Dead heat in women’s 1500 m

Press, 25 January 1988, Page 21

Dead heat in women’s 1500 m

A dead heat in the open women’s 1500 m between two of Canterbury’s leading track athletes, Mary O’Connor and Debbie Tipper, provided a touch of drama during the interclub track and field meeting at Queen Elizabeth II Park on Saturday. Tipper, one of the top contenders for the Canterbury 1500 m crown later this month, set her own pace and seemed to have the race under control as she entered the finishing straight. O’Connor, best known for her performances over longer distances, had other ideas. She launched a furious sprint, closed a substantial gap, and surged alongside Tipper right on the line. The judges were unable to separate the two University club-mates and awarded a dead-heat. Their time was 4min 32.85. O’Connor elected to run the event instead of the

Canterbury 10,000 m championship and must have been pleased with her sharpness. She is expected to be a top contender for the New Zealand cross-country team which will contest. the world championships at Ellerslie in March. There was an impressive performance from Duane Humfreys (New Brighton) in the junior 3000 m. He won in Bmin 49.55. This overshadowed the winning performance by John Gamblin (Christchurch) in the senior event. His time was 9min 1.35.

Wayne Stewart (Old Boys) confirmed that the Canterbury triple jump championship would be something more than a one-horse event when he won the senior event with a distance of 14.70 m. This avenged his recent defeats by the former national champion, Evan Peterson (Technical).

This time, Peterson had to be content with second place and a best effort on the day of 14.58 m. A promising junior, Ralph Brunie (St Andrew’s College), picked up third place with a jump of 13.61 m.

There was another reversal of recent form in the hammer. Matt Leech (Technical) regained his old dominance of the event with a winning throw of 49.12 m, pushing a former Canterbury champion, Bernie Harland (Technical), into second place.

Harland’s biggest throw measured 47.82 m, and this was good enough to give him second place ahead of the athlete who has been leading the way in recent weeks, Chris Barrett (Papanui-Toc H). Barrett’s best on the day was 46.56 m.

Keith Olds (Old Boys) won the senior high jump with an excellent

clearance of 2.07 m, and was a little unlucky not to go higher. He had several good attempts at 2.10 m. Kaye Nordstrom (Papa-nui-Toc H) maintained her recent good form in the women’s javelin, winning with a throw of 46.78 m. Claudia Hall (Papanui-Toc H) claimed second place, although her best throw of 22.26 m was well below her best.

Competition was much closer in the women’s shot, where officials had to go to a countback to separate Vai Young and Tania Lutton (both Technical). In the end, it was Lutton who triumphed. Their performance was 12.65 m.

There was anther close contest in the senior men’s 100 m. Craig Galilee (Old Boys) and Paul Fuller (Technical) were credited with the same time, 11.1 s, but the judges decided in favour of Galilee. Lindsay Linton (New

Brighton) was a close third in 11.35. Linton later won the 200 m, in 22.75. Wayne Marriot (University) was an impressive winner of the open 10,000 m walk in 52min 545. He finished confortably clear of the outstanding schoolboy walker, Shane Brown (Cashmere - Hillmorton). His time for second was 54min 6.15. Results, page 24