Athletics Dacre breaks 200 m record in comeback

Press, 24 December 1984, Page 21

Athletics Dacre breaks 200 m record in comeback

A sensational return to competition by the injury-plagued former New Zealand junior sprint champion, Rhys Dacre, provided the main highlight of the final Freshup inter-club track and field meeting of the year at Queen Elizabeth II Park on Saturday.

Running against the advice of his doctor, Dacre surprised everybody with an inspired 21.3 s win in the senior men’s 200 m — the fastest ever recorded by a Canterbury athlete. The time was a full tenth of a second inside the Canterbury hand-timed record, set by Andrew Tweedie in 1969 and subsequently equalled by Terry Morrison (1976) and Dacre (1983). In second place was another young sprinter of great potential, Grant Gilbert (Old Boys). He recorded 21.85, which equalled the Canterbury under. 18 record (hand-timed) set by Darren Dale (New Brighton) last year. Michael Fahey (Old Boys) was third in another fast time, 22.05.

Dacre, aged 20, competed on Saturday simply to see if he could still race without breaking down. He was not registered, and so cannot claim his time as a new Canterbury hand-timed record. But nothing could detract from his joy at being back on the track. “I am absolutely delighted,” he said afterwards. “The last 12 months have been hell. I had almost given up hope of ever being able to compete again. I will be in a lot of pain tomorrow, but I can handle it,” he said.

After a long history of back problems, Dacre discovered that he had a birth defect in the lower part of his spine. It seemed to spell the end of a career which was just beginning to blossom. “I was training once a week, my back would start to hurt and I would have to take a week off. In October, I gave up and decided I would try again next year.”

However, Dacre’s interest remained high and when he saw the New Zealand decathlon record-holder, John Hunt (South Canterbury), set a new Canterbury electric-timing 200 m record of 21.57 s at the invitation meeting the previous Saturday, he decided that he had to have one more try — “I couldn’t handle being away any longer.” Dacre had special permission from the president of the Canterbury Athletic Centre, Mr Ray Rose, to compete on Saturday without registering with a club. He started in devastating fashion with a remarkable win over the New Zealand 100 m champion, Joe Leota (Old Boys), in the 60m dash. Dacre recorded 6.7 s in the A grade race. Leota ran 6.8 s for second. Leota felt that he could do better, and so he lined up with

the C grade sprinters soon after, but again ran 6.85. Dacre missed the 100 m and this went to Leota in an impressive 10.8 s. In the 200 m, Dacre was the master, pulling away from the opposition to stop the clocks at 21.3 s in one of the most re-

markable rags-to-riches performances of recent times. It was considerably faster than he could have hoped for. “I would have been very happy with 22.55. The 200 m is a long, long way,” he said. Dacre had not raced since the Canterbury championships in February, and many of his closest athletic friends were convinced, even a week ago, that he would never race seriously again. Now he is going “to see if I can get in the team for the New Zealand championships. I think Canterbury has a great chance of taking the gold medal in the 4 x 100 m relay.” A New Zealand title would make everything worth while, he said. His great ambition to become a gridiron football player remains as strong as ever. He carried a gridiron football with him “for inspiration,” and it was again in evidence on Saturday.

“I would give my right arm to play football in the United States,” he said. But he admits he would have to run 100 m in 10s flat to “get a look in.” “The competition is so tough, but I am hoping that with my rugby background I could show them a thing or two. It would be interesting.” In the meantime, Dacre is happy just to be back on the track. He knows it will hurt, but he is determined he will rise above this.

“In a way I am glad this all happened. I have learned a lot from it. There is a lot more to life than the track,” he said.

Vicki Lewis (Old Boys) won the women’s short sprints while her arch rival, Bev Peterson (Technical), was in the stand with an injured right foot. Miss Lewis won the 200 m in 25.25, this time from Briar Woods (University). But the star of the women’s events was undoubtedly Lyn Osmers (formerly Miss Aben), of the Technical club. She cleared a personal best of 1.72 m in the women’s high