THE eccentric Australian coach-athlete pair of Percy Cerutty and Herb Elliot caught the attention of the 1960 Olympic spectators. Coach Cerutty was notorious for his peculiar training methods which included putting his athletes on a strict diet of raw natural foods and requiring them to ru The n in deep sand dunes instead of stadiums. In 1952, during the British Empire Games his star runner lost a race by looking back to assess his lead. Coach Cerutty's worst nightmare was to have a second runner make the same tragic mistake. Elliot faithfully kept a promise to Cerutty to "never look back". In the 1500m final, he didn't- despite his 20 meter lead. By the age of 22, Elliot improved the world record for the 1500 by almost three seconds. Throughout his career he never lost an official race.
	Wim Essajas the 800 meter runner from Surnam in South America trained for four years only to sleep through his race.
American pole vaulter Don Bragg had his heart set on playing Tarzan in the movies. In the backyard of his New Jersey home he started practicing to swing from tree to tree. So engulfed was Bragg with this dream, when his Russian counterpart, Vladimer Bulatov came for a visit, the reluctant guest was convinced to also try his hand at tree-swinging.