Sir John George Walker

John Walker (www.google.com/images)

John Walker is an inspiration to me because of his achievements in the Olympic and the Commonwealth games. John Walker was born on the 12 of January 1952 in Papakura. He attended Manuwera High School in his earlier years.

"John Walker is best known for being the first human to run a mile in under 3:50, posting a time of 3:49:4 breaking the existing record by 1.5 seconds." He also won the 1500 meters at the 1972 Olympic games with a relatively high time of 3:39.17, which was the slowest finish at the Olympics in 20 years but he still won.

At the 1974 Commonwealth games in Christchurch, he got second to Filbert Bayi in the 1500 meters. It was a remarkable race. "Not only did Bayi and Walker better the previous world record, it also featured the fourth, fifth, seventh and fastest runs in the 1500 meters of all time." He also won a bronze medal in a time of 1:44.92 a good performance.

His personal bests areas follows:

Distance Time Place Date

800 m 1:44.92 Christchurch 1974

1000 m 2:16.6 Oslo 1980

1500 m 3:32.4 Oslo 1975

Mile 3:49.08 Oslo 1982

2000 m 4:51.4 Oslo 1976

3000 m 7:37.49 London 1982

All these are extraordinary times one day i hope i will be able to beat them.

Olympic Games

Gold 1976 Montreal 1500 metres

Commonwealth Games

Silver 1974 Christchurch 1500 metres

Silver 1982 Brisbane 1500 metres

Bronze 1974 Christchurch 800 metres

John Walker is my ultimate hero because he is an awesome runner. He was extremely dedicated to what he did. I wish he hadn't retired so he could continue to bring glory to New Zealand in all big running events.