I'll Come Running Trivia Quiz

Answer: 100m

If the name Harold Abrahams conjures up stirring pictures of young men in white running along a beach while the sounds of Vangelis swirl in the background, then your memory is correct. Harold Abrahams was indeed one of the two athletes whose experiences at the 1924 Olympics in Paris were depicted in the film. The other was Eric Liddell and the duo were both due to take on the might of the American sprint quartet in the 100m at those Olympics. Things didn't quite pan out as planned when Liddell, a devout Christian, refused to run in the 100m as one of the heats was to be held on a Sunday which went against his beliefs. However, Harold Abrahams stepped up to the starting block for the men's 100m final on 07 July 1924 against one New Zealander and four Americans, including the defending champion, Charles Paddock. An Olympic record equalling 10.6 seconds later he became the first British athlete to take the gold medal in the 100m event at the Olympic Games. A lovely story is that, on the 7th of July each year thereafter, he and the Arthur Porritt, the New Zealander who took the bronze medal, met for lunch, a routine which was only ended by Abrahams' death in 1978 at the age of 78.

Unfortunately Abrahams never got a chance to defend his title. In 1925, he broke his leg in a long jump accident and the injury brought his career to an abrupt end. However, he remained involved in athletics as a journalist and broadcaster who also served as the chairman of the British Amateur Athletics Board from 1968 to 19975. He also wrote a history of the Games entitled "The Olympic Games: 1896 - 1952".

Answer: 100m

In 1999 as the 20th century was drawing to a close, both the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) chose the same man when they named their respective "World Athlete of the Century" and "World Sportsman of the Century". That man was Carl Lewis, the American sprinter and long-jumper. A look at his record shows why. Between 1984 and 1996, he won an astonishing 10 Olympic medals, 9 of which were gold. In a ten year period between 1983 and 1993, he also won ten World Championship medals; 8 of which were gold. In 1984 at the Los Angeles Games, he equalled the record held by the great Jesse Owens, winning gold in the 100m, 200m, long jump and 4x100m. At the next Games in Seoul, he went out to defend his 100m title and ran an American record of 9.92 seconds in the final, only to lose out to Canada's Ben Johnson. However, it was found that Johnson had taken a banned substance and was disqualified. Carl Lewis was thus credited with both the gold medal and a new Olympic record. It must have been a poignant moment for Lewis who had promised his mother he would bring home another gold medal as his 1984 100m medal had been buried with his father.

Carl Lewis was born on 01 July 1961 in Birmingham, Alabama into a family steeped in athletics. Both his parents were track coaches and young Carl showed early promise which he certainly fulfilled. An interesting fact is that, such was his athletic ability, he was chosen by the Chicago Bulls in the 1984 NBA draft despite the fact that he had not played basketball in high school or at college. The Bulls weren't alone. He was also picked by the Dallas Cowboys as a wide receiver in the NFL draft the same year even though he had never played football. He never did play in either league.

Answer: 100m

If you watched track and field, especially the men's sprint events, between 2008 and 2016, there was no way you could miss the tall, gangling form of the world's fastest man with his flashing smile and trademark 'Lightning Bolt' pose. Jamaica's Usain Bolt simply dominated the sprint events through this period. He became the first man to win three consecutive gold medals in the history of the Olympic 100m event, winning in 2008 in Beijing and again in London in 2012 and Rio de Janeiro in 2016. Add to this three more gold medals in the 200m and two in the 4x100m relay at the same games and you get some idea of the scope of his dominance. It wasn't only at the Olympics that he shone as he has a tally of fourteen World Championship medals of which 11 are gold. At the World Championships in 2009 he set a new world record for the 100m of 9.58 seconds which meant that he ran an average 37.58 kilometres/ hour over the distance. A stupendous effort especially for a man who stand 6 foot 5 inches tall and who didn't run his first competitive senior 100m race until 2006.

Usain St Leo Bolt was born in Montego Bay, Jamaica on 21 August 1986 and excelled at sport from an early age. He first came to prominence on the track at the World Junior Championships held in Jamaica in 2002 where, aged 15, he stormed to victory in the 200m. After finally convincing his coach that he was suited to the 100m, he set a new world record in New York on 31 May 2008 in only his fifth senior 100m race. The rest, as they say, is history. Usain Bolt retired from competition after the 2017 World Championships where he was plagued by injury. He leaves behind an impressive legacy.

