle.’’

Quax is also proud of the current crop of Kiwi runners, now featuring his own son Theo, whom he coached right up until his death.

‘‘We still fight above our weight division, and we still have that tradition . . . they’re just all doing it overseas and don’t get the profile at home.’’

Not like the golden boys. One of their number now gone, but not forgotten.

Dick Quax – one of the middledistance runners who captured the public’s imagination in the 1970s – later moved into politics as a councillor in Auckland.