Brian Rhodes is hoping to return

Press, 9 August 1980, Page 16

Brian Rhodes is hoping to return

By

ROD DEW

Four years ago a young Canadian runner based in Christchurch, Brian Rhodes, seemed poised on the brink of a brilliant career in middle-distance running. But somehow he lost a foothold ' in his climb up the pinnacle of athletic greatness, and he has yet to regain the momentum required to carry him to the top. The reasons for his lack of progress in recent sea-

sons are obscure, although injuries at the wrong time, a considerable amount of travelling and a tendency to not always follow the recommendations of Brian Taylor, the Christchurch coach who did such a fine job with his early development, clearly worked against him. However, Rhodes, now 25, does not consider he is quite finished yet. He returned to his fam-

ily home in Edmonton in May, and resumed his much interrupted studies at the- University of - Edmonton. There was, no chance of getting into top shape in time for the Canadian Olympic trials and he was sensible enough to realise this. Instead, he

has set his sights on selection for the Canadian team which will compete in the Pacific Conference Games in Christchurch ■in January. The trials are later this month, and Rhodes has been working hard. But the competition might be even tougher than he had expected. Because Canada withdrew.: from the Moscow Olympics in protest .at the Afghanistan invasion by Russia, the country’s best athletes will be fighting for places in the Pacific. Conference Gamesteam.

' Instead of resting at this time and giving the second string athletes a chance, this time they will be thirsting for competition. And with the games being expanded as ■part .of the proposed New Zealand Games, the appeal wiil be even greater.

Rhodes certainly intends ~to give, it his “best shot’’ in the trials. “If I ruri well, 1 will be back here in January,” he said before leaving Christchurch. “If not, I might try another event. I have become '■■ used -to . disappointments. I. might step up to. the 5000 m, or even the steeplechase.” Whatever the result of this month’s trials, Rhodes; intends to return to New Zealand at some stage in the foreseeable future. “I don’t know when that might be, but I will definitely be back. My ■future plans, are pretty much up in the air."

Rhodes has come to regard New Zealand as his second home, which is hardly surprising. He came to ■ Christchurch as an' inexperienced 18-year-bld in 1973 to train under Mr Taylor, whom he had met : in Canada. With a few breaks, Rhodes ’has spent much pf the last eight years inNew Zea4an<f, / ' /■'/ ■ ' ;'.

In 1976, he burst into, the limelight with.a series, of outstanding performances over 1500 m. He lowered' , the . Canterbury record to 3min 45.95, won the Canterbury 1500 m championship for the first 'time, and finished runner-

up to Stuart Melville (Otago) in the New Zealand 1500 m championship. He was 21, and the future could not have looked brighter,. , ", Before that season ended, he had run a personal best in Wellington of 3 min 44.75. A quick trip to Canada to compete in the Pacific Conference Games trials earned him a place in the team which . competed in Canberra in December. After the Games, he flew back to Christchurch. Progress continued. In the international 1500 m race at Queen Elizabeth II Park in January, he lowered the Canterbury 1500 m record to 3min 44.55. But two summer seasons and too many big races without a. chance to build up again-finally took their toll; His form became progressively poorer, and his dream of offering a challenge to John Walker in the 1978 New ZeaI and 1500 m championship in March slowly faded and died. i •

He departed for his homeland the day after the ■. championships, intending to .try for a place in the Canadian Com-

monwealth Games team. Instead, he found it impossible to regain his best form in his third successive summer season and watched the Games from the-stand. ‘ • Rhodes eventually re’ turned to Christchurch to continue his training, and to study at the University of Canterbury, But real progress continued to escape him. Visions of competing at the Olympics disappeared early, and by the end of last season Rhodes considered he was not even running well enough to contest the: New Zealand championships. Neyerthless, the season was riot a total loss. In his final track, appearance before leaving for his homeland, Rhodes won a rain-swept 3000 m in a floodlit meeting at Queen Elizabeth. II Park. His- time of Bmin 20.5 s was/very satisfying cdnsideririg the appalling conditions. And he also had the satisfaction of leading home the accomplished' Brian . KeniteUy.,: ’ ’ Then,.on April 7, in ■ his

last race in New 1 Zealand, he finished runner-up in the Mount Hutt marathon. In what was his first attempt over the full/mara-

thon distance he recorded the worthy time of 2hr 27min 325.,, Since settling back down in Canada, Rhodes has made his mark. He recently ran a 5000 m in 14min 245, and followed it with a 3000 m in Bmin 20.55. “It was fairly easy,”' he said of the 3000 m in a letter to the former Canterbury steeplechase champion, Doug Brown. “Second place was Bmin 445, so I was on my own for most of the race.” Rhodes recently teamed up with John Coates, another Canadian athlete who has spent more time in New Zealand in recent years than in his homeland, and won the world mile wheelbarrow cham-

pionship at Ladner in. the world record time of 4mfn 525. It was not quite the sort of world record either athlete. would have pre- > ferred, but neither was . complaining at the prospect of a listing in the Guinness Book of Records. This, and his performances in- more orthodox track races, only confirm that Rhodes’s future lies in events longer than the 5000m.' Even’ if he might.. have restricted his natural ability by his unsettled way of life, he is not too * late to' achieve inter-: national recognition as a 5000 m or' steeplechase runner and realise at least* some of the great potential he showed as a 21-year-old. ‘-/