"People would ask me, 'are you from Tasmania?' because they had never heard of Tanzania," Bayi told the BBC.

"I had to teach some people about geography."

He taught them about running, too, by winning Tanzania's first Commonwealth Games gold medal in any sport in sensational style.

Bayi ran from the front and broke the American Jim Ryun's 1500 metres world record by nearly a second.

"Perhaps the most devastating piece of front-running by any athlete in a middle-distance race," said the British television commentator David Coleman.

But Coleman was underdoing it, according to the world's first sub-four-minute miler Roger Bannister, who said: "That was the greatest run I have ever seen."

It was the last time a world record was broken on the track at the Commonwealth Games and was arguably more impressive than Bannister's 1954 victory over John Landy, which would therefore make it the all-time top achievement in athletics in the near-100-year history of the Games.

Bayi returned to a hero's welcome and continued to serve in the army and as a sport leader.

He won many more races but was denied a chance at Olympic gold in 1976 because of a boycott by African nations.

He has been secretary general of Tanzania's National Olympic Committee for many years, and with his late wife set up the Filbert Bayi Foundation to build schools, develop athletic talent and provide education for disadvantaged children.

Bayi's famous victory came on the same day in February 1974 when Ronnie Biggs - who took part in the Great Train Robbery in Britain in 1963 and was one of the world's most wanted criminals after years on the run - was arrested in Brazil.

Biggs was on the front page of newspapers and Bayi on the back, all over the Commonwealth.

"I'm very proud of the gold medal and the record, and my country is proud of me," Bayi said.

"When I stood on the podium and heard my anthem, my eyes were glistening."

Bayi had been running well in the build-up to the Christchurch Games but was, in his own view, "an underdog".

The favourite was local hero John Walker, who broke the mile world record in 1975 and won Olympic 1500m gold in Montreal in 1976 in Bayi's absence.

Other strong medal contenders were the Kenyans Ben Jipcho and Mike Boit, and another New Zealander, Rod Dixon.

Bayi beat Ryun's world record by 0.9sec in 3min 32.2sec, ahead of Walker who was also inside Ryun's record time.

Third-placed Jipcho ran the fourth fastest 1500m at that time, and Britain's Brendan Foster was five-and-a-half seconds back in seventh place but still broke the British record. 

"It was an amazing race - one of the greatest in history," said Foster.

Not until 1979 did Foster's fellow Briton Seb Coe better Bayi's record.

Looking back at the race, Bayi said: "When I arrived in New Zealand nobody took much notice."

He had led from the front in winning the All-African Games title in Lagos, Nigeria in 1973.

"I felt I would do the same as a front-runner in New Zealand," he said.

"If I ran the way I wanted to they were never going to catch me.

"People thought they would get me in the final 200 metres.

"I was taking it easy, and when John was coming close to me I accelerated in the last 100 metres.

"I jumped up when I saw 'world record' flashing up on the board."

Bayi broke the mile world record in 1975 and would have been a very strong contender in Montreal but for the boycott.

In the Moscow 1980 Olympic Games, when he was 27, Bayi won a silver in the steeplechase.