Commonwealth Games target for top road walker

Press, 14 December 1977, Page 20

Commonwealth Games target for top road walker

Bv

ROD DEW

If any athlete has cause tn be confident of •election for the Commonwealth Games in Edmonton next August, it is the 22-year-old Christchurch road walker. Graham Scatter, who has just returned from IB months of training and racing in Britain Scatter has only raced once over 30km — the distance over which the Commonwealth title will be decided — but his time Of 2h 29mm 19sec was well inside the standard set by the New Zealand selectors. On that occasion. he had little competition and finished lOmin ahead of his nearest rival. It is hardly surprising that he believes he can improve even further on this tn the months leading up to the Games. "I think I can get down to 2h 25min — it shouldn't be too hard. The problem will be recording fast times without the competition I would have had if I iiad stayed in England." Scatter can expect little opposition on the local scene, although the former Isle of Man Commonwealth Games walker.

Allan Callow, could be a big help if he settles down to serious training again. On the national from, things are a little better. Nevertheless he is unlikely to find more than one or two hard races in the whole New Zealand summer. However, he realised that this would be a problem when he decided to return to New Zealand for his bid for the Commonwealth Games team. “I thought that 1 would have more chance of selection if 1 came home and did my times in NewZealand. I know it is going to be harder without competition. But times set overseas are sometimes regarded with suspicion." Seatter’s single performance over 30km ranks him fifth in the Commonwealth and he is constantly talked of in Europe as being one of the chief contenders for the gold medal at Edmonton His rivals find it difficult to believe, when he tells them, that he is not an automatic selection. Certainlv, his record in English racing was quite remarkable. Seatter recorded the fastest time tor

10.000 m in the Commonwealth of 43min 9.7 sec and in the same race had the satisfaction of beating the Englishman who finished runner-up' in the European championship, Roger Mills. He also won the trial staged to select the British team for the world championships. This was over 20km and Scatter finished

2min clear of his nearest challenger in the outstanding time of Ih Simin 1 sec — more than 3min faster than the New Zealand record he set before leaving for England. His time was all the more praiseworthy because it was set in "a torrential downpour.” Three weeks ago, in his final race in England, he won a seven-rhile event in blmin 40s, the equivalent of a 45min 10 kilometres. But now, Seatter is turning towards his build-up for the national championships in March. He has his sights set on winning the New Zealand 20km championships for the first time. “I've got much more confidence than I had before I went away,” he said.

Scatter was a favourite for the championship in 1976 but “blew up" and failed to finish. He is confident that this will not hannen again. Then he wants to win the official New Zealand Commonwealth Games trial at Auckland over 30km. If his outstanding performance in the 5000 m track walk in the first representative meeting of the season between Canterbury. Otago, and Southland is any indication, he should have no problems. Scatter strode away from the field to win by more than 100 m in the New Zealand record time of 21min 59.65. This was his last racing appearance before getting down to the arduous business of building up. Now it is back to weekly workouts on the road of up to 200 km.