Nicholl again top hammer thrower; record 195ft 4in

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32542, 27 February 1971, Page 44

Nicholl again top hammer thrower; record 195ft 4in

(From out athletics reporter)

NEW PLYMOUTH.

The burly Christchurch police sergeant, W. J. Nicholl, effortlessly retained his hammer title with a mighty throw of 195 ft 4in on the first day of the New Zealand track and field championships at Inglewood yesterday.

And another Canterbury athlete, B. Harland, tossed the 161 b ball 178 ft on his first attempt to take a well-deserved third place.

For Nicholl, a New Zealand representative at the last Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, the win must have been particularly pleasing. His superiority over the second-placed competitor, D. Gilliland (Auckland), the former national champion, was quite marked, and his winning throw beat the existing national record held by M. Cheater (Auckland) by 3ft 3in. BETTER AT EDINBURGH

However, it was short of Nicholl’s best throw of 196 ft Ilin achieved at Edinburgh. This mark is expected to be ratified as a national record in the near future, having been held up on a minor technicality. Nicholl recently threw the hammer 195 ft sin at Auckland, only to miss a record because his hammer was a few thousandths of a pound under weight. He has now added weight to his hammer and there seems no doubt that his mark set yesterday will be approved as a New Zealand record and will stand until official notification of his Edinburgh performance is received.

Yesterday, he achieved a remarkable degree of consistency, and until the final throw there appeared a very distinct possibility that he would break the 200 ft barrier for the first time. His throws were: 183 ft Ilin, 192 ft 4in, I92ft, 187 ft lin, 192 ft Ilin. SURPRISE RELAY WIN Canterbury’s second gold medal of the day came rather as a surprise, in the women’s 4 x 100 metres relay, a title which the province has not won for 15 years. The team of Misses L. Trimble, B. Poulsen, Mrs A. Horsnell and the 13-year-old Miss B. Peterson made three beautiful changes to win comfortably in 48.2 sec. That this was achieved without the services of the provincial sprint champion, Miss F. Teahen, of Temuka, was quite outstanding. The Canterbury men’s relay team—J. Bailey, T. Cochrane, A. Tweedie and G. Anderson—was just edged out of first place in a photo finish with Hawke’s BayPoverty Bay and Wellington. All three teams recorded the same time, 42.25ec, but the judges decided in favour of Hawke’s Bay. Canterbury was given third place, and had it not been for some rather patchy baton changing, the team would have won handsomely. Anderson ran a particularly fine final leg and all but pulled victory off with a spectacular dive for the tape. TIMES WERE SLOW Conditions during the day were surprisingly good considering the 17in of rain which had fallen on the track in the previous two days. It was rather soft and times were generally not fast, but it showed no signs of breaking up and should be firm for today’s finals. The day was a successful one for Canterbury. Its athletes took three silver and three bronze medals, as well as the two golds. W. Jowett leapt 23ft 7}in on his second attempt, but could not prevent the New Zealand representative, D. S. Norris (Auckland), from winning the long jump title for the ninth time since 1960. Norris cleared 24ft sin on his last attempt. H. J. Ruffell finished run-ner-up in the shot after a great battle with the Auck-

land veteran, R. D. Tait. Ruffell’s best on the day ’was 50ft lin, Tait’s 53ft 4in. Mrs S. A. Mene (nee Flynn) lost her javelin title to her rival, Miss S. Goodsir (Otago). Her best throw was 137 ft Ilin, Miss Goodsir*s 158 ft 4in. Mrs Mene had won the title five times. C. F. Stricke narrowly lost second place in the pole vault on a count-back with G. Townsend (Otago); both cleared 12ft Bin. The winner was D. McGonagle (Northland), who regained a title he last held in 1966. The 10,000 metres, as expected, was won by M. R. Ryan. He led from start to finish, losing contact with the last of his challengers, P. Sumpter (Auckland), with 13 laps to go. He won by more

than 200 metres, in 30min 23.45ec. Sumpter faded badly towards the finish, enabling B. Everitt (Wellington) and J. Atkinson (Auckland) to come through and take the minor placings. Cochrane was the only Canterbury runner to survive the heats of the 100 metres, Anderson and Baily being eliminated. Miss Peterson also failed to qualify in the women’s 100 metres heats, but Misses Teahen arid Poulsen won through to the final. The runner-up in the Canterbury 400 metres championship, S. W. Cowles, was below form in his heat and finished fifth. However, M. Poulsen won his heat of the event and had the fastest time, 49.65ec.