In late August 1972, 29-year-old Ugandan middle-distance champion and steeplechase Vitus Ashaba flew to Munich with the crop of Ugandan athletes and boxers to represent the nation at the Olympic Games in Germany. Also signed up to compete in both the 1500m and 3000m hurdles were Kenyan legend Hezekiah Kipchoge Keino, and then-unknown future Tanzanian legend Filbert Bayi Sanka. One of the most anticipated 1500m Olympic doubles would be between “Kip” Keino and America’s top high school and national runner, James “Jim” Ryun, who held the world record.
Four years earlier, at the high-altitude and hot Olympics in Mexico City, a somewhat sickly and tired but not intimidated Keino, against doctor’s advice, persevered and used team tactics with training partner Benjamin Wabura Jipcho. to initially tire out his fellow competitors and then finally run away to win the 1500m gold in an Olympic record time (3:34.91). It was too late for eventual silver medalist Ryun (3:37.89) to catch up, and at the finish line he trailed 20 meters behind Keino.
A 50th anniversary milestone was celebrated recently, as Jim Ryun reflected on the national high school record of 3:58.3 in the mile that he set on May 15, 1965, at the Kansas State High School Meet at Cessna Stadium in LA. Wichita State University. It was also a new Kansas state record. Also, the 3:58.3 remains the record for a mile race that included only high school students. Earlier, in 1964, Ryun, in his junior year, still at East High School, had become the first national high school student to break the 4 minute:3:59 barrier. And even more so, in San Diego, at the American Open Championships in early June 1965, 18-year-old Ryun, still in high school, set a new American record (3:55.3) by shocking the world by beating the New Zealand legend and triple Olympic gold medalist Peter Snell. As the national high school record, the 3:55.3 would stand for nearly four decades until Virginian Alan Webb’s 3:53.43 on May 27, 2001 at the Oregon Prefontaine Classic in Eugene. Ryun began taking competitive track and field seriously only a couple of years before he began setting the many middle distance records that would include world records set in 1967 in the 1500 m (3:33.1; Compton-Los Angeles) and the mile. (3:51:1; Bakersfield, CA). Ryun as a young man had been rejected by youth teams in basketball, baseball, and even track. But the devout Ryun had faith in the church and in God, and he humbly prayed for fruition in life. Jim Ryun’s shoulders were broad and bony, his knees were long and bony, all on a lanky 6’2″, 165-pound frame. Perhaps his biggest drawback was his vulnerability to the onslaught of disease and physical injury. At the Games 1968 Olympics when he was 21. The old Ryun lost to 28-year-old Kip Keino, who had recently suffered a mild bout of mononucleosis that had cast doubt on whether he would compete in Mexico City.
The relatively lanky Ugandan Vitus Ashaba (5’8″, 130Ib) was placed to run the Olympic Games 3000m steeplechase in Heat, one of four first round preliminary heats on September 1, 1972. This The first round also included both 32-year-old Africans Kip Keino, 19, and Filbert Bayi, 19, who would also compete in the 1500m Tapio Kantanen, 23, of Finland, won (8:24.8) in a new Olympic record Keino finished second (8:27.6), along with 24 Takaharu Koyama of Japan (8:29.8), he also qualified for the next round, which would be the final, but Bayi who finished ninth (8: 41.4) and Ashaba, tenth (8:45.0) did not advance to the final, both times were national records for Tanzania and Uganda. And the 8:45.0 would forever be Ashaba’s personal best. It would be more intriguing than in the fourth series on the same day, Kenya’s Amos Biwott, who had won Olympic gold four years earlier in Mexico City, would win and cut the Olympic record to 8:23.73 in a couple of hours. On September 7, Kipchoge Keino, running in an event he had rarely competed in, would shockingly win Olympic gold in the steeplechase in a new Olympic record (8:23.64). This was his second simultaneous Olympic gold with Olympic records! Kipchoge had initially planned to compete in both the 1500 and 5000 meters, but the 1972 Olympic schedule would have made this very difficult. Furthermore, only Julio Faustino Quevedo Elias, 32, of Guatemala, only a couple of months older than Keino, was older than him among the men’s steeplechase competitors at the Munich Olympics. Filbert Bayi Sanka, who would beat Keino in the 1500m at the All African Games in Lagos in January 1973, was the youngest of the 1972 Olympians. Second in the final was Kenyan legend Ben Jipcho (8:24.62 ), and the bronze medalist was Finn Tapio Kantanen (8:24.66).
Ashaba expected better results in the 1500m. Here, there would be a first round of playoffs on September 8, the qualifiers would go to the two semifinal playoffs held on September 9; and the finals would be on September 10. The first round consisted of seven heats in which the top finishers from each heat, along with the next two fastest overall, would advance to the semifinals. Ashaba was placed in the Heat Four, which included Keino and Ryun. This would turn out to be the fastest heat between the preliminary rounds. The race started and as always Ryun bided his time hoping for a burst near the end of the race. But it was not to be. About a lap before the end of the race, a crash occurred between Ashaba, Ryun, and Ghanaian William “Billy” Fordjour who were running closely together (Associated Press 1972). Ashaba’s heel was clipped by Ryun, who ended up colliding and going down with the Ghanaian. Ashaba got away, albeit slower. It is not clear who caused the accident, but it appears to have been an accidental collision between very close runners. Many blame Ryun for the accident. Ryun blamed Ashaba. It was too late for Ryun to catch up in such a short run. Keino won (3:39.97) and alongside New Zealand’s Rod Dixon (3:40.03), Sweden’s Gunnar Ekman (3:40.40), East Germany’s Klaus-Peter Justus (3:40.44) and Sweden’s Gianni Del Buono ( 3:40.78) were the semifinalists of the Heat Four. Ashaba was eighth, but still managed to set a personal best of his and a new Ugandan national record: 3:45.2. Ryun finished ninth (3:51.5) and Fordjour last (4:08:2). Keino comforted his archenemy. Ryun blamed Ashaba for the accident and asked for his reinstatement. His appeal did not come to fruition, and that ended Ryun’s career at the Olympics. As for Vitus Ashaba, the world of international sports would remember him mainly for the accident with Jim Ryun.
Keino would go on to the semifinal round that included three heats on September 9. He won in the second set. Heat One had been won by his compatriot Mike Boit. On September 10, in the final, Keino was overtaken and outshone near the end of the race by Finn Pekka Vasala, who won gold (3:36.33). Disappointed, Keino was second (3:36.81), Rod Dixon won bronze (3:37.46) and legendary 23-year-old Michael Kipsubut “Mike” Boit, who had won 800m Olympic bronze on September 2, was fourth. (3:38.41) .
Not much was known about Vitus Ashaba after the 1972 Olympics. He died in 1985, in his early forties, survived by widow Joy Namata and five children: Dorothy Nshemereirwe, Gerald Mugume, Julius Barinjura, Humphrey Tumushabe and Chris Tunanukye. . Ashaba was buried in his ancestral home in the village of Kyegwisha in the Ibanda district of Uganda.
Works Cited
Associated Press. “Accident Ends Ryun Offer”, in “Spokane Daily Chronicle” (September 8, 1972).