Canterbury confirms top place at N.Z. championships

Press, 8 March 1982, Page 20

Canterbury confirms top place at N.Z. championships

By

RAY CAIRNS

Even before yesterday morning’s points races, Canterbury confirmed its standing as New Zealand’s leading track cycling centre when it retained the Points Shield at the Healing national championships at Denton Park.

One of the least eventful of final evenings was “climaxed” equally unevent fully by one of the strangest of 15,000 m senior scratch races, the formidable trio of Clem Captein (Waikato-Bay of Plenty), Tony Duder (Canterbury) and lan Richards (Auckland) breaking away before half-way, and Captein winning clearly from Duder.

It was a Saturday evening in which the main highlights were the continued domination of the outstanding-Well-ington boy, Alan Miller, and the. breaking of the track record by the Canterbury junior pursuit team. Miller had a phenomenal championship meeting. He won four gold medals from four events, and was never challenged. Miller led Stephen Harcourt (Southland) and Dean Harvey (Canterbury) to a South Island clean sweep of the 4000 m, but perhaps his • greatest rides were in the Italian pursuit. During Saturday afternoon, Miller and his Wellington team watched West CoastNorth Island, anchored by the impressive Barry Prior, break their own track record for the Italian pursuit, with an outstanding Imin 54.695. But within smm, Miller himself was riding a remarkable 27.8 s final lap on the way to Wellington regaining the record by a full second. The outstanding juniors of the championships, Craig Adair and Brian Fowler, led their Canterbury team which included Greg Fraine and Blenddyn Wills, to a record of 1.3 s in the team pursuit,. and they too were never threatened for their title. Adair won the junior individual pursuit as he pleased from Fowler, Stiiart Imrie preventing a Canterbury clean sweep with his defeat of Wills in the ride-off for third, and the big West Coast-North Island lad had to do it twice. He easily had the beating of Wills in their .first rides, but the finishing gun was sounded a half-lap too early. But it did not matter because Imrie won just as

easily at the second time of asking. ' ... 1

Similarly in the senior pur-, suits, Anthony Cuff (WCNI) was not challenged by Graeme Miller (Auckland), and Richards even less so by • another Aucklander, Benny van der Griend, the latter being disqualified from fourth for failing to ride to win.

Although all the. junior sprint matchings were decided in straight races, with Craig Griffen (Waikato-Bay of Plenty) making Fowler settle for second again, the senior races had plenty of action. Certainly, there was a repeat of last year with Mike Mcßedmond' (WCNI) again beating Captein, but both had their problems reaching that stage. Captein . gave Miller too much rope in their first semi-final matching, and did not get close, though he won the second and third rides, and Mcßedmond was roughed up twice by Murray Steele. Steele rode, brilliantly in the first matching, holding Mcßedmond on his hip to the final 80m, then diving away for a clear win, and after losing to Mcßedmond’s leadout in the second ride.

Steele gave , the Palmerston North man a hard time in the decider. Mcßedmond even had to grab the fence at one stage which is not strictly allowed' — and was twice forced on to the grass before triumphing. Fowler, .defending his junior title,., and van der Griend were never threatened for the points races, both of them being involved in little breaks which took a lap out of the main body of the field. Fowler had with him Del Woodford (Otago), Ray Tomlinson (Wellington) and Kevin Hunt (Waikato-Bay of Plenty), and it was a very desperate race for second. Tomlinson; in the end, had to appeal to get his final sprint placing, which allowed him to slip clear of the other two for the silver medal.

Van der Griend had only Trevor Rice (Wellington) for company when he took his lap out of the field, and from that point the first two placings were never in doubt. Steele won third place very comfortably in the end, his main challenger being a team-mate, Tony Strang. The final word belonged to one veteran and one soon to

join those ranks, the Waikato tandem pairing of Mick Litolff and Kevin McComb. As well as winning both veteran races, McComb was the stoker for the Litolff-steered tandem which beat, in straight races, Canterbury’s Strang and Tony Fuller for the gold medal. Abbreviations used in the results are Auckland (A), Waikato-Bay of Plenty (Wko), West Coast-North Island (WC), Wellington (Wn), Canterbury (C), Otago (O), Southland (S). OPEN 4000 m individual pursuit Finals.— Third place: I. Richards (A) caught B. van der Griend (A). First place: A. J. Cuff (WC), 5:13.34, beat G. J. Miller (A), 5:23.81. Tandem sprint Finals— Third place: J. Matthews and D. King (Wn) beat G. McLay and N. R. Lyster (Wn), rideover. First place: M. W. Litolff and R. McComb (Wko) beat A. P. Fuller and A. J. Strang (C), 11.80, 11.51. SENIOR Sprint Semi-finals.— C. Captein (Wko) beat G. J. Miller (A), 11.96, 12.01; lost in 12.43. M.

Mcßedmond (WC) beat M. A. Steele (C), 11.81, 12.02; lost in 12.93. Finals.— Third place: Steele beat Miller, 11.84, 12.28. First place: Mcßedmond beat Captein, 11.83, 12.27. 4000 team pursuit Final.— Auckland, 4:49.3, beat Canterbury, 5:00.69. 15,000 m Final— Captein 1, A. J. Duder (C) 2, Richards 3. Time, 19:34.19. JUNIOR 3000 m individual pursuit Finals.- Third place: S. Imrie (WC), 3:51.73, beat B. Wills (C), 3:53.05. First place: C. R. Adair (C), 3:48.72 beat B. A. Fowler (C), 3:55.82. Sprint Semi-finals.— C. Griffen (Wko) beat W. J. E. Rastrick (C), 13.64, 13.19. Fowler beat M. Carr (Wko), 13.12, 12.47. Finals — Third place: Rastrick beat Carr, 12.87, ’ 12.19. First, place: Griffen beat Fowler, 12.54, 12.80. 4000 m team pursuit Semi-finals— Wellington, 4:55.34, beat Auckland, 4:57.36. Canterbury, 4:57.34, beat WCNI, 5:03.60.

Finals— Third place: Auckland, 4:51.64, beat WCNI, 4:59.73. First place: Canterbury, 4:45.00, beat Wellington, 4:58.18. BOYS Italian pursuit Qualifying— Wellington, 1:55.42. West Coast-North Island, 1:55.45. Waikato-Bay of Plenty, 1:59.15. Auckland, 1:59.30. Canterbury, 1:59.72. Semi-finals.— WCNI, 1:54.69 (track record), beat Waikato-Bay of Plenty, 1:58.87. Wellington, 1:53.69 (track record), beat Auckland, 1:59.07. Finals— Third place: Waikato-Bay of Plenty, 1:56.34, . beat Auckland, 1:57.41. First place: WCNI, 1:54.31, beat Wellington, 1:54.98. 4000 m Final.- A. Miller (W) 1, S. Harcourt (S) 2, D. P. Harvey (C) 3. Time. 5:33.79. VETERAN 4000 m Final.— McCob 1, B. H. Goldsworthy (A) 2, D. De Silva (A) 3, Tie, 5:33.81.