Olympic A Continues Cross-Country Success

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31991, 19 May 1969, Page 7

Olympic A Continues Cross-Country Success

Olympic A continued its dominance of the Canterbury crosscountry inter-club events by gaining fastest time in the third event of the season, the 22-mile Marist Port Hills relay in a race record time of Ihr 53min 4sec.

Its time broke the old record set by the same club in 1964 of Ihr 55min 55sec.

A strong University A team gained second fastest time and Greymouth, after a splendid beginning to lead after two laps, gained third fastest time. The first team to finish was Rover Scouts, which started off a handicap of 19 minutes. Its net time was 2hr 19min 56sec. University was second to finish and New Brighton B third. The race was run in five laps from Fisher Avenue in Beckenham, along Colombo Street, up Dyers Pass Road to the Summit Road, down to Sumner and Redcliffs, and round the contour of the hills to the start-finish point in Fisher Avenue. Thirty-seven teams took part In the race which was run on a handicap. Greymouth and Olympic A, oft the back mark, gave 43 minutes start to the first team away, Christchurch E. Although assured at the ’fastest time before the last lap of 5.5 miles, Olympic A was given a record burst by J. D. Macdonald who covered the final lap in 27mln 23sec, three seconds inside the record set by his twin brother, J. K. Macdonald, in IMI.

J. D. Macdonald briefly had the distinction of holding two lap records—the fourth, set In 1988, and the fifth, at the same time, but University A's final runner, R. Robinson, who had only two days before recovered from influenza, came in three minutes later and broke the same record by a further second. Robinson’s time was 27mln 22sec. They were the only two runners to break lap records. University A, originally running of the 33min mark, was rehandicapped at 41min after the team was changed to include A. Hassell (the University of Otago distance champion), and B. Taylor. a prominent Canterbury miler. Hassall began the race for University A and although down four seconds on E. Gray (Greymouth) as he passed Victoria Park, picked up those seconds anfi gained fastest time for the first lap with 24min 41sec. Gray, who had started off the back mark with A. Bayard (Olympic A), broke away from Bayard on the steep Dyers Pass Road incline and opened up a gap of 20 yards. However, Bayard grimly hung on and the gap only gradually become bigger. Hassell, however, moved up through the field and in-

creased his pace as his lap progressed. W. K. Kennedy, the recordholder for the first lap with\a time of 24m in lOsec set in 1968, improved his team four places in the first lap and gained third fastest lap, time.

In the second lap, the narrow lead which University had established over Greymduth was cat back by D. C. McKenzie (Greymouth) and he gained fastest time for the second leg and still held off the Olympic A challenge by G. Clarke. However, in the third lap, Greymouth lost its lead when C. Frethey (Olympic A) passed B. Lewis (Greymouth) on the downhill third lap from the Summit Road to Redcliffs. Olympic got a lead of 57 seconds and gradually increased it in the last lap. Robinson's fine last lap run brought University into second fastest time. Results were:— Senior Race.—Handicap: Rover Scouts (19min), 2:29:56, 1; University B (19imin), 2:32:24, 2; New Brighton B (9imin), 2:33:13, 3; Presbyterian Timaru (21min), 2:34:02, 4: ToC H (22min), 2:34:32, 5. Olympic A was twelfth across the line. Fastest Times.—Olympic A, 1:53:04 (record). 1; University A, 1:56:09, 2; Greymouth, 1:58:16, 3. Fastest Laps.—F|rst lap: A. Hassall (University A), 24:41. Second lap: D. C. McKenzie (Greymouth3,' 26:42. Third lap: C. Frethey 18:37. Fourth lap: N. Reid (Olympic A) 15:18. Fifth lap: R. Robinson 27:22 (record). Results of other races, run over two miles and a quarter, were: Junior Colt Team Race.—Ashburton 1, New Brighton 2, Olympic 3. Senior Women.—C. Russell (Christchurch Ladies), 14:25, 1; D. Dixey (Christchurch Ladies), 14:49, 2; A. Kennedy (Christchurch Ladies), 15:27, 3. Junior Women.—L. Smith (New Brighton), 15:47, 1; H. Sexton (New Brighton), 15:57, 2: L. Mathews (Christchurch Ladies), 18:37, 3. Girls Under 14.—E. Hibbert (Christchurch Ladies), 16:7, 1; J. Beale (New Brighton), 17:3, 2; J. Lynch (Marist), 17:8, 3. Senior Colts.—lndividual: M. Dillon (Christchurch), 12:11, 1: I. McGregor (Christchurch) 12:15, 2: D. Brostow (Cashmere, 12:18, 3. Teams.—Christchurch 1, Cashmere 2, Ashburton 3.