Every Picture Tells a Story
By Wayne DuBose
The Picture
The Story
The Trefgarne Trophy, 27th April 1975, at the cinder track in Victoria Park, London. Wayne DuBose had been picked to run the anchor leg of the 4x400 metre relay. As he waited for the race to get under way, Wayne asked team-mate Keith Lowe to massage the back of his legs because they were so tight. Wayne had already run the individual 400m earlier in the day, winning in 51.4, as well as placing second in the javelin with 52.64 metres.
The 4x400m got off to a blistering start and after two legs, Victoria Park Harriers were a huge distance behind North London AC. However, a superb leg by Ty Gibbons (still Club 400m Championship Record Holder since 1969 with 50.1 secs) saw the lead reduced to 40 metres as he handed off to Wayne (photo below). Wayne took the baton from Ty and chased after the North London AC runner as though his life depended on it! Wayne caught him at the 300-metre point and managed to get a metre in front of him. The two of them were then locked in that position all the way down the home straight.
Wayne recalls that he was in so much pain during the final 100m, that it all seemed like a dream and he remembers that he could hear people cheering him on but it was all so blurry. As he crossed the line a metre in front of the North London runner, a photographer jumped out in front of him and took the photo above, capturing the ultimate pain from the ultimate effort.
Wayne’s relay leg of 51.1 seconds on a cinder track in April ranks as one of his top five personal races. It's probably No.1!
Excerpt from Victoria Park Harriers Club Magazine (May 1975): "Some fine performances were put up, in particular, the Junior 4x400 metres relay, and more especially, the great efforts of Ty Gibbons and Wayne DuBose in the final two legs of the Senior relay. Ty fought back an almost impossible distance and gave Wayne just enough chance to attack North London, which he did so magnificently to win on the line."
Wayne's Day of Days
On 24 July, 1976, in a Southern League match at Newham, Wayne achieved his greatest five minutes of athletic performance ever.
Standing on the javelin runway, Wayne was aware that the starter had called for the 110m hurdlers. Unperturbed, he winged the spear out to 61.14 metres, an improvement of three metres and the eventual winning distance. This was Wayne's first-ever throw over 60 metres, first-ever throw over 200 feet, the second-best ever by a Victoria Park Harrier, and, as it turned out, Wayne's all-time PB.
Immediately after the throw, Wayne dashed over to the start of the 110m hurdles. Despite running on a cinder track, Wayne removed half a second from his best of two years previous to record 16.4 seconds, a new Club record which remains so to this day (June 2000).
Wayne then walked straight over to the pole vault area where he was the remaining athlete in the competition. With the bar set at a personal best and Club Record height of 3.82 metres, Wayne sailed over on his first attempt. Like the sprint hurdles record, this pole vault height remains the Club standard into the 21st century.
He also competed in four other events that day. In terms of quality, this was Wayne's Day of Days.
Wayne's other performances that day:
400H A 59.3 1
DT B 33.20 3
SP A 11.00 2
4x400 3rd leg 51.1 3:27.9 1
Victoria Park Harriers won by 20 points.
The Davids Beat The Goliaths
Attending Hackney Downs School (HDS), Wayne (aged 16) was selected to compete in the javelin and the 4x100m relay at the Hackney Schools Athletics Championships at Victoria Park on 18 May 1971.
With no HDS sprinters capable of winning individual medals at the Hackney Championships, school PE teacher Jack Singer knew that precise baton changeovers were key to HDS making an impact in the relay race. Every lunchtime in the weeks leading up to the championships, Jack would have the sprint relay team of Ray Miller, Howard Kott, Irving Abraham, and Wayne out on Hackney Downs Park doing relay practice. After many hours of training, the team had its changeovers honed to perfection.
Based on being the strongest (his nickname was Millerman) and having the best start, Ray Miller was the lead-off man. Irving was considered a good bend runner and therefore had the third leg. As Wayne was the slowest of the four, Howard was assigned the longer second leg. By default, Wayne was the anchor man.
On the day, Wayne started well by winning the Hackney Schools javelin title. As expected, HDS won no medals in the sprints. The last event of the day, the 4x100m, arrived.
As Wayne lined up with his fellow anchor-leg runners, he realised how small and unmuscular he was in comparison. There was a certain air of confidence among each of the other runners as they looked down at Wayne.
Finally, the starter fired the gun and five runners representing five schools took off, including Ray Miller. As the first changeover took place amidst a chaos of ten bodies coming together, Howard emerged from the tangle with a three-metre lead. Putting forth the supreme effort, Howard still lost some of the distance to the runners chasing him. But once again, as he handed over to Irving, the lead extended out to seven metres or so.
Wayne waited tensely for the incoming bullet named Irving. When Irving reached an exact spot on the track (17 pigeon steps from where Wayne was waiting), Wayne took off and never looked behind and never slowed down. He extended his left arm back and the baton was his with a ten-metre lead. Gritting his teeth, Wayne ran for all his worth because after all he was running for a team with superior runners chasing him down. Although gaining perhaps five metres, the other runners ran out of distance and the race was over. The little guys had won in 48.7 seconds.
