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THE
SHORE ATHLETIC CLUB OF NEW HOME OF THE 2007 MEN’S AND WOMEN’S USATF NATIONAL TEAM
CHAMPIONS
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THE WINDSOR
JOURNEY.... By ELLIOTT DENMAN Thank you, Dorando Pietri. Thank you, Johnny Hayes. Your epic marathon race at the 1908 Olympic Games in London-
Hayes winning the gold medal after Pietri’s collapse - took place just under 100 years ago,
but your spirit will never die and your story will never end. In fact, toasts in your
joint and forever-linked honor have been raised with newfound enthusiasm. With raised wineglasses
of Louis Jadot Bourgogne Chardonnay and Cote de Beaume Villages 2006,
actually. At Windsor Castle, as a matter of fact, The evening of May 30th,
2008, to be precise. I can vouch for this with accuracy. Because I was there, as one
of those 250 toast-raisers . As the official invitation read, "The Master of the
Household has received Her Majesty’s command to invite Mr. Elliott Denman to a Reception to be
given at Windsor Castle by The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, to celebrate
the Centenary of the 1908 Olympic Games." Yes-yes-yes, this invitation did arrive in the mail one
never-to-be-forgotten early May morning. It came under Royal seal. It was one of two
dispatched to the representatives of The Estate of Johnny Hayes, Mr. Walter
MacGowan, president of the Shore Athletic Club, and myself, a Shore AC
trustee. All because Johnny Hayes’s classic gold medal and other principal
awards were entrusted to Shore AC on the passing of his daughter, Mrs. Doris
Hale, some years ago. Clearly, this was not an invitation to which you could say
"I’ll think about it." This had to be a once-in-a-lifetime thing, a once-in-the-lifetime-
for- very- very-very few thing. Sent with gold-medal
haste, my response to the invitation was "of course, of course, of
course" Of course. So the old tuxedo was plucked out of mothballs, a frilly new
shirt and fancy bowtie purchased, dress shoes shined to a new glow, and quickly, quickly, details
of a flight into Heathrow set into motion. The Windsor Journey evolved into one for the ages. These days, ordinary tourists do get to visit the interior of
Windsor Castle, for the admission price of 18 pounds, as the fund-raising to
recoup the costs of rebuilding the precincts damaged in the horrendous 1992
fire continues. But this was not an event for ordinary tourists. You can safely say the 250 guests got the Royal treatment. At 6 p.m., the Royal
Couple began receiving guests in the Waterloo Chamber. Yes, yes, the same ast room built in tribute to the 1815 success of the forces of
Great Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia over Napoleon Bonaparte at
Waterloo. The four-gentlemen delegation from Carpi, Italy - Dorando
Pietri’s home town - was escorted in first. Appropriately. After all, it was
Dorando Pietri who on July 24, 1908 was first into White City Stadium, 26
miles from the start of the race at Windsor Castle. And next up was the Shore Athletic Club delegation, the Jersey
Boys, Messrs. MacGowan and Denman. Appropriately, too. After all, New
York-born Jersey Boy Johnny Hayes was second into White City Stadium on July
24th, 1908. The Queen extended a gloved right hand; I extended my right in
shocked response. But this gesture was no regal replica. This was the real thing. Then again, Queen Alexandra - great grandmother of Queen
Elizabeth II - had needed to devise some new protocol of her own in 1908 after Pietri entered
White City Stadium, turned in the wrong direction, was finally straightened out, only to
collapse five times. He was eventually carried over the finish line and thus disqualified, setting the
scene for Johnny Hayes’s triumph. The escorted Pietri crossed the line in two hours, 54 minutes,
46.4 seconds. The unaided Hayes reached the same place in 2:55:18.4, automatically the world and
Olympic record for the all-new distance they had just run. Precluded from presenting
the gold medal to Pietri, Queen Alexandra instead presented him a gilded
