Pressure off Mclntosh

Press, 8 December 1976, Page 30

Pressure off Mclntosh

The New Zealand 800 metres champion, Rendell Mclntosh (High School Old Boys), was disappointed with his fifth placing in the invitation race over this distance at Queen Elizabeth II Park last Saturday. But he is by no means discouraged.

“It has taken a lot of pressure off me,” he said yesterday. “I have always run better as (he underdog rather than as the favourite.”

Mclntosh thought he would run the race in about Imin slsec at this stage of his preparation. Instead, he ran the distance in Imin 54.65ec — far slower than what he is capable of.

He draws considerable comfort from the memory of his early season performances last season. He was consistently beaten and his first major win of the season was in the New Zealand chaninionship at Auckland’s Mount Smart track. “It is exactly the wav it was last year,” he said.

Mclntosh supports the theory that it takes four years to build up to a climax in any athletic event and he has got his sights set on the Edmonton Commonwealth Games in 1978. He is inclined to believe that what happens in years outside Commonwealth and Olympic Games does not matter a great deal. Nevertheless, he now intends to start racing more often. He has offered his services as a 1000 metres pace man for the 4min mile attempt by Brian Rhodes (UniversityShirlev) on Saturday. His next important outing on the track will be in the 4 x 800 metres relay at Queen Elizabeth IT Park in the Pat Boot memorial meeting the Saturday after next. “This should bring even body out.”

If he wins selection for the next Commonwealth Games, he will have achieved something few other athletes will have accomplished. When he ran for New Zealand in the Christchurch Commonwealth Games, it was as a 400 metres hurdler. He won the New Zealand championship twice in this event before deciding last season to switch to the 800 metres. It was a big risk, but it paid off handsomely when he finished at the head of the field in the New Zealand final.