Harrier season has exciting opening

Press, 12 May 1980, Page 31

Harrier season has exciting opening

University and New Brighton, completely dominated the Hagley relays in the opening rim of the .Canterbury cross-country season in Christchurch on Saturday. University won the women’s relay, the veteran men’s relay, and was placed second, fourth, and sixth in the men’s relay, while New Brighton was second and fifth in the women’s relay and first and eighth in the men’s relay. In the individual placings, University and Brighton between them had 10 runners in the top 13 in both the men’s and women’s relays. The highlights of the day’s racing were the victory of the New Brighton A men’s team over University after a thrilling duel, the close tussle between the University and Christchurch veteran men’s teams with University snatching victory only in the last lap, and the record-breaking runs by Mary O'Connor (University), Wendy Mollison (University), Peter Renner (New Brighton), and Andrew Stark (University).

Miss O’Connor slashed 40 seconds off Andrea Wilson’s record of 14 mln. 455, Miss Mollison broke 4 seconds off Miss Wilson’s record, and in the men’s relay Rener clipped 9 seconds off Stark’s record and Stark himself clipped 4 seconds off. his own old record.

In addition New Brighton A and University A both broke the men’s team record of 75min Ils with aggregates of 74:28 and 75:10 respectively, while in the women’s relay University A beat their winning time of last year of 60:59 for four laps of 4km, recording 59:46. New Brighton A with 60:25 also bettered the fastest time last year. ■ Tom Blrnie took New Brighton into the lead in the men’s sixman relay, with Frank Brookes (Toe H) in second place. Bruce Hunter (University A) was 13 seconds behind Blrnie.

Neil Lowsley (Brighton) widened the gap to University’s Dave Rowell in the second lap by 11 seconds, giving University’s ace runner Andrew Stark the task of having to gain 24 seconds on Brighton’s newcomer, John Hellemans. Stark blistered his way round North Hagley, zipped past Hellemans, and set University up for what everyone thought was a confortable lead of 40 seconds. But it was not to be, as Don Greig-(Brighton) set out after John Stark and his 40 second lead. There was excitement at the change-point as. the crowd- waited to see whether. John Stark would still hold the lead for Varsity, but: It was the black singlet of Greig which appeared first, followed closely by John Stark. This put the pressure on Alan

McLaren to hold the slender lead for Brighton, while Gerry Merchant had to try and close the gap. Merchant closed the gap slightly, but Peter Renner (Brighton) had too many guns for Brian Kennelly in the last lap, to win comfortably. In the women’s relay University A led from start to finish, with Brighton A second while the young Avon team showed promise with a good third placing, ahead of Olympic’s top women’s team. Results.— MEN Teams: (six laps) New Brighton A 74:23 (record) 1; University A 75:10, 2; Olympic A 77:44, 3; University B 79:37, 4; Christchurch A 79:52, 5; University C 80:46, 6; Toe H A 80:51, 7; New Brighton B 82:35, 8; St Martins A 82:41, 9; Olympic B 83:39, 10; University D 84:39, 11; Toe H B 85:10, 12; Cashmere A 85:25, 13; Q.E. Athletic 85:37, 14; Te Kura 85:59, 15. Fastest lap times; Renner (New Brighton) 11:55 (record) 1; A. Stark (Univeristy) 12:00, 2; Greig (New Brighton) 12:06, 3; Lowsley (New Brighton) 12:18,.4; A. Thurlow (Olympic A) 12:19, 5; Blrnie (New Brighton) 12:22, 6; Kennelly (University A) 12:31, 7; Brookes (Toe H) 12:33, 8; B. Hunter (University) 12:35, 9; I. Shatford (Te Kura) and G. Merchant (University) 12:38, equal 10; D. Rowell (Univeristy) 12:39, 12; A. McLaren (New Brighton) 12:43, 13; D. Macdonald (Olympic A) 12:44, 14; J. Stark (University) 12:47, 15; B. Taylor (University B) 12:54, 16; A. Prescott (Cashmere) 12:57, 17; W. Kennedy (Christchurch) 13:00, 18; I. McGregor (Christchurch) 13:01, 19; D. Ellis (Christchurch) 13:03, 20; J. Hellemans (New Brighton) and J. Elliott (Te Kura) 13:04, equal 21; B. Hart (Olympic) 13:07, 23; M. Tarrant (University C) 13:13, 24; R Sprott (University B) 13:14, 25. Veteran men’s teams: University A Vets A 87:49, 1; Christchurch Vets A 87:59, 2; Olympic Vets A 88:00, 3; New Brighton Vets A 89:05, 4. WOMEN Teams: (4 laps) Univeristy A 59:46, 1; New Brighton A 60:25, 2; Avon A 64:24, 3; Olympic A 65:02, 4; New Brighton B 66:19, 5; St Martins A 67:14, 6; Christchurch A 67:18. 7; Avbu B 68:20, 8. ■ lap timesi O’Connor /(Univeristy) 14:05 (record). 1; Mollison (University A) 14:41, 2; S. Bruce (New Brighton) 14:50, 3;D. Tipper (Avon) 14:54, 4; M. Hadley (New i Brighton). 15:04, 5; A. Keown (Univeristy) 15:10, 6; N. Evans (New'Brighton) 15:11, 7; R. (Olympic) 15:15, 8; E. Baker (New Brighton; 15:20, 9; M. Walker (St Martins A 15:44, 10; C. Miller (University) 15:48, 11; C. Burden (University) 15:51, 12; D. Trueman (University) 16:04,13.