Massed Start Is Preferable In The Takahe-Akaroa Race

Press, Volume C, Issue 29623, 20 September 1961, Page 13

Massed Start Is Preferable In The Takahe-Akaroa Race

AS expected from its performances in earlier races, Olympic had a clear margin in gaining fastest time honour in the annual Takahe-Akaroa relay race recently by a margin of nearly Bmin from Christchurch, covering the 48 miles of eight stages in 4hr 17min 17sec Olympic was helped to its winning performance by four of its runners taking fastest times on their laps, the fastest time* on the other four laps being shared by Technical, Christchurch and University runners. While the race was full of Interest for the enthusiast, there must have been many casual spectators, seeing their first harrier race of the year, who were thoroughly confused by the system of staggered starts. This system was introduced last year, when the race was open to the whole of New Zealand, as an experiment and again this year the C

and B grade fields were sent off at intervals before the A grade teams, of whom there were only four in the field of 26.

After the first few laps the runners from the various grades were so thoroughly mingled that some followers of the event had difficulty in keeping pace with the changes and racing positions Open Handicap The results confirmed opinions held before the race that spme teams in the B and C grades could well have been reclassified to a higher grade. This indicates that some attention will need to be given to the rule governing grading for this race. At present clubs graded A must en'er a team in the A section before entering in the B grade, and clubs graded B are required to enter in that grade before putting a team in the C grade. If a system of grading is to be retained then it seems preferable tha' grading should be done by the grading committee after the closing of entries, for many clubs are able to strengthen their teams by drawing on their outstanding juniors.

The “Akaroa” is virtually a road racing championship for harrier clubs, and the system of staggered starts, being little more than a disguised handicap, has robbed the event of a certain amount of its aura. If the

massed start, in vogue until two years ago, had been used this year a clearer picture of the relative merits of the teams would have been apparent during the race. While some teams from lower grades had times better than those in higher grades a scratch start would also have given them the satisfaction of beating those higher grade teams off the same mark.

One of the advantages claimed for the staggered starts is that it gives a more compact order of finishing at Akaroa, enabling the majority of spectators to see runners of the top teams finish. With all teams starting from the same mark this was not possible as those following the weaker teams were so far behind over the latter stages of the race. Grading If, as the administrators have apparently decided, a close order of finishing is desirable, then consideration should be given to dispensing with staggered starts and making the event an open handicap. This should not be difficult to arrange as teams are already handicapped for a sealed handicap is conducted in conjunction wi«h the graded races.