Answer: 1500m

It was 19 July 1952 and the event was the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. As the Olympic torch made its way into the stadium, the identity of the torch bearer, a heavily guarded secret, was revealed and the stadium erupted as the crowd realised that it was Paavo Nurmi, the "Flying Finn", who proudly carried the torch. There he lit a temporary cauldron and the torch was carried to the main cauldron where another famous Finn, the 1912 winner of three Olympic gold medals, Hannes Kolehmainen, lit the main cauldron. Given that Kolehmainen's exploits were the inspiration behind Nurmi's desire for success, it was particularly fitting. And successful he was. During his career, Nurmi set 22 world records between 1500m and 20kms and competed in 12 Summer Olympic events which earned him an astonishing 9 gold and 3 silver medals.

Paavo Johannes Nurmi was born in Turku on the south western coast of Finland on 13 June 1897. He started running after watching the exploits of Hannes Kolehmainen in the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm. He was self taught and always ran with a stopwatch in his hand so that he could measure his effort. His Olympic debut came in Antwerp in 1920 where he won three golds and one silver medal. In Paris at the 1924 Olympics, he became the first man to win five gold medals, three individual and two team. To do this, he ran both the 1500m and the 5000m finals with less than two hours between the races. His final gold medal came in the 10 000m at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam. Unfortunately, he was banned from competing in the 1932 Los Angeles Games as he was deemed by the sport's governing body to have broken the amateur rule. He died in Helsinki on 02 October 1973 and was given a state funeral.

Answer: 1500m

In the 1980s, the name of Sebastian Coe became synonymous with middle distance running and his longstanding rivalry with his fellow Briton, Steve Ovett, garnered many a headline. However, it was in 1979 that Sebastian Coe first set the athletics world agog when, in a period of just 41 days, he claimed three new world records in three different events. The 800m record fell first in Oslo on 05 July. This was followed by the mile record on 17 July in Dubai and then finally the 1500m record of Steve Ovett on 15 August in Zurich. He was just 22 years of age. The following year at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, he and Ovett turned the pre-race prediction upside down. Coe was favoured to win the 800m but had to settle for a silver medal as Steve Ovett took the gold. Ovett started the 1500m final as favourite, having been unbeaten at the distance for three years. However the tables were turned as Coe powered to the gold medal leaving Ovett to pick up the bronze. Coe went onto repeat his feat in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles with silver in the 800m and defending his title in the 1500m. he became the first man to win two 1500m titles in the history of the event.

Sebastian Coe was born in London on 29 September 1956 and started running early, joining his first club at the age of twelve. The latter part of his career was dogged by injury and ill health and he retired in early 1990. After retirement he entered politics, becoming a Member of Parliament from 1992 to 1997. He was made a life peer in 2000 and became Baron Coe of Ranmore. He was head of the team that bid for and then brought the Olympics to London in 2012. In 2015 he was elected President of the International Amateur Athletics Federation, now known as World Athletics.

Answer: 1500m

When Moroccan Hicham el-Guerrouj raised his arms in triumph as crossed the line in the 1500m final at the 2004 Athens Olympics to finally take the gold medal that had been eluding him for so long, it was the fulfillment of a career dream. He would be forgiven if he thought this moment might never happen. Out of the 86 finals he had contested in the 1500m and mile during the previous nine years, he had only lost 3. Unfortunately, two of them were in the Olympics, first in 1996 when he tripped and finished last and then again in 2000 when he was pushed into the silver medal position by Noah Ngeny. Four days after his 1500m triumph, he took another gold medal, this time in the 5000m thus becoming the first man since Paavo Nurmi in 1924 to do the Olympic double. It cemented his place in the record books as one of the greatest mid-distance athletes of all time. Hicham el-Guerrouj never competed internationally again and formally announced his retirement in May 2006.

Hicham el-Guerrouj was born in Berkane, Morocco on 14 September 1974, and started running as a teenager after being inspired by the exploits of his fellow countryman, Said Aouita, who took the gold medal in the 5000m in Los Angeles in 1984. In 1995, at the age of just 20, he finished second in the 1500m final at the World Championships in Stockholm behind the then record holder, Noureddine Morcelli. He went one better in 1997 to win the gold as he did in the next three consecutive World Championships in 1999, 2002 and 2003. As at the end of the 2022 season, the world records he set in the 1500m, the mile and the 2000m had not been bettered.

Answer: Marathon

Although Emil Zatopek only ran two competitive marathons in his career as he thought it was "a very boring race", he achieved something that no other athlete had managed to do. At the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, the Czech army captain had already won both the 5000m and the 10 000m race convincingly, when he decided, on a whim, to add the marathon to his schedule, an event he had never previously raced. He won by over two minutes, beating the current world record holder, Jim Peters, in the process. He thus became the first man to hold all three distance titles. His only other marathon came at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne where he tried to defend his title six weeks after undergoing surgery for a hernia. He still managed to finish sixth. His summation of marathon running was succinct - "If you want to run, run a mile. If you want to experience a different life, run a marathon.".