silver cup, the idea of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the Sherlock Holmes creator
who had seen all this unfold in his capacity as a journalist. Pietri had no trouble negotiating the first 26 miles, Windsor
Castle to White City Stadium. It was the final 385 yards of the race, that
would eventually create the now- universal marathon distance, that proved his
downfall. Literally. "How very
interesting," said Her Majesty, gazing at the Hayes gold medal held by
MacGowan. And it was interesting enough for the Duke of Edinburgh, at the
side of the queen, to suggest the 1908 gold medal had design concepts
that might be of major interest to the team commissioned to create the medals
planned for London’s 2012 Olympic Games. And then the reception line moved right along. For all castle-goers that evening, the Queen Alexandra Cup,
escorted to Windsor by the Carpi delegation, and the Hayes gold medal,
continued to be magnets of attention. Further down the reception line for the event - formally
organized by the British Olympic Association in partnership with The London
Marathon - was an array of British Olympic celebrities, past London Marathon
winners, and former world record-holding runners Sebastian Coe, Dave
Moorcroft and Dave Bedford. After an hour and a half
of further socializing, the guests were called into St. George’s Hall for a
dinner of (a) salad of English Asparagus with truffle dressing, (b) main
course of Fillet of Beef Beaujolais, supported by Timbale of Carrots and
Gratin Dauphinoise, (c) desert of Chocolate and Caramel Tartlet, with
Caramelised Hazelnuts,and finally, (d) coffee. The setting was as regal as the menu. Look above and there
adorning the ceiling were the coats of arms of all the Knights of the Garter since the foundation of the order in 1348. A few shield spaces,
however, are blank. The blanks are to remind visitors of the
"degraded" knights expelled from the order, for an assortment of
offenses, over the centuries. Princess Anne, The Princess Royal, who serves as president of
the British Olympic Association; Dr. Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic
Committee, and Lord Moynihan, BOA chief executive, delivered the obligatory post-dinner addresses. Coffee and liqueurs followed back in the Waterloo Chamber. And soon it was over, this magical night of all nights, the
night straight out of fantasyland, the night the Jersey Boys met Royalty. I’d never had the honor of meeting Dorando Pietri (who died in
1942, age 56), but I did have the privilege of meeting Johnny Hayes. Who’d ever have guessed it,
but the occasion, an Asbury Park Press interview in early autumn of 1964, just before the opening
of the Tokyo Olympic Games, made me the last newsman to hear his story.Johnny Hayes passed
away in 1965, age 79. Many may argue, but the
1908 marathon - casting Dorando Pietri and Johnny Hayes in the protagonists’
roles - must be the most celebrated footrace in the 112-year history of the
modern Olympic Games. Paavo Nurmi vs. Willie Ritola (5,000 meters) in 1924 and again
in 1928? Jesse Owens vs. Ralph Metcalfe
(100 meters) in 1936? Horace Ashenfelter vs. Vladimir Kazantsev
(steeplechase) in 1952? Vladimir Kuts vs. Gordon Pirie (5,000 and 10,000
meters) in 1956 ? Otis Davis vs. Carl Kaufmann (400 meters) in 1960? Kip
Keino vs Jim Ryun (1,500 meters) in 1968? Waldemar Cierpinski vs. Frank
Shorter (marathon) in 1976? Steve Ovett vs. Seb Coe (800 meters) in 1980?
Haile Gebrselassie vs. Paul Tergat (10,000 meters) in 2000? Great stuff, great emotion, great theater, all of them. But bundle them all up in a tie for the silver medal. It is Pietri and Hayes, Hayes and Pietri, who are eternally
locked in the drama that set the gold standard nearly a century ago and continues to register the
highest readings ever detected on the Olympic thrillometers. Thank you, Dorando Pietri. Thank you, Johnny Hayes. All these years later, your exploits of July 24, 1908 continue
to intrigue all students of Olympic lore. And, I can assure you, Royalty, too.
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