Last days for famous Bislett

This year’s Oslo meeting, the Exxon Mobil Bislett Games will be the final meet to be staged in this one of the most famous of all European track & field stadiums. Australian athlete representative and promoter, Maurie Plant now gives us some of his personal memories of Oslo’s famous Athletics caldron.

The Bislett stadium will hold it’s last meeting on Friday 27 June, the first IAAF Golden League event of the 2003 season, as after nearly half a century during which the tight 6 laned track in central Oslo has held the focus of the athletic world annually by staging the “Bislett Games”, the stadium is due to be dismantled & a new, modern stadium will be constructed in it’s place.

The Bislett stadium & the Bislett Games have become synonymous with World records, apparently on some sixty one occasions new World records have been established in this quaint stadium. Hence, Oslo & Bislett is a place for memories………very special memories for Track & Field fans.

It was here in Bislett, that the great ones became heroes & legends. These new sporting heroes were brought by television into the lounges of family homes all over the world, courtesy of the innovative marketing / television campaign that accompanied this great meeting.

In the late 1970’s and early 1980’s interest in the sport of athletics was paramount and the Oslo meeting was the proof of this with the exploits of Coe, Cram, Ovett & Walker heralding a revived interest in Mile running, as these fierce competitors took and re-took the World record.

More recently the African emergence has seen its great athletes take advantage of the unique Bislett conditions too, as exampled by Yobes Ondieki, William Sigei and Haile Gebrselassie’s brutal attack on the 10,000m record during the 1990s.

All of these performances were roared on by huge crowds of knowledgeable spectators that give the Bislett stadium it’s very special atmosphere.
 
Of particular interest, especially to all Australians is the date of 14th July 1965, when Ron Clarke slashed his existing World record for 10,000 metres by some 37 seconds, and took the distance below 28 minutes!

Ron Clarke’s 10,000m World record changed the perception of distance running, and it is among a long list of memorable moments at the Bislett Stadium -
 
- Seb Coe’s outstanding World 1000m record in 1981, where he passed through 800m in under 1.45.00…

- Steve Ovett’s 1500m World record in 1980 where he was waving to the crowd down the home straight, and yet still clocked 3:32.1! 

- Norway’s Ingrid Kristiansen breaking the World 10,000m record on two occasions (1985 and 1986) in her home stadium.

- Jan Zelezny smashing the World Javelin record (1990) after commencing the competition with a throw that went out of the landing sector by 40 metres or more, almost onto the track and into the crowd.
 
- The interest that was generated by William Sigei’s 10,000m record in 1994, was such that an official measuring the Javelin competition, mesmerized by the record pace, was violently awoken from his thoughts when a Javelin stuck him in his left arm!

- Steve Cram’s savaging of the Mile record in 1985, with its previous owner Seb Coe finishing in third. Cram’s time of 3.46 32 was to stand for eight years.
 
- Kiwi iron man John Walker taking the record at 2000m in 1976, and enroute clocking 3:55.5 for the Mile.

- David Moorcroft’s perfectly planned & executed 5000m in 1982, that smashed the World record. A race in which Moorcroft was so far ahead that the second man Ralph King (USA) thought the leading man had been a pace maker and had dropped out before the finish.

- Said Aouita’s epic duel in 1985 with Sydney Maree, that gave the Moroccan the World record at 5000m, with a last 200m of 26.83!

Yet not all interesting memories of Bislett required a World record –

- Pacemaker Tom Byers (USA) hanging on to beat the big names (Ovett, Scott, Walker etc. ) after realising that the key performers had allowed him to get too far in the lead when not following the pace.

- The contests between bitter javelin rivals Petra Felke & Fatima Whitbread

- Frank Fredericks & Michael Johnson both going sub 20 seconds in a exhilarating contest over 200m.

- Jonathan Edwards' remarkable 18 metres plus performance in the Triple Jump.

- Tim Montgomery’s electrifying 100m.

- Ed Moses running sub 48 seconds in the 400 Hurdles from the notoriously tight lane 1.
  
 
Whilst the records have come & gone, the memories of the mid-summer Scandinavian nights in Oslo will linger for many years to come, with those who had the privilege of the Bislett experience either in the stadium or via the television or radio.