CONTENDER FOR N.S.W. TEAM Brother’s Successes Inspire N.Z. Girl

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32018, 19 June 1969, Page 20

CONTENDER FOR N.S.W. TEAM Brother’s Successes Inspire N.Z. Girl

(N.Z.P.A. Staff Correspondent) SYDNEY. A 29-year-old New Zealand girl, spurred on by the Olympic and Commonwealth Games successes of her “little brother,” is making a name for herself in women’s cross-country races in Sydney.

She is Miss Anne Ryan, whose brother, M. R. Ryan, of Tokoroa, won the bronze medals in the Commonwealth (Jamaica, 1966) and Olympic (Mexico City, 1968) .marathon championships.

Two years older than her brother, Miss Ryan has scored a first and two seconds in her last four open 3000-metre events against the best women cross - country runners in Sydney. Last Saturday, for the second successive week, she was edged into second place, but among those who finished behind the New Zealand girl was Cheryl Peasley, Australia’s leading women's 1500 metres athlete. Miss Ryan, has been running for less than three years. She took up the sport after seeing her brother become so successful. “But I’ve always wished I could run,” she says. “One hundred yards jogging was the best I could do when I started, but I finished up running 10 miles a day.” _ Miss Ryan joined the Tokoroa club and later ran competitively in cross-country events. She represented Waikato in the national Chamnonships in 1967 and again ast year when she ran tenth. Miss Ryan arrived in Australia late last year after her fiance, a Christchurch accountant, moved to Sydney. She joined the Northern Suburbs club and began running 800 and 1500 metres events, the first time she had tried the shorter distances.

She surprised herself with a personal best of smin 9sec for the 1500 metres during the season and running fourth in the New South Wales championship. “Running on the track helped me enormously," she says. "It gave me speed, an essential ingredient for cross-country races.” Now Miss Ryan is set on representing New South Wales at the national crosscountry championships in Melbourne In August At this stage she looks certain to be selected. She trains night and morning, six days a week, and does most of her running on

city streets because of the leek of suitable cross-country courses. She will fly home to New Zealand tomorrow for a holiday—but a holiday from work, not from running. She will compete for her old club while she is in Tokoroa.