The South Island's oldest harrier

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32661, 17 July 1971, Page 14

The South Island's oldest harrier

The South Island’s oldest registered harrier club runner, George Farquharson, aged 67, made his comeback to athletics at the age of 56. Now he looks (and feels) younger than he did 10 years ago and finds he can not only outrun most .men half his age but he can out work them as well. A regular competitor in cross-country and road

races for 10 years, he trains on average about six miles every night after working all day in a wool store. He says his harrier training makes his job of trundling bales of wool on a barrow seem easy. When most of his mates end the working day tired and ready to slump into slippers and fireside chairs he is fresh and ready to train on the road before tea. “The fitter I manage to get for running the easier I find the job on the barrow,” said' Mr Farquharson. “The job. does not

tire me, although I did not take it on until I retired from the railways three years ago.” Mr Farquharson formerly represented Scotland in the European championships and on settling in Otago ran for his province against such redoubtable op- . ponents as Savidan and Randolph Rose. He was placed eighth in the 1927 New Zealand cross country 1 championships and soon after he retired. Thirty years afterwards he decided to make a comeback, partly because , of the interest taken in

athletics by his son, Athol, who became a capable track three miler. Both joined the Leith Club in Dunedin. Farquharson said lie found the training hard at first but the results proved well worthwhile. He returned to the same weight he was when in top class competition in his youth and for some years was quite able to foot it with the tail enders in most cross country events. He ran in this year’s Edmund cup and although he was last he was by no means disgraced and finished strongly. “I find the most encouraging thing is the quick way I recover after a run,” he said. “I may feel pretty pooped during the run out I get right practically straight away afterwards. It sometimes makes me think I haven’t run the race hard enough.”

He says he has slowed down a bit since he passed the age of 60 but he recently ran three miles in 181 minutes while taking part in a club run for Leith Harriers in Dunedin. His son, Athol, also recently made a comeback after being out of athletics for three years while serving in the merchant navy. Recently he was a guest of the Christchurch Harrier Club of which his son is now a member. He had no trouble in handling a 12-mile club run from Clifton to the Lighthouse and back and kept up with most of his companions.. His next race will be the veterans national cross country event which will be held this year in conjunction with the national championships at Dunedin on August 14.