4000m pursuit battle... HALLAM DISREGARDS WIND TO WIN GOLD

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33446, 30 January 1974, Page 8

4000m pursuit battle... HALLAM DISREGARDS WIND TO WIN GOLD

By

R. M. CAIRNS)

ks lan Hallam (England) was winning his second Games cycling* gold medal, and thus emulating his famed countryman, Norman Shiel, New Zealand’s stocks slumped even lower at Denton Park last evening.

I lallam heal Willi Moore in the 4(M)oni individual pursuit for the gold medal that had been predicted for him. hut Blair Stockwell, the New Zealand champion, the fastest qualifier, and his home town’s hope for a silver medal, was heatcn for the bronze by the Australian 18-year-old. Gary Sutton.

The Stockwell-Sutton clash: was more a championship; final than that between Hal-; lam and Moore. Hallam, who reckoned smin lOsec would be good enough to win, saw both Sutton and Stockwell, better that time in their ride! for third. In consequence he started off at a pace that would give him a time under five minutes when the strong easterly wind meant that auch a finish was not possible. Perhaps it was just that

i! Hallam was emphasising his , I superiority over his perennial rival and runner-up, because by 2000 metres, half ',the distance, he was starting I to clock 31 sec laps. But this gave him a time of smin 1,5.465ec in the •event, a time 'which only Hallam himself ; i has bettered on this track. Ironically, the swirling winds peculiar to Denton ; Park which Stockwell knows all about proved to be his beating. He started and finished at the back straight ; which meant that he had the

i wind behind him at the finish. But that same wind proved more to Sutton’s advantage as he had a whole straight with it at his back; he had only to battle into it ,for the'final 40 metres. As in his semi-final the previous evening, Stockwell was ahead, by a shade over a second, with 200 metres to ride but. lost to the powerful young Australian by o.3sec. “I can’t remember when I . last enjoyed cycling,” said • Hallam afterwards. ‘‘lt’s all been hard work.” Without convincing himself, Hallam indicated that he could be nearing the end of a distinguished career, although he is only 24.

The honour of winning the first gold medal on the track for England went! to 24-year-old Alan Pascoe in the 400 metres hurdles. In spite of a recent hip injury, he recorded 48.8 sec — a new Commonwealth Games and New Zealand record. Only six times previously ini the world has the event been run faster. 1 Pascoe's time was an im-‘ provement of I.3sec onj his pre-Games best performance, and he said yesterday that he had been training in the cold by himself and had not seen his coach since the end of the English summer season because of the fuel crisis. “At times, when I was training in; the cold, I wondered

i “I have achieved almost everything I set out to,” he said. “Obviously I would still like to win a world team title, but I am constantly under • pressure to open another practice”—he is a qualified dentist—“and this would have an obvious effect on my cycling.” Of the final, Hallam said he expected to be 4sec ahead after a kilometre. “Willi I Moore could have upset me if I he had started fast, but he I has done that before and it has never worked.” Hallam also said it was “harder to- • night than any of the rides ■ at Edinburgh.” Sutton said, flatly: “I’ll he there in four years time.”

whether it was all worth, while. I am very pleased i to have won with this; hackground.” The runner-up was Bruce Field, from Australia, in! 49.35ec. His performance. was a surprise. Ranked; only tenth in the Commonwealth behind Roger; Johnston, of New Zea-j land, who failed to qual-j ify, Field had at one; stage seemed a possible; winner. He had to break off yesterday from competing in the long jump to run in the hurdles, and could hardly have been prepared mentally. To defeat the third-ranked runner in the Commonwealth, William Koskei, of Kenya, was a considerable achievement. Koskei recorded the same time as Field.