By Larry Napolitano
Holy Cross has produced its fair share of top athletes in
many different sports. But not many have become world champions
at the age of 60. Phil Byrne '62 became a top athlete
later in life.
In 2001, Byrne won the gold medal in the decathlon at the
World Championships for Masters Track & Field held in
Brisbane, Australia. His road to the world championship was
an interesting one, seldom traveled by world champions in
track and field.
Byrne left Mount Saint James in June 1962 with a degree
in economics. Upon graduation, he served as a lieutenant
in the United States Air Force from 1962-1965. He then went
on to earn his master's degree in finance from Harvard
Business School in 1967. He worked at Keystone Investments
for nearly 30 years, including 13 years as president of its
investment counsel subsidiary, Keystone Investment Management
Corp. He was a senior vice president of the parent company
and a member of the executive committee and the board of
directors.
Active in the community, Byrne has served on the board of
the Holy Cross Club of Greater Boston and the Boston Center
for International Visitors, as well as the finance committee
of Carney Hospital. He is currently a director of USA Track & Field
- New England, a director of Shake-A-Leg, an organization
for spinal cord injury patients in Newport, R.I., and a member
of the investment committee of the New England Province of
the Jesuits.
Competitive throughout his life, Byrne played hockey and
baseball at B.C. High and ran what he calls "a bit
of forgettable" track. At Holy Cross he played hockey,
which at that time was still a club sport. Along with several
of his teammates, he helped form the foundation of the varsity
ice hockey program that exists today at Holy Cross. But he
never even thought about going out for the College track
team.
After College, he played flag football while in the Air
Force and was an assistant captain of the rugby team while
at Harvard Business School. He also began racing sailboats
again. Byrne had begun sailing while at B.C. High, has raced
on everything from day-sailers to 12 meters, including the
Maxi yacht, Matador, which went on to win the World Championship
and served as the base program for Bill Koch's America's
Cup victory in 1992.
Byrne began competing on the Master's track and field
circuit in 1996 when he was looking for a new challenge. "I
love to compete," he says, "and the so-called ‘combined-events' are
considered one of the ultimate athletic challenges." He
also recalled that one of his boyhood heroes was Bob Mathias,
two-time Olympic decathlon champion.
His track and field career began at the Eastern Indoor Championship
at Brandeis University in 1996. Byrne won the long jump and
competed in four other events there, learning later that
his "sore" ankle had been fractured in the first
event of the day. Later on that year, he achieved the All-American
standard in the long jump, javelin and the outdoor pentathlon.
In 1997, Byrne began to hit his stride in his new sport.
He medaled in all 12 events in the Massachusetts Senior Games,
including finishing first in eight events, while placing
second in the other four. He placed second at the United
States Decathlon Championships and earned All-America honors
in the high jump, long jump, javelin, indoor pentathlon,
outdoor pentathlon and the decathlon. He carried that success
into the 1998 season, where he was the North American champion
in the 100-meter high hurdles, the high jump, the long jump,
the discus, the javelin and the pentathlon.
In 1999, Byrne suffered a season-ending injury when he tore
his hamstring while competing in the Canadian Championships,
but the 2000 season began his run towards the world championships.
He placed second in the pentathlon, indoors and outdoors,
at the U.S. Championships, and won the high jump, long jump,100-meter
and 300-meter hurdles and the pentathlon at the North American
Championships.
The hard work and dedicated training all came to fruition
during the 2001 season. He captured the National Championship
in the indoor pentathlon, the outdoor pentathlon and the
decathlon, where he set an American record for the javelin
in the national decathlon championship; he was named the
United States combined-events Athlete of the Year. But the
whole season was highlighted by his gold medal decathlon
performance at the World Championships.
The World Championships in Masters Track & Field, which
were first held in 1975, take place every two years in various
cities around the world. The 2001 competition featured roughly
5,000 athletes from over 80 countries. The meet is held over
the span of 10 days, and as with all Masters meets, competition
takes place in five-year age groups for men 40 and over and
women 35 and older.
In Brisbane, there were 197 people entered in the decathlon,
including 22 in Byrne's age group. Based on his win
in the U.S. Championships two weeks earlier, he felt as if
he had a shot at a medal but never really thought of himself
as a potential gold medalist.
