A pre-Olympic meeting in 1972, a tune-up for the next Olympic Games, took place in Munich, West Germany, in mid-August. Elite athletes from many countries arrived in Munich approximately ten days before the 1972 Olympic Games to participate. The two-day track and field competition is also known as the “Hanns-Braun Memorial International Pre-Olympic Invitational.” The Ugandan athletes who would have a commendable performance included hurdler, sprinter and former decathlon athlete John Akii-Bua; the sprinter Judith Ayaa, and the steeplechase and middle distance runner Vitus Ashaba.
The competition started. Perhaps relaxing and using her time to cautiously avoid the dangerous hurdles in which athletes are quite prone to injury, the 22-year-old Akii-Bua settled for the 400m dash, aside from her specialization in the 400m hurdles. .
Most of the best results at the Invitational were published in the “Oakland Tribune” (1972: 44)
The men’s 400 meter lap involved four heats and the best overall times were claimed. Overall in performance, Akii placed third (46.18) behind top ranked Fred Newhouse of the USA (45.47), with second place Kenyan legend Charles Asati (45.77). . Fourth overall was Horst Schlbske (West Germany) in 46.25, and fifth was Leighton Priestley (Jamaica) in 46.30.
Amazingly, up until that point, though he had longed to do so, Akii had never competed with American 400m hurdles champion and national record holder Ralph Mann. The barrier race involving the two of them was inevitably eagerly awaited. Ralph Mann was slightly ahead of Akii-Bua in terms of personal best performance over the intermediate hurdles. Akii-Bua was reasonably familiar with the track and field community in the US, where he won all of the numerous 400mh events he had competed in thus far during 1971 and 1972. The Americans regarded Akii as Akii’s main rival. Ralph Mann at the 1972 Summer Olympics. . In the August 1972 issue of “Sports Illustrated” it was predicted that at these next Olympic Games, Akii would win in the 400 mh, Ralph Mann would be second, and William Koskei of Kenya, who had won a silver medal for Uganda in the 1970 Commonwealth. Games in Edinburgh (Akii finished fourth) would win Olympic bronze.
Eventually, in the 400m hurdles of this competition, Ralph Mann won in 49.85, James Seymour (USA). Fifth was Richard Bruggeman (USA) in 50.63.
Judith Ayaa, 20, competed in all three heats of the women’s 400m at this invitational pre-Olympic event. The best overall performances were noted. Overall, Ayaa’s performance was the second best and she clocked 52.68, which equaled the African record she had set during the semi-finals of the event at the Edinburgh Commonwealth Games in 1970.
Yvonne Saunders (Jamaica) was the fastest 400m sprinter (52.34), third after Ayaa was Nadeshda Kolesnikova (Soviet Union) in 52.90, fourth was Karoline Kaefer (Australia) in 52.98, fifth was Penny Hunt (New Zealand) with 53.31.
The other Ugandan who performed quite well at the invite was 29-year-old Vitus Ashaba. He finished fifth in the 3000 meter steeplechase and his time of 8:50.08 was a new Ugandan national record. In an event that for decades has been dominated by Kenyans, the legendary Benjamin Jipcho (Kenya) won in 8:27.43, the 1968 Olympic champion Amos Biwott (Kenya) was second in 8:30.70, the third was the legendary Kipchoge Keino (Kenya) 32 years old. ) who was quite new to this event (8:32.70), fourth was Werner Schuman (West Germany) in 8:45.89.
Weeks later, the ever-versatile Keino would win gold in the steeplechase at the Olympics, ahead of Jipcho and Biwott, in a new Olympic record. Ashaba would improve his Uganda record by five seconds
Other elite competitors at the sporting meet included sprinters Valeri Borzov (Russia) and Lennox Miller (Jamaica), and middle distance runner Mike Boit (Kenya).
Works Cited
Associated Press. “US 400 Quartet Eyes 38.5”, in “Oakland Tribune” (August 16, 1972).
