At the unofficial world championship at 100 kilometers, in the Swiss city of Biel on 12/13. in June 1970, among the 1.804 ultra-marathon runners, for the first time there was a Balkan national - Mileta Božović from Nikšić, who was within reach of great success.
Even though his sneakers were torn, even though the road sign turned him in the wrong direction so he had to go back for several kilometers, even though he had a torn muscle, Božović managed to run 100 kilometers in 8:11:39 hours, crossing the finish line in ninth and become the moral winner of the race.
Jubilee, five decades since the aforementioned ultramarathon, but also since the first 100-kilometer race organized in Yugoslavia, but also in the Balkans, Vidrovan-Virpazar, which Božović ran in 7 hours and 29 minutes, which was the second time in world until then, he celebrated with his friends on the hotel terrace over tea and coffee.
Before the race, I bent down to tie my sneakers that were torn and when I looked up and saw the flagpole with the Yugoslav flag on it, I suddenly became aware that I was defending the colors of that flag. I felt like pulling my hair out of my head because only then did I become aware of my responsibility... Then I did not swear, but cursed myself if I hung the flag, because I was aware that the relations of the capitalist countries towards Yugoslavia were not favorable at that time"
Even when he was spreading the glory of Yugoslavia and Montenegro, Božović was not used to being remembered in the country. And he doesn't regret it, because even though experts considered him a sports and medical phenomenon due to his constitution and the biggest sports heart in the world, even though he ran around the globe five times and broke the stereotype of lazy Montenegrins because he ran to work, he always talks about himself. thought of as an athlete who ran for the people and whose only desire was to popularize the marathon.
"When I talk about the race in Bil, I must first mention the married couple from Slovenia, Anđela and Franjo Rolih, wonderful people who welcomed me as a first-born and with whom I was in contact until their death. The race started on June 12 at 22 p.m. Before the race, I bent down to tie my sneakers that were torn and when I looked up and saw the flagpole with the Yugoslav flag on it, I suddenly became aware that I was defending the colors of that flag. I felt like pulling my hair out of my head because it was only then that I became aware of the responsibility. At that time I was the only member of the athletics club. I was the club, the association, and everything. At that time I did not swear, but cursed myself if I hung the flag, because I was aware that the relations of the capitalist countries towards Yugoslavia were not favorable at that time", the eighty-two-year-old Božović tells "Vijesti" while evoking the memory of the race of his life.
They explained to him that those who claim first place go to the "rope" and he decided that he would be one of those who fight for a medal.
"The start was as good as you could wish for. I led the race. Four marathon runners followed me for five to six kilometers. They thought I was like many people - I run for a while to take pictures and then give up. It was explained to me that they have control points where I have to register the passage, but also that there will be a 'flying' control when I have to sign on paper. At one point, a car stopped next to me and a woman from it handed me a white paper. The car slowly moved forward, and I, thinking it was a 'flying' control, put on the 'gas' and chase after them because I didn't sign. When they stopped I asked them for a pen. The woman laughed and explained to me that I should wipe the sweat, and I only then saw that it was a tissue for refreshment".
At the 70th kilometer there was a turning station, and there on the Square someone is playing a Montenegrin round. It was Dragomir Bukilić from Nikšić who, when he heard that his compatriot was competing, came from the other side of Switzerland.
"He suggested that he get a rental car and be my escort, but I didn't let him. He spent enough for me. He told me that he heard on the radio that I was 4,5 kilometers ahead of everyone, and I felt better than when I started. I told him: 'Wait for me at the finish line'. Wait for the world record holder because no one can beat me without wings'. After two kilometers I come across a crossroads. Someone turned the arrow in the wrong direction and after three kilometers I see that there is no road and I realize that it is not the right path. I go back and on the way back I rupture a muscle. I was aware that as soon as I got cold I wouldn't be able to run anymore and that would be the end of it. I rushed and managed to catch up with the four who had overtaken me. They ran side by side. The road was not wide and they did not allow me to pass, even though I said loudly several times - 'path', would they not move. Somehow I managed to slip between them and dictate the pace they accepted. Little by little they gave up on following me. The last one, before giving up, extended his hand to congratulate me. In the end, he won and broke the world record."
When he reached the next intersection, he decided to wait for the four competitors, fearing that someone had turned the arrow in the wrong direction again. As he waited, the muscle cooled and the leg began to swell.
