Half-marathon to Kevin Barnes

Press, 5 November 1984, Page 38

Half-marathon to Kevin Barnes

Kevin Barnes (Christchurch) easily won the St Martins half-marathon at Tai Tapu on Saturday in perfect running conditions. Barnes, aged 27, ran with another Canterbury road running representative, Jeff Hill (Anglican) and the 1982 Canterbury road running points champion, Colin Burt (St Martins) until about 12km, then Barnes and Hill ran together until 15km, when Barnes applied pressure and raced away to win by just over a minute. Burt, who had beaten Hill in the Olympic 16km race two weeks ago, did not have the stamina to stay with his rival on Saturday. Barnes’s winning time of Ihr lOmin 15s was two minutes slower than his best, but he said afterwards that he had run the first half of the race gently, going through the 10km in 33min 40s, putting on the pace only after 16km. Barnes took fastest time in the Olympic 16km and was second fastest in the Kairaki to Christchurch 20km race last month. He plans to run in the Ashburton marathon about April next year. Helen Grant (Toe H) had her first win in the women’s section, after taking the lead about 10km, which she went through in 41min 20s. Grant, who has just turned veteran, has been racing about 18 months, and training under the watchful eye of her husband, Rob, a well-performed marathon runner who stepped up to

ultra distance running last month when he finished the KB Gold 100 km race.

Second was Colleen McKenzie (Olympic), running her second halfmarathon in a week. Grant finished in 1:28:43, with McKenzie, also a veteran, second in 1:29:20 and Alison Dahl (Sumner) third in 1:31:05. Dahl, who also ran in the Mount Cook Line half-marathon a week ago, used the race as a training run, helping her club-mate, Debbie Rhode, through the first part of the race and to a personal best time of 1:33:40. Shirley Clark (Christchurch), who was fourth, ran a personal best time by five minutes. Eighty-four runners finished. The race was organised by the St Martins Harrier Club.

Results:— Barnes 1:10:15, 1; Hill 1:11:19, 2; -Burt 1:12:24, 3; C. Dowie (N. Canty) 1:13:49, 4; D. Aitkenhead (Chch) 1:14:07, 5; P. Coughlan (Olympic) 1:14:35, 6; M. Hawes (Sumner) 1:16:01, 7; R. Campbell (Chch) 1:16:07, 8. Veteran men: B. Carpenter (N. Brighton) 1:17:46, .1; B. Smith (St Martins) 1:18:36, 2; K. Gresson (Sumner) 1:19:20, 3; G. Lihou (St Martins), 1:20:46, 4. Women: H. Grant (Toe H) 1:28:43, 1 and first veteran; C. McKenzie (Olympic) 1:29:20, 2 and second veteran; A. Dahl (Sumner) 1:31:05, 3; S. Clark (Chch) 1:31:54, 4 and third veteran; R. Burt (St Martins) 1:33:32, 5; D. Rhode (Sumner) 1:33:40, 6 and fourth veteran; B. Knife (Chch) 1:34:40, 7 and fif veteran.