Record performances in women’s hurdles and men’s javelin

Press, 17 December 1984, Page 34

Record performances in women’s hurdles and men’s javelin

By

ROD DEW

Canterbury records in both the women’s 100 m hurdles and the women’s 400 m hurdles by Lynette Kay (Canterbury) earned her one of two New Zealand Permanent Building Society Athlete of the Week awards made at the Technical club’s twilight track meeting at Queen Elizabeth II Park on Saturday evening. The two performances will certainly strenghten her claims for a place in the New Zealand team for the Pacific Conference Games in the United States next year. Miss Kay, top-ranked over the 100 m hurdles in New Zealand this summer, was narrowly beaten by the Olympic heptathlon champion, Glynis Nunn, of Australia, in this event. But Miss Kay’s time of 14.09 s for second was ’inside the Canterbury record of 14.42 s she set last year. The race proved a disaster for Mrs Nunn, who was fifth in the Olympic final of the 100 m hurdles. Although she reached the finish without losing stride, she suffered a hamstring injury. After medical attention she was advised to withdraw from the meeting, but feeling a responsibility to the people who had paid to see her compete, she insisted in starting in the 400 m hurdles. Her right thigh was tightly bound, and she wore a tight-fitting pair of tracksuit trousers. She managed to stay with Miss Kay and the Olympic hurdles representatives, Lynette Grime

(Waikato), for some 200 m before pulling off to the side. She was limping badly when she returned to the medical centre. Miss Kay, hurdling beautifully, proved too strong for Mrs Grime, winning easily in 58.215, o.oBs inside her Canterbury record. It was a particularly important win for Miss Kay, who has been knocking at the door of greatness for several seasons. Mrs Grime’s time was 59.275. The opening hurdles race also took a severe toll on Terry Genge (Waikato). She was third in the 100 m hurdles in 14.435, but a leg injury prevented her racing again. The second Athlete of the Week award went to John Stapylton-Smith (Canterbury) for a superb throw of 83.10 m in the men’s javelin. This substantially extended his Canterbury record of 80.34 m, and took him to the verge of world class. His sequence was consistently good, as well. It was: n.t., 80.82 m, 83.10 m, n.t., 76.80 m, 78.24 m. The record throw needed no public address system to draw attention to it. A mighty yell from Stapylton-

Smith echoed over the ground while the javelin was still in flight. He knew, without the benefit of a measuring tape, that this was the best throw of his career. New Zealand records in both men’s and women’s high jumps were very much under threat during the evening. Terry Lomax, formerly of Canterbury but now living in Auckland, won the men’s high jump with an outstanding height of 2.14 m and made three very good attempts at a New Zealand record height of 2.18 m. This was a performance which suggests that Lomax is far from past his best. Bill Boyd (Canterbury) was runner-up with another good height of 2.10 m after a countback with the reigning New Zealand champion, Roger. Te Puni (Wellington). Trudy Painter (Otago), the national women’s high jump champion, cleared I.Bom, one of the finest performances in this event for some time. She then had the bar moved above the New Zealand record height to 1.84 m, only to find that this was just beyond her capabilities. Second place went to the New Zealand

schools’ champion, Tracey Phillips (West Coast North island), who cleared 1.75 m. Henry Smith (Wellington) won the shot-discus double with 15.70 m and 52.34 m, respectively, maintaining his position at the top of the ranking list in both events. The national 400 m champion, Murray Gutry (Waikato), had too much finishing strength and speed for a talented field in this event. He won in reasonable comfort in 47.15 s from the Canterbury junior, Darren Dale, who recorded 48.42. Third was another Waikato sprinter, John Enright, in 495. “I was a bit nervous before the race. This was the first time I had raced against Darren Dale, and I wasn’t sure how it would go. I am very pleased with the way it turned out. There was a bit of wind in the finishing straight, but it didn’t worry me,” said Gutry afterwards. Evan Petersen (Waikato) won the men’s long jump with an excellent leap of 7.16 m and Wayne Paul (Canterbury) maintained his position as New Zealand’s leading 400 m hurdler with a fine win in 52.605.