No Longer Shy, Zola Budd Shows a New Determination to Win

Zola Budd has grown up and become a star.

Gone is the shy young woman, hurried from the trackside after every race by coach Pieter Labuschagne, who was loath to answer even the simplest questions.

Instead, Budd has returned from winter training in her native South Africa a confident young woman with a steely-eyed determination to sweep all before her.

She has certainly started the year in style, clocking a world indoor best over 3,000 meters and retaining her world cross-country championship.

Perhaps more importantly, the 19-year-old Briton’s new attitude has finally convinced the athletics world she can become one of the greatest middle-distance runners.

“For her age she is one of the most remarkable athletes of all time,” said Frank Dick, Britain’s official athletics coach.

Her fellow athletes clearly agree. Their reaction after her cross-country triumph in Neuchatel, Switzerland, at the end of March confirmed her new-found, Hollywood-style stardom. Everyone, whether from Africa, China or Europe, wanted to shake her hand or just touch her.

But Budd’s acceptance on the track is not mirrored off it. Her continued links with the country of her birth are seriously threatening what promises to be a golden summer for the frail-looking young woman with the pulverizing pace.

The British press has given great prominence to doubts about her eligibility for the Commonwealth Games later this year.

The regulations state an athlete must be resident in her chosen country--in Budd’s case England--for six of the 12 months before the entry date for the Games.

Budd spent most of the winter in South Africa, returned there for a month to apply the finishing touches to her cross-country training. She plans to go back again for at least four weeks this summer.

But the rules also state the athlete must be domiciled in the country concerned, a condition which Budd fulfills as she recently bought a house in London’s stockbroker belt.

Marea Hartmann, England’s top women’s official, told Reuters she has asked for legal advice about Budd’s position.

“A ruling has never before been required and no one knows whether domicility or the six-month rule is more important in deciding eligibility,” she said.

England’s Commonwealth Games Council first expressed concern about their leading medal hope last December.

Hartmann wrote to Budd detailing the rules and including a Commonwealth Games Federation handbook. Budd wrote back saying she saw no problem conforming with the regulations.

“It does annoy me and Pieter and I have talked long and hard about it. But I’ll have to grit my teeth and get on with it,” she said recently.

Labuschagne springs to Budd’s defense. “She has proved her dedication to England. Last year she was the only top-class middle-distance woman athlete to run in the British indoor season.”

But Hartmann does not want to take any chances. “We must clear up this question well before the event. One thing is certain, however, everyone must compete in the trials.”

Budd has demonstrated her eagerness to run in the Edinburgh Games by stating her next track race will be the 1,500 meters at the June 6 trials.

She has already shown enough form over 1,500 meters to guarantee her place--in January she clocked a Commonwealth indoor best just two days after stepping off the plane from Johannesburg.

A few days later Budd returned to the Cosford arena to clip three seconds off the world indoor 3,000 meters record set by the Soviet Union’s Olga Bondarenko, likely to be one of her main opponents in August’s European Championships.

The 3,000 meters is probably Budd’s best distance--she won the 1985 European Cup final over that distance in Moscow--but it has also given her the worst memory of her career.

Her clash with Mary Decker, now Slaney, in the Olympic 3,000 meters final in Los Angeles left the American favorite weeping at the edge of the track and Budd a tearful seventh.

Budd was ready to quit but friendly advice from other South African-born runners, including Cornelia Buerki of Switzerland, persuaded her to continue.

But her troubles were far from over. The furor over her adoption of British nationality--which took 10 days rather than the two years experienced by most applicants--was partly to blame for the break-up of her parents’ marriage.

Controversy raged again when Budd agreed to a 3,000 meters re-match with Slaney.

She finished a poor fourth, but disappointment about the result was nothing compared to the uproar which followed the revelation that she received $130,000 to run.

“Ridiculous” and “an insult to everyone from the greatest athlete down to the lowest” were some of the calmer reactions as athletes and officials expressed incredulity at the size of the purse for a single, undistinguished appearance.

But Budd did not retreat into her shell as she had done after the Los Angeles fiasco. Instead, she went out a month later and captured the 5,000 meters world best.

She has consolidated this aggressive approach in the heat of the Bloemfontein summer and is so confident of her own ability that Labuschagne decided to remain in South Africa and leave Budd to tackle the European circuit alone this year.

For Dick, the reasons for Budd’s success are simple. “In all the years I’ve been involved in international athletics, I have never seen a man or woman with Zola’s mental or physical toughness,” he said.