Canty cyclists prominent

Press, 4 March 1983, Page 6

Canty cyclists prominent

PA Wanganui A strong south-westerly wind and rain failed to stop the Canterbury 20-year-old, Craig Adair, from riding the fastest qualifying round in the 4000 m individual pursuit at the Healing national cycling titles at Wanganui yesterday. Competing with 13 others for the eight qualifying spots, Adair stopped the watches at smin 4.505.

Adair, the 1981 junior titleholder in the pursuit, finished a clear second ahead of fellow Cantabrian, Jamie Nisbet, with Graeme Miller (Auckland) the third best in smin 9.785.

Not long after the senior pursuit qualifying rounds ended rain set in and completely disrupted the afternoon’s programme.

Cantabrians Murray Steele and Adair last evening confirmed their rating as New Zealand's two current top kilometre cyclists. However, the order of 1982 placings was reversed — and Adair, the Commonwealth Games champion, suffered a shock defeat.

Adair, just turned 20 and Still a national hero from his stirring ride in Brisbane six months ago, won the open crown at the Christchurch nationals last year in Imin 8.745.

He bettered that fractionally in the chill Wanganui breeze with a lmin 8.25 s clocking, but it was not good enough to shut out Steele, who took a turn in the limelight after being behind last year.

Looking strong from the moment he powered away from his handler, Steele stopped the watches at lmin Bs, well outside Anthony Cuff’s New Zealand record of lmin 6.105, but a most meritorious ride nevertheless.

While top 1000-metre time honours lay strictly with Steele and Adair on the night, the Blenheim 17-year-old, Allan Miller, served notice he is on the road to the top with a brilliant victory in the junior section. He zoomed around Cooks Gardens in lmin 9.395.

The top seeds in both the senior and junior sprints worked their way through to the quarter-finals. Most did it the easy way. The national senior champion, Michael Mcßedmond, of Palmerston North, was full or poise as usual in winning an eighth-final race in 12.035, he fasest of the session.

Retaining his ranking to challenge Mcßedmond for a second successive crown, was the No. 2 seed, Murray Steele (Canterbury), who clocked 12.135, but No. 3 seed, Graeme Miller, had to qualify the hard way.

Beaten by William Rastrick (Canterbury) in an eighth-final, Miller took his fiinal re-selec-tions chance to waltz away from Mark Benson (WaikatoBay of Plenty) to keep in the hunt.

Much the same situation applied in the junior sprint. The only one of the first six seeds to exit from the event was Dean Harvey (Canterbury), the No. 4 seed.