The beauty of athletics is that you can never know the winner until the race is over. The best athletes may win most of the time, but just occasionally the best-prepared may pull it off!
Miracles Do Happen
On 20 Oct 1973, Wayne, age 18, ran in the Chingford & District League 5.1M Cross-Country race on the three-lap course at Barnet. For the past year, Wayne had been training hard with the Anstey Mob, consisting primarily of John Anstey, Alan Barber, and Keith Lowe. Just two weeks earlier, Wayne had represented Great Britain in a Junior Decathlon against France and so wasn't really regarded as a cross-country runner.
Wayne had no real aspirations in this race, but started the race, along with a hundred or so others, determined to give it his best shot. Part of the course consisted of a steep hill climb which went on for perhaps a quarter of a mile, a short run across a golf course, and a steep hill descent of a quarter of a mile. With hindsight, the course layout was to suit Wayne down to the ground.
To give some idea of Wayne's distance ability compared to his compatriots, consider his best for 5000m on the track the past summer was 17:42, while John Anstey had run 15:47.8 and Alan Barber had been timed at 16:01.0. In other words, there was no comparison.
During the downhill run on the first lap, Wayne threw caution to the wind and flew down the steep hill with little regard for personal safety. John, on the other hand, proceeded more cautiously, while Alan was suffering from stomach problems. After one lap, Keith Lowe was ahead of Wayne as expected, but, to his amazement, he found John and Alan behind. Although the climb up the hill was particularly painful, Wayne was able to sustain a good effort and, as he crossed the golf course, glanced behind to see John Anstey looming.
Wayne presumed it was just a matter of time before John caught him, but still flew down the hill on the second lap. This built up a further cushion of time and distance between the two. As Wayne crossed the golf course for the last time, he checked one more time on John's progress. Although John appeared slightly further behind, Wayne couldn't believe what was going on and was running scared still waiting for John to overtake him.
But by the bottom of the final descent, there was insufficient distance remaining for John to catch up and Wayne claimed a famous scalp by finishing in 30th place in 30:11 to John's 30:53 in 35th place. Alan finished further back in 43rd position with 31:17.
As Wayne drifted more and more towards sprinting through the years , he never again beat John or Alan in a distance event. But for one brief shining moment, he was one of the best VPH distance runners.
First Decathlon...First National Medal!
On the weekend of 21/22 Jul 1973, Wayne competed in his first-ever decathlon, the AAA and SCAAA Under-20 Championships at Crystal Palace.
Lying fifth overnight, Wayne got off to a great start on the second day as he recorded a personal best of 17.4 secs in the 110m hurdles. The National Decathlon coach, Tom McNab, commented that it was probably a world record for someone taking four strides in-between hurdles, instead of three. As Wayne was relatively small (5'9"), he hadn't yet mastered the art of three strides, so, rather than stutter step through five strides, he learned how to alternate his lead leg.
Although Wayne's second event, the discus, was mediocre, he responded well in the remaining events. Being handed a flexible pole for the first time (he'd only used metal poles up to that point), he improved his personal best by over a foot, clearing 3.00 metres. His personal best javelin throw of 52.84 metres moved him into second place overall.
Having trained intensely over the winter, and after posting the second fastest 400m time the day before (51.8), Wayne was supremely confident about the last event, the 1500m. Wayne went into the race with a best of 4:49.9 set the year before. He knew that time was due for revision. His plan was to follow the leader for one lap and then set out on his own. However, after 200 metres, he could no longer hold back and took over the lead.
With a previous first-lap best of 69 seconds, Wayne was shocked to hear the timekeeper call out "61 seconds." Nevertheless, he decided to continue pushing the pace and went through 800 metres in 2:07, 12 seconds faster than ever before. Naturally, the pace eventually caught up to him, but Wayne finished the race the whole length of the straight ahead of the second runner and he was rewarded with a 22-second improvement on his PB, recording 4:27.5.
Wayne finished the National Junior Decathlon in the silver medal position and, later in the year, went on to represent Great Britain in a Junior International against France.
If you would like to read more about Wayne and his Athletics Career, visit his personal Website http://homepages.enterprise.net/dubose/main.htm
British Record Holder Junior Pentathlon (Senior implements) Since July 1974
Points total - 3112
LJ 5.74 JT 54.82
200 23.5 DT 30.48
1500 4.32.2    
M45 Vets Indoor Pentathlon Champion 2000
M45 Vets Outdoor Pentathlon Champion 2000
M45 Vets Outdoor Decathlon Champion 2000
Victoria Park Harriers Vets Discus Throw Record Holder
6 May 2000 - Colchester Discus Throw - W DuBose - 35.57m
This throw beat Deric Bareford's Record set in 1963 by 1.15m