"Believe it or not, I was more excited about winning
the National Championship in the decathlon than winning the
World Championship," Byrne says. "I guess that
was because it was a goal I'd had for the last couple
of years, and it seemed possible. Winning the World Championship
never really entered my mind, although I did hope that I
might be able to place in the top three and win a medal."
The decathlon is separated into two days of competition.
On the first day, athletes compete in the 100-meter dash,
the long jump, the shot put, the high jump and the 400 meters.
On the second day, they compete in the 100-meter high hurdles,
the discus, the pole vault, the javelin and the 1,500 meters.
The better the performance in each event, the higher the
points, with the top points overall being the winner. It
is a grueling competition both physically and mentally.
On his first day of competition in Brisbane, Byrne exceeded
his expectations with personal bests in the 100, shot put
and 400 and narrowly missed career bests in the jumps. "I
had been hoping for around 3,800 points the first day," Byrne
says. "But I wound up with 4,106 points, and with my
nearest competitor 231 points back, I thought I might have
a chance to win it."
Masters athletes use the same decathlon scoring tables as
young athletes, but their actual performances are "age-graded" before
being computed. Byrne's actual (and age-graded) numbers
the first day were: 13.54 (11.31); 16'11" (24'11");
35'9" (48'6"); 4'11 ½" (6'11");
and 65.57 (52.94).
Byrne's top competitor was American Emil Pawlik, the
defending world champion and Byrne's close friend. "Emil
was definitely the man to beat," Byrne says. "He
had not been beaten in a pentathlon or decathlon in 10 years
but was coming off of knee surgery eight months earlier and
was not 100 percent. We've become good friends since
I started competing in 1996, but we were going at it with
no holds barred for this one."
Pawlik was very strong in the first three events of the
second day—the hurdles, the discus and the pole vault—and
Byrne expected Pawlik to win them all.
Byrne kept a 182-point lead after the hurdles, running a
personal best 16.90 (15.10 age-graded) to Pawlik's
16.46. After a below par 121'6" in the discus
(135'8" age-graded), Byrne remained in the lead
by 88 points, but Pawlik was closing fast and Byrne's
weakest event, the pole vault, was next.
"I knew the pole vault was going to be key," Byrne
says. "I had struggled lately in the vault, and Emil
is an excellent vaulter. But just before leaving for Australia,
I had called on the pole vault coach at Holy Cross, John
Hoogasian, for some help with my vaulting, and that turned
out to be crucial."
Byrne had one session with Hoogasian and then did two more
on his own up at the Hart Center track in 100-degree heat,
adding a foot to his previous best. Rev. John E. Brooks,
S.J., president emeritus, watched the practice and offered
encouragement as he did his daily walk around the track.
The sessions paid off, as Byrne had another personal best
of 8'3" (age-graded 12'6"). But Pawlik
went 16 inches higher and took the lead by 81 points, with
two events remaining. "My vaulting in Brisbane was
pretty ugly," says Byrne. "There was blood all
over me and the pit when I finished, but I had kept it close
enough that I had a chance."
In the javelin, the fourth event of the day, Byrne won the
event with a throw of 130'4" (age-graded 207'1"),
and went back into the lead by 49 points. With just the 1,500
meter run remaining, his lead meant Pawlik would have to
beat him by about 10 seconds in the 1,500 to win the gold.
The two were roughly 1,000 points ahead of a three-way battle
for third place among a Russian, a Norwegian and a German.
"Over the past couple of years, I'd generally
beaten him in the 1,500, and he had not been able to train
as much as he wanted to," Byrne recalls. We actually
discussed not running it at all, as we had first and second
safely in hand, and wanted to save ourselves for several
more individual events later in the meet. But the rules require
that each event be "attempted." After one lap
in which Byrne opened up a sizeable lead, Pawlik retired.
Byrne finished the 1,500 in 5:58.93 (4:49.02 age-graded)
to win his age group with 7,607 points. As it turned out,
that was the highest total of any age group in the decathlon.
He had won his gold medal and had become World Champion.
Larry Napolitano is the coordinator of athletic media relations
at Holy Cross.
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