"Together we reached the 82nd kilometer. I couldn't even walk anymore, let alone run. They thought I was tacticizing, but when they saw that I really couldn't, they passed me and continued towards the finish line. I managed to walk 18 kilometers with a limp. It was real torture, but I didn't want to give up. I turn behind me, there is no one, suddenly a vehicle approaches, runners jump out of it and pass by me. When I arrived, I also complained about turning the arrows and jumping out of the car, but no one did anything about it. For the German who won, I was only sure that he ran fairly. When I finished the race, my ankle was so swollen it was bigger than my knee. I couldn't bend my leg. When I came to Rolih's in the evening, I couldn't put my pajamas on over the swelling, so Angela cut up to the knees so that I could put them on. Even though I came ninth, everyone thought I was the best. Germans, Englishmen, even Americans filmed me. Only ours are not".
The following year, he ran again in Bila and in a competition of more than 2.000 runners, he reached the finish line sixth.
People recognized him while he was walking around the city, and the organizer of the race apologized to him because, as he says, "they checked and saw that the Yugoslav was damaged."
A giant with the biggest sports heart
As a fourteen-year-old, Mileta started to do athletics and until 1964 he ran mainly on medium tracks.
Then the doctors concluded that he is an athlete with the biggest heart in the world and that only long distances and marathons suit him.
"Because of my weight, and I was over 90 kilograms, they said I couldn't run long distances, so I ran 800 meters in 'Partizan'. I trained like few others, but I achieved average results. When they found out that I have the biggest sports heart in the world, 1.850 cm3, the coach told me that I am for long, not short distances, and that this is what the heart has determined. That was in 1964, and I was already 26 years old," says the man who ran 1967 kilometers at the individual championship of Yugoslavia in Osijek in 42 and took second place, which represents, as he says, the best result of any Montenegrin marathon runner. achieved to date.
"Mileto was known by all the people of Nikšić, and Montenegro also got to know him. He was known for coming to work at Željezar from Vidrovan running, never being late for work, never taking sick leave. I've been friends with him since 1966 and followed him at every race where possible. We became so close and talked together that it seemed to me that if Mileta was going somewhere and I wasn't with him, something was missing," says doctor Radovan Raco Mijanović.
He admits that he admired Mileta's endurance, but also the fact that he was outside all medical norms for someone running a supermarathon.
"His anthropometry did not correspond to Mileta being able to run long distances. The marathon runners were shorter, thinner, like Abeba Bikila, the world champion, who weighed 50 kilograms, and Milet 90. He also had a foot size 47, which is more suitable for swimming than for running. When he appeared among the supermarathoners, he was like a giant. I could recognize him wherever I looked. Mileta was outside all possible medical norms for someone running a supermarathon. He was beyond the norm when it came to the size of his heart. When I received his findings, I could not come to my senses that the cardiac shadow on the X-ray was so large, that the cardiac mass was so large and that the minute volume, the amount of blood that it could eject from the heart, was something that at that time was not no one could understand. Rarely any of the athletes at that time was ready, or could be ready like Mileta", says Mijanović.
Bill for Mileta, but spending without Mileta
"At that time, we considered that Mileta also needed material assistance. Some respectable people from Nikšić, respectable businessmen, opened a giro account to help Mileta. We did all the races, and we never took a single dinar from that account. "God only knows what happened to that account and money, but we managed, and we were helped by people who met us in the world, like the family in Bil," says Mijanović.
From Tjentište to Virpazar with an encounter with a bear
Božović marked every important date with a race of 50 to 250 kilometers, because his goal was to promote the marathon and attract as many young people as possible to do sports. That he succeeded in this is evidenced by the letters of those who wanted to be Mileta Božović and who started running because of him.
The longest and most demanding marathon was from Tjentište to Virpazar, which he ran on July 13, 1969. Taking into account the unforeseen events on the path through the Sutjeska canyon when he met a bear, he ran the 250-kilometer long section in 19 hours.
He still keeps the sneakers in which he ran that day as a souvenir.
He says he was famous in the mountains because in the winter, in the snow, whether the weather was nice or not, he ran only in shorts.
"I never got a cold back then, nor did I have rheumatism or arthritis," says the marathoner who ended his sports career in 1977, and definitely hung up his sneakers seven years later.
He says that he was the only athlete who participated in the opening of the mausoleum on Lovćen, and after the ceremonial closing of the Olympic Games in Sarajevo and the performance of Lepa Brena, a half-hour show about him was shown by Rajko Banović, which won first prize at the Yugoslav level.
Božović didn't just run - he donated blood more than 80 times, he was a member of PSD "Javorak" and the Mountain Rescue Service, he participated in labor actions three times from where he returned with striking marks, and he worked as a manager in the Construction Workshop of Željezara, where he earned pension, but also the Order of Labor with a golden wreath.
He gave his entire property in Miločani to refugees from Bosnia and Kosovo without compensation, and later to poor families.
Bonus video:
