Big day for top field athletes

Press, 17 January 1986, Page 19

Big day for top field athletes

By

ROD DEW

The most powerful figures in New Zealand athletics will be hoping to

move a little closer to Commonwealth Games selection when they meet in the shot and discus in the annual inter-provincial contest between Wellington and Canterbury for the Dorrie Leslie Trophy at Queen Elizabeth II Park tomorrow.

Heading the field in both events is the double national champion, the big, burly Wellington thrower, Henry Smith. He nudged 17m in the shot at the Pacific Conference Games in California last year, but needs to add another metre to this to qualify for the Edinburgh Games. The incentive will certainly be there for a big

effort tomorrow. Countrywide Grand Prix events are being held in conjunction with the meeting and the two men who finished behind Smith in the last national championship, Greg Burgess and Walter Gill (both Auckland), are coming to Christchurch at the expense of the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association.

In the discus, Smith currently leads the rankings with 53.10 m, achieved in the Pacific Games. But he recorded 55.34 m in the last national championship and clearly has the ability to do even better. The Commonwealth Games qualify-

ing distance is 59m.

Also in the chase for a qualifying distance is the Brisbane Commonwealth Games representative, Mark Robinson (Waikato), who has been invited to compete tomorrow. Canterbury’s Chris Barrett, third in the last nationals, is also in the field.

Thanks to the enterprise of the Canterbury Athletic Centre, the meeting promises to be one of the most important outside the national championships. In addition to a team of 30 from Wellington and the grand prix invited athletes, the centre has arranged for a combined team of about 45 athletes from Otago and Southland, and a team of 13 athletes from the Tasman centre to take part. The most accomplished athlete in the fledgling Tasman team will be the Olympic 800 m runner, Peter Pearless. He has chosen to race in the 400 m, the distance over which he first showed up as a runner of unusual talent. Unfor-

tunately, a meeting between him and the top Canterbury 400 m sprinter, Darren Dale, will have to wait. Dale will restrict his activities to junior events. Glenda Hughes (Auckland), the New Zealand shot champion, and Heather Marsters (Auckland), the holder of the national women’s discus crown, are two other Games contenders among the invited grand prix athletes. In the shot, Hughes will face up to her two closest rivals, Michelle Lastovicka (Otago) and Elizabeth Ryan (Canterbury). The women’s discus promises to be particularly entertaining with Marsters under pressure from an Auckland rival, Nerida Morris, Ryan and the remarkable Vai Young (Canterbury). Morris leads the ranking list with a throw of 47.40 m, Ryan is second with 45.88 m, Marsters third with 44.64 m and Young fourth with 44.30 m.

John Stapylton-Smith (Canterbury), the javelin gold medallist at the Pacific Games last year, has since qualified for the Commonwealth Games on home

territory and is certain of selection. In spite of this, a big throw from him tomorrow cannot be discounted.

Lyn Osmers (Canterbury), the national women’s javelin champion, has a fight on her hands to stay at the top of the rankings this summer, and she will be looking for a 45m effort tomorrow. Also thinking about such a distance will be a second Canterbury thrower, Catherine Knowsley.

Two others who could go close to Commonwealth Games qualifying performances tomorrow are Wayne Paul (Canterbury) in the 400 m hurdles, and Kieran McKee (Canterbury) in the pole vault. Zane Butson (Southland), who finished second to Paul in the last national championship, is a starter so the talented Canterbury hurdler will have more than just the clock to race against for a change. McKee needs a vault of 5.07 m to qualify for the Games, and this height is >cm greater than his lational record — a tough issignment, but not imposible.