First track gold

Press, 4 October 1982, Page 26

First track gold

From

ROD DEW

tn Brisbane

The first track and field gold medal of the XII Com-

monwealth Games went to a black English representative, Robert Weir, who threw a Games record distance of 75.08 m in the hammer in idea) conditions yesterday afternoon. Weir, who arrived in the Games village only 24 hours earlier after a 21-hour journey from the United States where he is attending business university, showed no signs of this ordeal in the competition. His winning effort, an improvement of 1.64 m on his previous best, came on his third attempt. Until that stage, the experienced Irish thrower, Martin Girvan, led that contest with, first, a throw of 73.58 m and then another of 73.6 m. However, when Weir pulled out his big one Girvan was unable to improve and had to settle for the silver medal.

Chris Black, of Scotland, won the bronze with his sixth and final throw of 69.84 m. This must have been a big blow for the former West German representative, Hans Lotz, now wearing Australian colours. His second-last attempt of 68.82 m had seemed likely to gain him the bronze. Instead, he had to be content with fourth.

Weir was very consistent throughout the contest. His second-best throw was 73.5 m and he had another of 73m, but he felt that he might have done even better: “I was happy enough with my winning throw, but technically it was not that good,” he said later. Weir said he had not intended to leave his departure for Brisbane so late, but he had to be in the United States for university and there had also been a mix-up in the flight bookings. "I had a bit of sleep when I arrived, but I woke up at 2 a.m. this morning., I walked around for a couple of hours and tried to go back to sleep, but I couldn’t.”

He said he bad a slight headache when he started the competition but it was no problem. "I am feeling' a little tired now, though, he said.

Weir is a student at the South Methodist University in Dallas, but his home is in Birmingham where was was born 21 years ago. He is also an excellent discus thrower, but would make no predictions about his . chances in this. -

“My hammer throwing is technically better than my discus throwing. We will just have to to see what happens,” hesaid.