Emil Zatopek was born on 09 September 1922 in Koprivince in what is today the Czech Republic. He started running after his boss at the shoe factory where he worked asked him to run a race to promote their shoes and he finished second. Nicknamed the "Czech Locomotive" for his stamina and endurance, he was responsible for developing interval training, a method which first brought him derision, but which is now widely used by most elite athletes. He was the first man to run under 29 minutes for the 10 000m and set an astonishing 18 world records during a 17 year career. His three gold medals in Helsinki were not his first though. Four years earlier in 1948 at the London games, he won gold in the 10 000m and silver in the 5000m. He retired from racing in 1958 and died in Prague on 21 November 2000.

Answer: Marathon

One of the most iconic moments in Olympic history came on the evening of 10 September 1960 at the Rome Games with the sight of Ethiopia's Abebe Bikila crossing the finish line in the marathon at the Arch of Constantine, barefoot, in a new world record time of 2.15.16.2. It was his country's first ever gold medal and the first time the marathon had been won by a black African athlete. The reason he why he ran barefoot was that his trusty shoes had given up the ghost just before the race and his new pair gave him blisters so he opted to do without them. In the period between 1960 and 1966, Bikila ran thirteen marathons of which he won twelve. In 1964 he returned to the Olympics in Tokyo to defend his title despite the fact that he had undergone an appendectomy just 40 days earlier. Defend it he did in another world record time and he became the first man to win more than one Olympic marathon title. Unfortunately his bid to gain a third came unstuck at the 1968 games in Mexico. Bikila was carrying a leg injury which forced him out of the race after 16 kilometres.

Abebe Bikila was born in Shewa in in Ethiopia on 07 August 1932 and took up running at the age of 19 when he joined the Ethiopian Imperial Guard and his talent was spotted during physical training. Unfortunately, his career was cut short in 1969 as a result of injuries he sustained in a car accident which left him wheelchair bound for the rest of his life. Sadly he was only 41 years old when he died on 25 October 1973 from a brain hemorrhage. He was given a state funeral by Emperor Haile Selassie. However, his short career produced a lasting legacy as his exploits inspired a generation of East African long distance athletes.

Answer: Marathon

On 10 September 1972 Frank Shorter, a 24 year old law student from the University of Florida crossed the line in the marathon at the 1972 Olympics in Munich to become the first American since 1908 to win the event. And he did it in the city of his birth, Munich, as Shorter's father had been serving with the US Army in Germany at the time of his birth on 31 October 1947. He finished over two minutes ahead of his nearest rival. In 1976 in Montreal, Shorter returned to the Olympics as favourite to defend his title and take his second gold medal. However, he was upset by the relatively unknown East German, Waldemar Cierpinski and had to settle for the silver medal instead.

Upon his family's return to the USA after his father's tour of duty had been completed, Shorter grew up in Middletown, New York where his father was the local general practitioner. He attended first Yale and then the University of Florida which he chose because of the excellence of its track program. Between 1971 and 1974 Shorter won four consecutive Fukuoka Marathons, the prestige race that was considered to be the unofficial world championships. After retirement. Shorter became involved in a number of ventures and served as the head of the United States Anti-Doping Association, a body he helped found, from 2000 - 2003.

Answer: Marathon

Kenyan athlete Eliud Kipchoge's mantra is that "no human is limited" and he certainly proved that when, on a clear, cool autumn morning in Vienna on 12 October 2019, he became the first human to run the marathon distance in under two hours. The event was the Ineos 1:59 Challenge, a closed race specifically designed for Kipchoge's attempt and he crossed the line in an incredible 1:59.40.2 seconds at an average speed of 21.2km/h. This record was unofficial as the event's format differed from the criteria laid down by World Athletics for an official record. It is, that notwithstanding, still a remarkable milestone to have achieved.

Kipchoge does, however, hold the official world record for the marathon which he set when he shaved 30 seconds off his own record in the 2022 Berlin Marathon to finish in a time of 2:01.09. By the end of 2022, Kipchoge had run four of the 6 fastest marathons in history. He is a double Olympic gold medalist in the marathon, taking his first title in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and then successfully defending it in Tokyo in 2020.

Eliud Kipchoge was born in Kapsisiywa, Kenya on 5 November 1984 and was raised by his mother after his father died when he was young. He used to run to school and back, but did not start running competitively until he was 16 when he met Patrick Sang, the Kenyan runner, who became his coach. After starting out his career as a 5000m athlete, he decided to switch to the marathon in 2012. He made his marathon debut at the Hamburg Marathon in 2013 which he promptly won while setting a new race record. Of the 17 marathons he has raced since switching to the road, he has only lost two of them.