N.Z. top runners tempted overseas

Press, 27 January 1988, Page 28

N.Z. top runners tempted overseas

Byi

/CATHY WASHE

Of NZPA

Wellington The lure of unlimited competition and occasional profit in the United States continue to tempt New Zealand’s top runners overseas.

But the world cross-country championships, in Auckland on March 26, have enticed some back.

The Wanganui runner. Dean Crowe, who has spent most of his time at university in Boston since 1983, is one. He returned home late last year to complete his build-up to the New Zealand team trial next month.

Another is the Hastings runner, Rex Wilson, one of New Zealand’s most experienced athletes on the track, road and cross-country. Wilson finished seventy-ninth in last year’s world cross-coun-try championships in Warsaw, part of the New Zealand team which finished fourteenth out of 33. After Warsaw, Wilson headed for the States, where he ran the road circuit, returning home in October last year: “I ran all the road races and had a better year than the year before. They were fairly good quality races.” One of the most satisfying, he said, was a 16km in New York where he clocked 47:01. But although Wilson has times of 13:38 for 5000 m and 28:22 for 10,000 m, he is not

interested in chasing a qualifying time for the Seoul Olympics on the track. There is the possibility he may run the London marathon in early April, with the chance of lowering the 2:14 he ran in the China marathon last year. Crowe, however, is looking to better the Seoul 10,000 m , standard but he will not be doing it in New Zealand. “The Olympics are my primary goal this year. I’ll be going back to the States in April because there are some good 10km races around then and I’d like to have a shot at qualifying for Seoul,” he said. Crowe has a best of 13:32 over 5000 m, clocked in the build-up to the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, but is adamant he does not quite have the speed to get down to the 13:22 qualifying standard set by the New Zealand selectors for Seoul. The 10,000 m standard is 27:55, and although Crowe’s experience at the distance on the track is limited, he is confident of lowering his best of 28:33. For the moment, however, cross-country, is top priority. Crowe has the advantage of coming from a college where cross-country is “very big” over courses similar to Ellerslie, venue for the world championships.