McGregor wins at last

Press, 19 December 1988, Page 21

McGregor wins at last

lan McGregor (Christchurch) won his first major road running race when he was successful in the annual Christchurch to Rangiora 20 mile race yesterday. McGregor has often been placed in road races but victory had eluded him until yesterday, when he took the lead from the race record holder, Tony Good (Olympic), with about 7km to go, along with the Run For Your Life 50 mile winner, Jeff Hill (Anglican). He forced the pace to drop Hill with about 4km to go and continued on strongly to win in Ihr 49min 9s, with Hill second in Ihr 49min 535, while Good fell and withdrew, leaving veteran Bill Kennedy (Christchurch) in third place and 1988 Buller marathon cham-

pion, Steven Stringer (Timaru), fourth, and Buller runner-up, Paul Crossley (North Canterbury), fifth. First woman was Waimea’s Averill West, who was thirtyfourth in the field of 145 in a time of 2hr 12min 51s. She took the lead from veteran Lorraine Young (Avon) after skm and was never caught, though Colleen Martin (St Martins) finished strongly for second in 2hr 16min 225, catching last year’s winner, Helen Grant (Sumner), in the last Bkm. Grant, who was suffering from a leg injury, just caught Young in the closing stages of the race. Results:—

Men: McGregor, 1:49:09, 1; Hill, 1:49:53, 2; Kennedy, 1:50:22, 3 and first veteran; Stringer, 1:50:51, 4; Crossley,

1:51:58, 5; D. Christmas (Christchurch), 1:52:21, 6;; D. Dempsey (United), 1:53:11, 7; M. Burke (Rovers), 1:55:11, 8; D. Mitchell . (Waimea), 1:56:14, 9 and second veteran; C. Cox (Olympic), 1:56:27, 10; J. Langley (Anglican), 1:57:40, 11; M. Lang, 1:57:26, 12; and third veteran; D. McMillan (Olympic), 1:57:45, 13 and fifth veteran.

Women: A. West (Waimea), 2:12:51, 1; C. Martin (St Martins), 2:16:22, 2 and first veteran; H. Grant (Sumner), 2:16:50, 3 and second veteran; L. Young (Avon), 2:17:16, 4 and third veteran; F. Roberts (Avon), 2:17:16, 4 and third veteran; F. Roberts (Sumner), 2:17:37, 5 and fourth veteran; W. Adams (Q.E.), 2:21:26, 6; D. Campbell (Olympic), 2:24:52, 7.