Kircher’s difficult decision

Press, 27 April 1983, Page 36

Kircher’s difficult decision

By

RAY CAIRNS

The considerable allround talents of Darrell Kircher won for the Ashburton 16-year-old the Mid Canterbury junior “sportsman of the year” title recently.

But those talents have brought Kircher to a crossroads in his sporting career, and it seems cycling is the winner — at present, anyway. For while Kircher’s rugby matches at full-back for Technical brought him 113 points in 10 games, and a

place in the Mid Canterbury under-16 representatives, his cycling exploits have him in the New Zealand team for the world junior championships. Kircher readily acknowledges that since he started racing — because his cousin, Brent, did — as a 10-year-old on a roadster round the Tinwald grass track, he has faced a pull between the two sports.

He has resisted it to a large degree, and while Kircher says he has not made a first choice, until now, he has placed rugby a shade ahead in winter in that he has not competed a great deal on the road. But that has changed now, and it was a hard decision. “I’ve been playing for eight years now, and I really enjoy it. But I seem to be going further with my cycling, so I had to make the choice.” At the start-of the recent track season, Kircher did not even give a thought to the Healing national championships, and the historic first world championships to be staged in New Zealand, at Wanganui in October.

Even the first tour involving the South and North Islands did not feature strongly . . . until the teams were midway through their tour. “That got me going,” he now admits. “I wouldn’t have minded being in it.” But his ambitions, instead, were centred on the Canterbury championships, “and I was hoping to be given a go at the nationals.” The prospects were nothing, more than promising: Kircher was second in the junior 8000 m, third in both the sprint and individual pursuit at the Canterbury championships, and it was enough to win a place in the team. Then it was a matter of making a concentrated effort in the three weeks remaining, and Kircher rose remarkably in that short space of time. He was drafted into the points’ race — and a third placing — and a place in the Canterbury pursuit team, which was fourth. But the event in which his performance overshadowed all others was the kilometre

time trial. It was Kircher’s second ride over that demanding distance, and he went a quite startling Imin 12.525, only sixth place for sure, but less than a second away from a bronze medal. Kircher was the youngest rider in the field, just as he is easily the youngest in the world championships team, so it was a remarkable performance.

But he had an unremarkable reaction to the effort: “People told me I kept it very steady, very even; no dying or explosive pace at any part. Funnily enough, it didn’t seem all that fast, and I’m sure I could take a second off that time.”

Partly because he is the youngest in the team, Kircher is not expecting a heavy programme at the worlds, but he is not accepting that situation. “I want to contest as much as I can, but I suppose this year really is a build-up with the aim of riding prominently at next year’s worlds.”

Kircher accepts that at the moment he is something of a very capable, all-roun-der, but without an event he can call his own. His most likely events at the world championships are. the team pursuit and sprint, for the kilometre times of Alan Miller and Barry Prior are too far ahead of his — at this stage. That is not to say that in the month or more the squad are together in Wanganui, Kircher will not show compelling form over a kilometre. Certainly he would like to ride the event next year. There is not a great deal to Darrell Kircher, just 1.65 m in height, weighing in at 67kg, so his rugby future might have been rather limited, anyway. Now it has' gone altogether, for this season at the very least, and his only other sporting activity is squash — for keeping his wind right, and “active rest.”

He will start riding the road “when Brent tells me,” for his cousin has guided his fortunes since he started.

Perhaps not surprisingly, with that rugby commitment, his best results have all been bn the track: two national cadet’s grass track

titles; the South Island junior madison championship this year with Shayne Hendren; fourth last year in both the national 450 m (that after failing even to reach the Canterbury final) and 500 m time trial. These he rates above his national cadets’ professional

road title because “I’ve found out riding amateur that you have to use your brain more.”

Matching quick wits with the highly competitive Continentals will not be easy, to say the least. But Darrell Kircher will give it his best shot in Wanganui.