Roger Alcorn sets fast 100km times

Press, 1 September 1980, Page 24

Roger Alcorn sets fast 100km times

By JOHN DREW Roger Alcorn, formerly of Canterbury, where he distinguised himself as New Zealand’s outstanding ultra long-distance athlete, turned on his greatest track performance to win this country’s first international 100 km track race held on the Queen Elizabeth II Park circuit on Saturday. Alcorn established New Zealand and Australian best track times for the 100 km of 7 hrs 17 min 12 sec.

In the process he broke the New Zealand record for the 50-mile track distance set by the International and Olympic representative, Jeff Julian, by about two minutes, with a time of 5 hrs 22 min 29 sec.

In spite of a leg and back injury which had curtailed his training for some months, Alcorn showed his ability to dominate a strong field.

Alcorn’s strongest challenge came from the holder of the Victorian 50-mile championship, Don Keyssecker of Sydney, who maintained a powerful performance throughout to take second place. Keyssecker established a New Zealand track record

for the 100 km for a runner born outside New Zealand with a time of 7 hrs 48 min 11 sec and for the 50-mile track distance with 5 hrs 55 min 9 sec.

Mike Taylor ran a well judged race to be third and last to complete the full 100 km distance with a> time of 8 hrs 59 min 16 sec.

Taylor’s time for the 50mile was 7 hrs llmin, 1 hr 24 minutes slower than the New Brighton 50-mile time by lan Worters of the St Martins Club at the age of 45 this year.

The former winner of the New Brighton 50-mile race, Stewart Hill, of the Technical Club, set a Canterbury track time for the 50-mile distance of 6 hrs 19 min 13 sec.

David Kennedy of the St Martins Club, who beat the great Siegfried Bauer in the Symon and Lowther 100 km road race, scored his best 50-mile time of 6 hrs 28 min 41 sec.

Another good 50-mile time was set by Derrick Gregory with 7 hrs 19 min 18 sec. <