Unusual athlete close to achieving her goal

Press, 8 March 1978, Page 18

Unusual athlete close to achieving her goal

By

ROD DEW

In less than two weeks the unofficial winner of the New Zealand women’s 1500 m title for the second successive season, Alison Wright, will return to her home in England. However. she will not know whether the assignment she set herself in this country was successful

Her long term target since she started training seriously for athletics a mere three years ago has been to represent New Zealand in the Commonwealth Games. And the nominations for the Edmonton festival later this year are expected to be announced in Wellington on April 4.

Although not eligible to

hold New Zealand championships because she does not fulfil residential qualifications, Mrs Wright is eligible to represent this country. She was bom in Christchurch and received her primary education at the Fendalton School. Her old class-mates will remember her as Alison Napier. When she was 13 she moved to Hamilton and, later still, she attended university in Wellington. But for the last five years she and her husband have lived in Windsor.

It is Mrs Wright’s recently-fired enthusiasm for middle distance running which has brought her back to her homeland. Her present visit is her third for athletic purposes, representing 72,000 miles of travelling for no more than a dozen races — all at her own expense. She has no intention of stopping these 24,000-mile round trips either. “I will continue to come back every summer. It is expensive but it is worth it.” she said after winning the 1500 m championship race in very comfortable fashion at Wellington last Friday. "As long as 1 am running wrfll I will come back. The time in the 1500 m championship was slow but 1 won it and that is what matters.”

Mrs Wright won the race from Jan Healey (Auckland) after a splendid tactical battle in 4min 30.1 sec. The time did not matter greatly. Earlier this summer, she recorded a personal best of 4min 14.4 sec for the distance in an international meeting at Auckland. This was I.6sec inside the qualifying standard set by the New Zealand selection panel for the Edmonton Games.

Whether this performance will be considered sufficient by the selectors remains to be seen. However, there seems little doubt that Alison Wright could do well in Edmonton.

A friendly and very pleasant person, extremely popular with her rivals, Mrs Wright’s emergence as a runner of inter-

really can’t decide why I decided to start running seriously. It just happened.” ’•_ ' ’ So now, at the somewhat athletically advanced age of 28, she is on the brink of selection for her first major international Games. But only a few months ago, the prospects looked distinctly grim. A blood clot developed in her lung last August and for a time her life hung in the balance. A period in hospital and intensive medication enabled her to overcome the crisis. “I was pretty lucky to survive it,” the curlyhaired blonde recalled. “Blood clots are pretty nasty things. Fortunately, I recovered very well and a month after leaving hospital I was running again.” There were no signs of this background in her running at Newtown Park last Friday, although she later scratched from the 800 m, an event in which she also runs well. The longer distance is her main one but she admits to preferring the 800 m. “The 800 has a certain

national class has been meteoric. She ran “in a few 100 yard races” at school but it was, not until she was living in England that she decided to start training seriously for athletics less than three years ago. She can offer no reason for her sudden interest. I

appeal, probably because it is two laps shorter,” she said. Her best time for' this is 2min 5.1 sec, set last year in Warsaw. Training in England presents no problem for Mrs Wright. A short distance from her home is Windsor Great Park, an area of some 3500 acres. It is ideal for distance work and enables her to keep off the roads. There is also an all-weather running track at Windsor. It is easier for her to train in England than it is in New Zealand. Mrs Wright describes herself as a housewife, although she emphasises that running comes first. Unlike most of her contemporaries, she has no love for the winter sport of cross-country running. This is another reason for her frequent visits to New Zealand. “I would rather have two track seasons than run cross-country.” She has now come under the coaching wing of Arch Jelley, the man who guided John Walker to Olympic gold and a world mile record. This is yet another reason for coming back to New Zealand as often as possible, although coaching by correspondence is nothing new. Mrs Wright intends to continue running seriously for some years yet and has hopes of representing New Zealand at the Moscow Olympic Games in 1980.

She has already represented New Zealand. She competed in the inaugural test match between Australia and New Zeland last season. The failure of the Australians to organise this year’s contest as scheduled has earned her disapproval, although she would have been unable to compete in it this time. Mrs Wright is very proud of the uniform she earned in that first test match and she wears it whenever she runs in Eruope. “I am a staunch New Zealander and so is my husband. England is only our temporary home. We will eventually return.”

There is more than a little reason for regret that this might not occur until Alison’s athletic career is at an end.