Aust. rider confounds the experts

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33444, 28 January 1974, Page 8

Aust. rider confounds the experts

(By

R. M. CAIRNS)

In a result that confounded the experts, a 31-year-old Australian, anxiously awaiting the birth of his first child, won the first cycling gold medal of the 1974 Commonwealth Games on Saturday evening.

Dick Paris, unkindly described as a “brokendown road rider” by one cynic, became the kilometre time trial champion on the predictably wind-swept Denton Park track.

And, more unusually, it was his first gold medal of any significance since he won the same event in the Australian championships in 1963.

Many oddities It was a peculiar result, a very odd championship. The Australian who is a strong challenger for the sprint title. John Nicholson, won the silver medal, and England’s top pursuiter, lan Hallam, took the bronze by o.ol6sec from Rene Heyde (New Zealand), who rode his fastest time by o.7sec. And languishing in a disappointing sixth place was the outright favourite, Jacob Schriek, of New Zealand, who held the gold medal most predicted for him until the final, tortuous 200 metres. Paris claims the kilometre is really his event, and indeed when he rode at the Tokyo Olympics, 10 long years ago, it was over this distance.

Selectors’ wisdom But he went to Edinburgh as a road rider, and when he finished second on the road in the Australian championships, it seemed his best chance of selection was in the Games’ longest race again. But Paris, for all that he is still a mighty road sprinter, is no hill-climber, and the Australian selectors, in a stroke of wisdom bom perhaps of desperation at the defection to professionalism

of Danny Clark, placed Pans in the kilometre. Paris was as steady as a rock in his kilometre ride of Imin 11.85 sec. With the notable exception of Xavier Miranda, the Jamaican who blew dramatically with a final 200 metres of nearly 17sec Paris was as fast as anyone for the whole ride, until Schriek set out.

Second faster But when Schriek also blew, very badly, with a finishing 200 metres of 15.81 sec and a time as unbelievably bad as Imin 12.81 sec, Paris came home nearly a second faster. His sprinter’s speed and roadman’s strength combined to give Paris victory. He was not as fast as Nicholson over the first four sections of 200 [metres each; he did not finish as powerfully as Hallam, who had a final 400 metres of 28.285ec. For that portion, Paris did 28.785ec and Heyde, the next best, 28.895ec. But Paris, in the style of so many fine kilometre riders, did his final 200 metres better than any except Hallam, and that crucial last furlong is the true test of the kilometre champion.

Missing rider When all is said and done, however, the times were far from impressive, and it was a frustrated cry that echoed the thoughts of most New Zealanders after Schriek’s failure—" Bring out Harry Kent.” ! Hindsight takes no part in the arguments about the man who should have been defending his Games title for New Zealand; it is difficult to imagine Kent not being capable of riding in the region of Imin 11 sec, even on this hard night.