HARRIERS Olympic Wins All Three Grades Of Akaroa Relay

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31162, 12 September 1966, Page 7

HARRIERS Olympic Wins All Three Grades Of Akaroa Relay

Olympic harriers won all three grades of the annual I akahe-Akaroa road running relay on Saturday—the first time that any club has achieved this in one season.

Olympic’s time of 4hr 19min 56sec in the A grade of the 48}mile classic was one of the best hy a Canterbury club. The race record is 4:11:56, set by Lynndale (Auckland) in 1960.

Preliminary indications are that only one of the eight lap records was broken. This honour was claimed by the Canterbury mile and threemile champion, B. R. E. Jones, but the performance is subject to confirmation by calculation of individual times from the master time boards for each of the 240 runners. Jones was unofficially timed at 25min 31sec on the 4.3 mile uphill fifth lap slog to Hili Top. This sliced 31sec off the record set by P. Graham (Otago University), when the race was open to all New Zealand clubs last year. Bad Conditions Conditions were the worst for several years. The rain held off until almost the end of the race, but early lap runners had to contend with a biting wind as they ran through hills with scatterings of snow on the tops. However, in the long fifth flat lap. leading alongside Lake For syth and through Little River to Cooptown, the runners swelter ed through their long flat lap In the shelter of the hills. Tailenders on the final lap had to contend with driving rain, that sent officials and spectators huddling into the grandstand at the Akaroa domain.

Misfortune struck some clubs before the start. Perhaps the most harshly affected in the A division was Greymouth, winner in the previous two years. Its first lap runner. M. Riley, did not arrive. With a re-ar ranged tean» Greymouth did surprisingly well to pull up to third after being 22nd In the over all field at the end of the first lap.

Christchurch had its share of bad luck, too, when Army duties prevented one of its /key men. M. Smith, from being available.

St. Martins and University were other A grade clubs affected. while in the lower grades some of the teams were virtually complete replacements. The combined A and B grade fields gave C grade teams 30 minutes’ start but this was not enough to stop the powerful A

grade combinations from reach- • ing the front. Six A teams had ■ pushed past the winning Olym pic C grade team before Akaroa. while the winning Olympic B team was tenth in the over-all combined field. A team representing the Canterbury Veterans’ Association competed in the race officially, in distinctive new uniforms, for the first time This team of over--40 runners, with at least three of them more than 50, and including C. C. Gordon who is *O. was twenty-ninth in the field of 35 for eighth in the C grade field of 11 teams. Results.— A Grade.—Olympic A (J. D Macdonald. R. J. Stevens. J jSheddan, G. Clarke, T. Preece. P. Brown, N. Reid, B Curie), 4:19:56. 1; Christchurch A IB Dyer, K. E. Williams. R. F Perry. N. Matson, W. R. Green. M. Poulton, A. Dyer, W. K. Ken nedy), 4:20:39. 2: Greymouth (C Creagh. C. McDonnell, M. Hall. W. O’Connor, D. C. McKenzie, H I Van Looy. J. Taylor, E. M. Gray),

4:24:40, 3. University A. 4:25:47. 4: Technical A. 4:28:45, 5; St. Martins A, 4:30:15, 6. B Grade. —Olympic B 18. Lewis, T. McGillivray, N. Sidaway. G. T. Wilson. W. Hobbs. B. Wernham, T. Cattermole, R. Stewart). 4:40:01, 1; Timaru <G. Cox. A. Watson, A Dowling, T Leonard, T. Kane, R. Ramsay, N. Smith, P. Gray), 4:40:25, 2: Ti maru Presbyterian (G. Shears, K. Dean, R. McMillan, A. Henderson, T. Dean, T. Myers, G. Weir, L. Hill), 4:43:14, 3; Technical B, 4:44:40, 4: Christchurch B, 4:48:51, 5; Baptist, 4:52:14, 6. C Grade. —Olympic C IS. L: Jelley, G. Edwards, D. Bates, P. Hutchinson, G. Hunt. M, Brears, D. Chadderton, R. Merrifield), 5:02:04, 1; University C IP. Dav ison, R. Creed, D. Douglas, J Smart, M. Craighead, W. Busch, P. Harrison). 5:11:24, 2: Christ church iD. Whittle, T. Bain, R. Kennedy. A. Brownie. M. Cole, C. Denries, C. Roberts. R. Fleming), 5:11:30, 3; Technical C, 5:21:03, 4; Marist C, 5:27:38, 5: Methodist C. 5:33:33. «.