N.Z. woman outrunning men

Press, 24 May 1988, Page 44

N.Z. woman outrunning men

NZPA-AAP New York The New Zealand ultramarathon star, Sandy Barwick, was in third place over-all yesterday in the 1000 mile world championships being held this week.

As the only woman in the race she is assured of victory if she finishes, but to her credit she is outrunning most of a strong field of 15 men. The 1000 mile is being led by the Greek sensation, Yiannis Kouros, who had completed almost a third of the race yesterday afternoon. The British distance runner, Richard Brown, was in second place, about 60 miles behind Kouros, with

Barwick trailing Brown by just 18 miles at the 58hour mark. The record for the 1000 miles stands at 11 days 20 hours. It was set by a New Yorker, Stu Mittleman, in the 1986 Sri Chinmoy race. Barwick is the Australasian record holder for 100 miles and for 24 hours. The 36-year-old from Milford, Auckland, ran this year’s Westfield Syd-ney-Melbourne ultramarathon in eight days three hours. A spokesman for the race said that if she wins her class, she will become the first woman in history to do so on a measured course certified by the

International Association of Ultrarunners and would be entitled to claim a world record. The third male runner in the 1000 mile ultramarathon is the Canadian champion, Michel Careau, who is the 48-hour, sixday and 1000 mile Masters record holder.

A San Francisco postman, Don Choi, was leading the more gruelling 1300 mile race with 229 miles behind him at the 58-hour mark.

He was followed by a Canadian, Trishul Cherns, with 204 miles and a West German , Stefan Schlett, with 192 miles. A former Adelaide runner, Sammukh Sheri-

dan, was second after 12 hours, but dropped out of serious contention when the pace began to

take its toll. A British runner, Saurjya Clark, who now lives in New York, continued to lead the 700mile race with 203 miles covered. He was followed by Tim Kourounis at 166 miles. Suprabha Schecter, of Washington D.C., led the women’s section with 202 miles covered. A West German, Hildegarde Schmidhuber, was a close second at 200 miles and a 50-year old British runner, Barbara McLeod, was a close third with 196 miles. The races are due to finish early next week.