Sharpe wins “King of the Mountains”

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33060, 30 October 1972, Page 19

Sharpe wins “King of the Mountains”

The 26-year-old New Brighton road runner, R. S. Sharpe, ended a rather unrewarding period with a splendid win in the annual “King of the Mountains” race, held over a seven-mile course from the Sign of the Takahe to the summit of Sugarloaf Hill and return on Saturday.

Running with great strength and showing no signs of the illness which has handicapped him in recent months, Sharpe dominated the race from the outset and never looked like being headed.

He crossed the finishing line in the good time of 37min 52sec, more than 2min ahead of his nearest rival. “I used it as a confidence run,” said Sharpe of his attitude to the race. “I was out to win; I hope that it will lead to greater things.” The runner-up was the surprise entry’ in the field. K. Ragg (Uni-versity-Shirleyi, who came through the fields after a relatively slow start and did not take over second position until near the half-way mark. Although he could make no impression on Sharpe, he consolidated his second position on the down hill section to record 39min Msec. FAVOURITE THIRD The favourite for the event, R. Yardley i Olympic). who has won the event twice before and was runner-up last season, was well below his best, finishing third in 40min 47sec. Early in the race he seemed to be in a very sound position about 100 yards behind Sharpe, but when Ragg caught him he was unable to respond to the challenge.

Ragg has only recently returned from America where he

i ran with considerable success. ' Among his achievements there I was a marathon in less than 2hr 20sec, indicating that he could prove a real threat to the country's leading marathon runners later in the season. The race on Saturday was obviously far too short for him and at the end of it he kept running and disappeared down the hill. The event was the first counting towards the Canterbury road running championship. NO ENTHUSIASM At Rugby Park, where most of the inter-club premiership events were being held, the national hammer throwing champion. W. J. Nicholl (Technical), marked his debut for the season with victory in the A grade event with a distance of 178 ft 9in. This was below his best but was a worth-whole effort considering his complete lack of preparation. “I haven’t been able to raise any enthusiasm at all,” he said. A full stone below his best throwing weight of 16st, Nicholl is. nevertheless, hopeful that he will find the incentive to get back into solid training in an

attempt to break the 200 ft barrier.

His chief rival on Saturday was another Technical athlete, B. Harland, whose best of 170 ft 2in was a good start to the season. The Fanners’ “Athlete of the Week” award went to the 17st field athlete. H. J. Ruffell (Technical). for his record shot performance of 51ft 4jin the previous week-end. On Saturday, he was a comfortable winner in the senior discus with a throw of 140 ft 3Jin.

MENE-S SUCCESS The runner-up in this event was the talented national decathlon champion, M Mene (Technical). Mene, who is clearly in the finest form of his career, had another day of outstanding success. He won the A grade 60 metres sprint in 7-lsec. the B grade 200 metres in 23.1sec—which was faster than the run-ner-up in the A grade—and the triple jump as well as taking second places in the high jump and the discus. G. Armishaw (Cashmere) scored a narrow win in the senior high jump but his performance was rather overshadowed by that of P. Crampton (St Bede’s) in the junior event. Crampton cleared 6ft lin in a performance which was one of the highlights of the day. The evergreen Olympic club runner. J. D. Macdonald, showed that he was still more than a match for many of his younger rivals with a fine win in the senior 5000 metres. He shared the pace-making with K. O’Sullivan (University-Shirley), and, earlier in the race, R. Robinson (University-Shirley), but on the final lap he proved too strong and won comfortably in 15min 14.6 sec. O’Sullivan, whose hopes disappeared half a lap from the finish when he found he could not go with Macdonald, recorded 15 min 18.8 sec. Robinson was third. CHAMPION BEATEN K. Silcock (University-Shirley) gained some revenge for his narrow defeat by G Rollo (New Brighton) in the last Canterbury 800 metres championship. He won the 800 metres race on Saturday by a tenth of a second from his club-mate. J. Mote, and Rollo had to be content with a disappointing third. The B grade 800 metres was won by the New Zealand 400 metres hurdles champion, R. McIntosh (Old Boys), making his first appearance, of the season. The reigning Canterbury sprint champion, G. Anderson (Old Boys), comfortably won the senior 200 metres in 22.65ec.

In the women’s sprints, there was the suggestion of stimulating competition to come. Miss L. Trimble (Toe H) won the senior women’s event in 26sec while Miss B. Peterson (Technical) was only a tenth of a second slower in winning the under 17 200 metres

The former Commonwealth Games representative. Mrs S. A. Mene (Technical), started on the comeback trail with a victory in the women’s javelin event. However, her best throw of 116 ft 2|ln was far less than her national record of 163 ft 4in_ She also finished runner-up to Mrs V. L Young (Technical) in the shot with a throw of 36ft Sjin. Mrs Young’s best throw was 42ft 4Un