WIN LAST SATURDAY... Watson poised to enjoy a notable harrier season

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33235, 26 May 1973, Page 4

WIN LAST SATURDAY... Watson poised to enjoy a notable harrier season

The loss of a number of gold fillings from his teeth while playing Rugby was a major factor in Canterbury’s very promising crosscountry and track runner, P. Watson, turning his attention to athletics.

He was originally a keen footballer as a schoolboy, “but I kept losing gold out of my teeth—when I came to Christchurch from the North Island and went to Shirley Intermediate, my father told me I could join a harrier club,” said Watson.

A significant feature of Watson’s progress has been his refusal to overload his racing and training programme. It is as if he had heard the advice of the renowned New Zealand allrounder, W. D. Baillie, who said that “the longer a runner takes to build up to his persona) best, the better that best is likely to be.” Watson, 21, was born, in Christchurch. However, he had the first early hint of his ability as a runner when he was at primary school near Hamilton.

“I decided to try myself out against some of the boys who were doing some training out in the bush. They were skiting about it, so I decided to see how good they were.” The race was over about, two miles and Watson won. He said that he had not done any competitive running until then and had been playing Rugby. “1 joined the Methodist club as soon as I went to Shirley Boys’ High School. I did not do very much training then, but I did have some success at school. I won the under-14 cross-country title and then the junior championship,” Watson said.

The New Brighton runner, B. Rollo—then a school mate of Watson’s — beat

him for the intermediate championship. But in his final year at school, Watson

headed Rollo in the senior cross-country title race and he has kept his record against Rollo intact since then. “I was still not doing that, much training, but the Methodist runner, Peter Betts, took over my coaching and I won the Canterbury colts championship and represented Canterbury at Rotorua in 1968,” Watson said. In his first year as a junior, Watson finished second to D. Patchett in the provincial cross-country event. It was about then that the former Canterbury marathon title-holder, N. Reid (Olympic), began guiding Watson.

In 1970, as his coach judiciously increased his training programme, he beat Otago’s D. O’Sullivan to win the New Zealand junior 5000 metres track championship. He followed this up next winter by winning the New Zealand junior crosscountry race. Then, having just become a senior competitor, Watson was selected for the national crosscountry trials at Trentham. “I was running ninth when I collapsed about 30 yards .from the tape,” he said.

Watson returned to the track the following summer and gave further proof of promise in the 5000 metres event when he was the run-ner-up to K. Hamilton in the Canterbury championship. His next test was the national 5000 metres race at Inglewood, and he was sixth.

However, Watson was not prominent in the 197] New Zealand cross-country event. “1 concluded that I needed a lay-off and I spent some months just jogging about 10 miles each week.”

The remedy was a success, for Watson returned for his best season, running a close second to E. M. Gray in the Canterbury championship in spite of losing a shoe at a critical stage of the race. A stomach

complaint hindered him at the national contest and he was a modest nineteenth.

Watson is employed by the Government Tourist and Publicity Department and in the period before the next national cross-country trials he was on duty in the North Island. Under the pressure of a rushed training build up. he injured an ankle ligament. He thinks the enforced rest from training probably did him a lot of good and he did not run on the track. Last Saturday Watson returned better than ever and easily won the Jane Patterson senior crosscountry race for the third consecutive season.

“1 think 1 have got much stronger now and 1 have in mind the New Zealand cross-country championship later this year, and then the 10,000 metres at the Commonwealth Games,” he said. He attributed much of his success to Reid — “I do not think he has ever overtrained me. He uses his head, he is a very good coach.”

Now Watson, looking forward to his best crosscountry season, is running about 85 miles a week. Like most successful young athletes he trains twice each day — a five-mile run at lunch time and a longer or more strenuous run after work.