High jump of 2.08m lifts ranking of Keith Old

Press, 30 January 1984, Page 17

High jump of 2.08m lifts ranking of Keith Old

By

ROD DEW

A splendid leap of 2.08 m by Keith Old (Canterbury), a young athlete in his first season of senior competition, was among a number of praiseworthy performances in a rather low-key Dorrie Leslie track and field meeting between Canterbury and Wellington at Queen Elizabeth II Park on Saturday. Old, aged 20, cleared 2.05 m for the first time only a week earlier and on Saturday missed twice at this height before scraping over in the final attempt. He gave the bar a solid whack on the way over, but it stayed in place. This seemed to inspire him to greater effort, and his 2.08 m leap was an excellent clearance. He went on for a try at 2.11 m, but was unsuccessful. The height lifts him into fourth ranking in New Zealand. Old is yet another protege of the former New Zealand marathon champion, Bill Richards, who has firmly established himself as one of New Zealand’s leading high-jump coaches. “I could sense he was going to do well today,” Mr Richards said later. “But I think he is capable of going even higher this season.” The runner-up in the contest was Andrew Wells (Canterbury), who was leading on the countback after he made a good clearance at 2.05 m. However, he could go no higher on the day. A third Canterbury jumper, Grant Landery, suffering from an ankle injury, cleared 2.00 m for third. The women’s high jump was won by a visitor from Otago, Trudy Painter, with an excellent leap of 1.76 m. The former national recordholder, Angela Pule (Canterbury), won the inter-provin-cial contest after a countback with the Commonwealth Games heptathlete, Karen Forbes (Canterbury). Both cleared 1.70 m. Two New Zealand Permanent Building Society “Athlete of the Week” awards were made, both to women. The first went to Shirley Peterson (Technical) for equalling her W55 world veteran 100 m record of 13.6 s in an inter-club race. The other , was awarded to Gail Adams (Canterbury) who won the women’s 800 m in an outstanding 2min 10.765. The disappointingly small Wellington team made an impact in few events. In many of the contests, there was not a yellow Wellington singlet to be seen. One of only a handful of Wellington winners was Robert Hutson, whose 14.57 m effort in the men’s triple jump was an excellent performance. His nearest challenger was Wayne Stewart (Canterbury), who finished runner-up with 14.07 m. Andrew Sullivan (Canterbury) cancelled out the points advantage for Wellington by taking third place. However, in the long jump, Sullivan came into his own with a splendid leap of 7.09 m. This proved good enough for victory and this time Hutson had to be content with second place and a leap of 6.76 m. Another Wellington win came in the men’s javelin. The Canterbury throwers did not turn up, and a junior, Cameron Greening, was able to take maximum points with a solid 57.90 m throw. The senior 5000 m proved full of surprises, with almost half the field dropping out with some ailment or other. The first man home was the former Commonwealth Games steeplechaser, Martin Couldwell, running as an individual in his University club colours. Only recently returned from a long period in England, Couldwell did not put his name forward for selection but proved by far the best on the day, reaching the finish well clear of any challenges in 14min 345. “That is too slow,” he said to himself as he crossed the finish. But there were many others who did not even reach the finish. The juniors ran with the seniors and as a result of the high drop-out rate the second finisher over all was

a junior, Richard Ayson (Canterbury), in 14min 51.385. Perhaps the unluckiest of all was Warren Sheddan (Canterbury) who set a scorching pace from the outset and at one stage had nearly 100 m on the next runner. Couldwell slowly wore him down in the later stages and took the lead with three laps to go. But then Sheddan dropped out with a calf muscle injury, and spectators were deprived of the prospect of a fighting finish. Almost at the same time another top Canterbury prospect, Jeff Elliott, felt sick and he, too, pulled up. The result of it all was that Sheddan’s older brother, John Sheddan (Canterbury), won the interprovincial contest after limping the last few laps with a leg muscle injury similar to that suffered by Warren. “I looked around and thought, my God, I’m in front,” said an astonished John Sheddan afterwards. “I have been in the habit of pulling out of 5000 m races recently and I thought that this time I had better keep going. It certainly paid off, but I hope nobody notices the time.” John Sheddan, a New Zealand cross-country representative on many occasions, felt his left leg tighten up after only 800 m and the muscle began to knot soon after 1500 m. “I bet that is the slowest time an interprovincial race has been won in for a while,” he said. Some of the top performances on the track came from juniors. Darren Dale (Canterbury) won the junior 400 m in an impressive 48.94 s from Mark Borthwick (Wellington), and Rhys Dacre (Canterbury) won the junior 100 m in 10.93 s and the junior 200 m in 22.015. This was a welcome return for Dacre, who has been resting for several weeks with a troublesome leg injury. The times set by the two outstanding juniors were faster than those achieved in the senior events. John Hunt (Canterbury) upset Joe Leota (Canterbury) with a 10.95 s win in the senior 100 m. Leota won the 200 m later in the day in 22.35. Murray Cumberpatch (Canterbury) won the senior 400 m in 49.685, which was an excellent effort considering he had earlier won the 400 m hurdles in 53.055. This latter event had promised to be a splendid clash between Cumberpatch and Wayne Paul (Canterbury), the two fastest 400 m hurdlers in New Zealand. However, Paul was a nonstarter. The big South Canterbury field athlete, Chris Barrett, made no contest out of both the shot and discus. His winning effort in the shot was 13.83 m. In the discus, he recorded 49.92 m. In the women’s field event, it was the old guard of Vai Young and Sally Mene who dominated. Mrs Mene won the discus with a splendid 45.38 m throw and Mrs Young was the runnerup with 42.80 m. The shot went to Mrs Young with 13.13 m and Elizabeth Ryan (Canterbury) showed that her form the previous Wednesday had been no isolated incident by recording 12.93 m for second. Lyn Aben (Canterbury) won the javelin with a good distance of 42.18 m, although she was under constant pressure from Mrs Mene, still the national recordholder for this event. Mrs Mene threw 41.2 m. Donna McCartney (Canterbury) set her own pace in the women’s 1500 m, and finally proved too strong for her rivals. She reached the finish in 4min 30.35 s with Debbie Tipper (Canterbury) second in 4min 33.69 s and Nicola Evans (Canterbury) third in 4min 34.975. Fresh from his success in the Dunedin street mile last week, Peter Williams (Canterbury) easily won the men’s 800 m from another Canterbury man, Clay Penrose, in Imin 51.135. Janine Tyler (Canterbury) won the women’s 3000 m in an impressive 9min 54.755, from Wellington’s hope, Sarah Cox.