Sport: According to Plan

On the sideline at the Chicago Daily News Relays, trim, balding Track Coach Mihaly Igloi stood with a slip of paper clenched tightly in his fist. Scrawled on the paper was a series of digits: 1:02, 2:04, 3:09, 4:14, 5:19, 6:24, 7:29, 8:31. These were the times at which jaunty Jim Beatty, 28, the best U.S. distance runner and holder of the world indoor record for the mile, was to complete each segment of a precisely planned assault on the indoor two-mile record (8 min. 34.4 sec.) held by New Zealand's Murray Halberg.

"The...

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