O’Donoghue runs fast 1500m

Press, 27 February 1984, Page 8

O’Donoghue runs fast 1500m

PA Wanganui A fast 1500 metres by Peter O’Donoghue, of Auckland, and an excellent individual cycling pursuit from Palmerston North’s Anthony Cuff were features of the international athletic and cycling meeting at Cooks Gardens, Wanganui, on Saturday night. O’Donogue came within three hundredths of a second of qualifying for the 1500 m at the Los Angeles Olympics with his fine 3min 38.03 s victory over Waikato’s Tony Rogers (3min 41.45) and England’s world-ranked Peter Elliott (3min 43.15).

Despite the late withdrawal of a West German, Harald Hudak, a sub-four minute miler on the same ground in 1982, the 1500 metres provided a fast time at the Country-wide-sponsored meeting. Unfortunately, only a few hundred spectators were on hand to watch a full night of athletics and cycling, but they certainly got their money’s worth in the two feature events, which were run in perfect conditions. A Wanganui runner, Nicholas Boult, provided the early pace in the 1500 m and took the field through the first two laps at a fast clip with Rogers, O’Donoghue and Elliott tucked in behind.

Rogers took over two laps out with O’Donoghue playing a waiting game.

O’Donoghue was delighted with his time although naturally disappointed that he

missed qualifying for the Olympics. Rogers could not match the finishing speed of the Aucklander but still ran well to comfortably beat Elliott, who was fourth in the last world cup 800 m and is in New Zealand for training during the European winter. The Wellington champion, Mark Handley, finished fourth in 3min 43.95, fractionally slower than the Englishman. The West Coast (North Island) Centre athletic championships were held in conjunction with the open meeting which attracted competitors from all over the North Island.

In the cycling Anthony Cuff, the former world flying kilometre record holder, proved he is right back to bis old form with a sizzling time in the 4000 metres individual pursuit.

He came up against young Andrew Whitford (Waikato) and proved too strong with a time of 4min 49.905, less than a second outside the Los Angeles qualifying time. Cuffs winning time, almost 5s faster than Whitford, was only three thousandths of a second outside Michael Richards’ New Zealand record and nine hundredths of a second slower than the Olympic qualifying time. The strong Waikato team, headed by Jack Swart and Stephen Cox, rode the fastest 4000 metres teams’ pursuit recorded in the country this year in beating West Coast (N. 1. in 4min 40.065.