Decathlon title to Lomax

Press, 19 December 1988, Page 25

Decathlon title to Lomax

By ROD DEW One of New Zealand’s two track and field coaches at the Seoul Olympic Games, Terry Lomax (Old Boys-United), might not have yet completed his international competitive career if his winning performance in the two-day Canterbury decathlon championship, which ended at Queen Elizabeth II Park yesterday, is a reliable guide. Lomax, the reigning national decathlon champion, failed by a mere 64 points to achieve the qualifying score for the 1990 Auckland Commonwealth Games — an outstanding performance considering he will not expect to reach a peak until much later in the season. He ended the 10-event contest with 7136 points. Andrew

Maclennan (Old Boys-United) was second with 6382 points.

Daryl Borman (South Canterbury) produced the strongest finish, rising from fifth to third over the last two events. His winning run in the 1500 m, the final event, in 4min 27.8 s gave Jamie Marett (Hastings) no chance of recovering. Borman scored 5820 points, and Marett had to settle for fourth on 5766 points. Although . a comfortable winner in the end, Lomax was under extreme pressure from the outset from another Old Boys athlete, Peter Henry. Henry was the overnight leader on 3878 points, 19 ahead of Lomax. Yesterday, Henry consolidated his lead with a win in the first event, the 110 m hurdles, in 15.355, before disaster struck in the discus. All three of Henry’s throws

curved outside the marked sector and he was left with no points from this event. This destroyed his chances of a good score, and he took no further part in the competition. One of the highlights was the 2.10 m high jump by Lomax. He had the bar moved up to 2.16 m in the quest for a personal best, but brought the bar down on each of his three attempts. Had he attempted a more modest height he might have gone even closer to a Games qualifying performance. Lomax’s 10 performances were: 100 m, 11.475; long jump, 7.09 m; shot, 11.02 m; high jump, 2.10 m; 400 m, 49.845; 110 m hurdles, 15.545; discus, 36.72 m; pole vault, 4.05 m; javelin, 50.18 m; 1500 m, 4min 41.45.