Aust, clean sweep

Press, 29 January 1982, Page 24

Aust, clean sweep

Australians, with their juniors featuring strongly made a clean sweep of the first New Zealand biathlon championship to be held in Christchurch last evening. Not surprisingly the Australian challenge was led by its own aquathon champion, Rick Parkes, but astonishingly after a near-skm run through the streets of Parklands and an 800m'Swim in a choppy sea off Waimairi beach, Parkes was a mere three seconds clear of his junior team-mate, Danny Esposito.

These two held a commanding lead over the rest. Just over a minute behind them was another Australian junior, Steve Green, and the second. of the Australian seniors, Bob Scammell, was half a minute behind him. Another half-minute further back was a chunky little 15-year-old, Ory Defina, dazed and exhausted when he finished but soon in full tongue, while the sixth of the Australians to finish in the first six places was Craig Martin 2:14 behind Parkes, who took 33min 38s for the gruelling event. Then came the New Zealanders, with a senior road runner, John Hallemans, easily the best. The leader of the running leg, but losing all that advantage and more with a bad line to the swimming buoys, Hallemans was 2:38 behind Parkes.

Then came the -expected challenge from the horde of surf swimmers in the field of 56, with a junior Lachie Marshall, 4:10 behind Parkes, but leading Steve Johnston by 10s, Martin Forbes by 15s, and Wayne Mills and the first of the women, Australia’s Belinda Braniff, by 255.