Dick Quax
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Theodorus Jacobus Leonardus ("Dick") Quax (born January 1, 1948 in Alkmaar, The Netherlands) is a New Zealand runner. Quax, along with John Walker and Rod Dixon, was one of New Zealand's three outstanding distance runners of the 1970s. The trio set the running tracks of Europe ablaze and were responsible for a resurgence of interest in athletics in New Zealand.
Quax emigrated with his family to New Zealand in 1954 and he grew up in Waikato, going to school at Hamilton Boys' High School where he played rugby and then discovered he had a particular ability for distance running. He was inspired by Peter Snell and Murray Halberg, and remembers travelling to Auckland to watch them race. He latched onto the Lydiard training methods and by the time he was sixteen years old, he was running hundred miles a week.
In 1968 he asked John Davies, a Lydiard runner, to coach him, and the two formed a bond that existed until Davies' death in 2003. Quax and Davies co-promoted and organised the international track series for a decade and put together other running events, such as business-house races. They formed a company, Athletics Marketing and Management, which Quax took over after Davies' death in 2003.
Quax came to public attention in March 1970, when he ambushed Olympic 1.500 metres champion Kip Keino over a mile in Auckland and defeated him by 30 metres. For several years he battled shin splints and it wasn't until a revolutionary operation in 1975 proved successful that he was able to rain and race relatively injury-free.
The 1976 Montreal Olympic 5.000 metres final, which also included Dixon, was his most famous race. It turned out to be a classic and New Zealanders at home watched a dramatic last lap in which Lasse Viren again proved himself supreme, beating Quax by one stride with Dixon just behind, but deprived of the bronze because of a desperate dive by the German, Klaus-Peter Hildenbrand.
Late in his career, Quax devoted himself to the marathon, turning in a brilliant debut time of 2h 11min 13s in the big Nike marathon in Eugene. There was no Olympics in 1980 for New Zealand athletes because of the American-led boycott, but Quax showed what might have been when he ran 2h 10min 47s at Eugene in September, 1980. It was the fastest time ever by a New Zealander.
At the 1970 British Commonwealth Games, Quax won the silver medal in the 1500 metres. In 1977 at Stockholm, Sweden he set a new world record time of 13m 12.9s in the 5.000 metres.
In October 2001 Quax was elected to the Manukau City Council from the Pakuranga ward and subsequently re-elected in 2004 to represent the new Botany-Clevedon ward after a failed bid for the Manukau mayoralty. He is also a member of the ACT Party having stood as a list candidate in the 1999 and 2002 general elections.
