Clear win for Joyce in Coast run

Press, 7 December 1981, Page 22

Clear win for Joyce in Coast run

Brenton Joyce (St Martins) led all the way for his fourth marathon victory when he won the twenty-first annual DB Great Western marathon from Hokitika to Greymouth on Saturday. Joyce recorded a creditable 2 hours 23 minutes 54 seconds, well clear of the titleholder John Boland (Hokitika) who ran with Eddie Gray (Greymouth) for most of the race before edging ahead near the finish. Boland recorded 2:28:09. with Gray third with 2.30:39. It was only the third marathon that Gray had finished, the other two both'being in 1967. when he recorded about 2:26:00 both times. Jovce used his familiar tactic of racing to an early lead and holding on. He took’ a risk on Saturday, because he. like all the more than 400 runners who finished. faced a head wind and cold showers for the 42km. By the skm point he was one minute ahead of Boland and Gray together and he ran strongly to the finish. He went through 10km in 33:27. the 20km in 1:0809, and 30km in 1:41:57. It was Joyce’s fastest marathon time if the downhill Mt Hutt win of 1979 is excluded, and could have been cut by about two minutes if the headwind had dropped. Joyce last raced five weeks ago. when he won the Canterbury marathon championship. He has avoided racing since then. A feature of the race was the large number of runners who recorded excellent times. Fourteen went under the 2:40:00 mark and about 60 were under 3 hours. A minute behind Gray was the Otago University runner Alan Johnson, followed by Nelson's Stu Watts in 2:38:06. Watts, who is 37, won the inaugural Tasman centre Marlborough open marathon a few months ago in about 2hrs 35mins. Sixth was A. K. Guthrie (Rovers), who bettered his previous best time by 10 minutes. The cold showery weather made conditions trying for the many first-time marathon runners, but many of them were pleased with their times and will no doubt put the experience to good use for their next marathon. Two of the more prominent of the unregistered runners were G. R. Cox and Geoff Feasey. Cox recorded 2:45:03 and Feasey, a University of Canterbury student running in only his second marathon, recorded 2:50:08 for twenty-fifth place. Several men in their sixties finished, including Tom Bain (Christchurch), who was first of the over 60s in a time of 3:29:45. He is celebrating his fiftieth year

of running. Bain is 69. Sam McArthur (Nelson), a year older than Bain, finished in 298th place in a time of 3:56:24. while the oldest. runner in the race. Les Smith (University of Canterbury), was 326th in 4:07:19. The first veteran to finish was last year’s veteran runner-up Jim instone (Q.E.). in 2:48:50. though John Brownie (New Brighton) was a little unlucky not to take the veteran prize. His fortieth birthday is in a few weeks, and he finished about 8 mins ahead of Instone. Peter Watts (St Martins) ran a welljudged race to be second veteran in 2:54:23, followed by B. O'Donaghue (Christchurch). • Favourite for the veterans' title. John Macdonald (Olympic), suffered cramps and finished eightieth overall in 3hrs smins. well below his best. Favourite for the women’s title. Vai Lindsav. (Technical), confirmed her favouritism, finishing in 108th place overall, in a time of 3:11:58. adding the title to her Canterbury championship title. But she was chased hard in the last few kilometres by a newcomer to marathon running. J. K. Maxton (United), who finished only a minute behind Lindsay and was gaining on her with every stride. Results.— Open: Jovce 2:23:54, 1; Boland 2:28:09, 2; Gray 2:30:39, 3: A. Johnson (Otago) 2:31:38. 4; S. Watt (Nelson) 2:32:06, 5; A. K. Guthrie (Rovers) 2:32:11, 6: A. Dennis (Nelson) 2:32:35, 7; B. J. Gilmour (Reefton) 2:32:40. 8; P. W. Corbett (Wellington) 2:33:00. 9; A. J. Stopforth (Univ, of Canty) 2:33:44. 10; A. Thomas (Waimea) 2:33:59. 11: C. Dowie (North Canty) 2:36:12, 12; W. J. Dellow (United) 2:36:26. 13; D. Aikenhead (United) 2:38:44. 14: J. V. Leitch (Rotorua) 2:40:05, 15; J. Brownie (New Brighton) 2:40:42, 16; B. Phillips (Westport) 2:40:48, 17; Q. J. Golder (Victoria Univ.) 2:40:58. 18; J. Baxter (Marlborough) 2:41:35, 19; J. Hill (Anglican) 2:41:48. 20; N. Turner (Waimea) 2:42:07, 21; C. R. Cox (unattached) 2:45:03, 22; J. Le Grice (United) 2:45:18, 23; J. Instone (Q.E.) 2:48:50, 24; M. G. Lawrence (North Canterbury) 2:49:35, 25; G. D. Feasey (unattached) 2:50:08, 26; K. Van de Noever (Sumner) 2:50:20, 27; B. J. Nelson (Otago) 2.51:05, 28; L. Haselden (Toe H) 2:51:58, 29; M. Ryan (United) 2:51:58, 30. Veteran men: J. Instone (Q.E.) 2:48:50. 1: P. Watts (St Martins) 2:54:23. 2; B. O’Donoghue (Chch) 2:56:05. 3; T. Oakley (unattached) 2:56:39. 4. Women: V. Lindsay (Technical) 3:11:58, 1; J. K. Maxton (United) 3:13:07, 2: S. Hawes (Waimea) 3:17:58. 3.