Top athletes will visit Australia

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32450, 10 November 1970, Page 34

Top athletes will visit Australia

(By out athletics reporter) , The 20-year-old Canterbury 400 metres track champion, S. W. Cowles, and the prominent sprinter, M. Poulsen, plan to compete in Australia after Christmas.

Both athletes, who are members of the University club, will be away for an indefinite period, but hope to be back in time for the start of the Canterbury championships on February 6. They have been asked to bring back documented evidence of their performances in Australia by the convener of the Canterbury selection panel (Mr T. I. Crossen). “They will have to do this if they want to be considered for the Canterbury team to compete in the New Zealand championships,” Mr Crossen said yesterday. Poulsen, who finished last season on an exceptionally high note with a fine victory in the Commonwealth Games trial 400 metres event at Lancaster Park, promised to make a considerable impact over this distance this 'Season. LAST SEASON Among those who followed him to the tape we. ■> Cowles, K. Kellow (Waikato), who was runner-up in the last national championship, and G. Atchison (Auckland)—the 1969 New Zealand champion. However, university work has occupied much of his time and he has been unable to prepare himself quite as well as previously for sprinting. He has now finished the

thesis for his M.A. in geography, and for the last four weeks had been training twice a day. Cowles has not been able to fit in an extensive winter build-up either, but is hopeful of reaching good form later in the season. Last season—his first in senior ranks—he provided one of the major surprises of the domestic season by defeating his former club-mate, A. W T.weedie (Old Boys’) in the 400 metres championship.