Harris breaks pursuit record

Press, 25 February 1989, Page 92

Harris breaks pursuit record

By

MALCOLM CONDIE

in Invercargill

Madonna Harris, or Waikato, stole the thunder at the seventh session of the AMP New Zealand track cycling championships in Invercargill yesterday, demolishing the New Zealand 3000 m women’s individual pursuit record in her qualifying ride. Harris, who has been waiting for five days for her first ride, was well psyched up for the ride which was set to be a record-breaker even before she left the starter. Her schedule, organised by her coach, Constantin Negulescu, was set for 3min 58s, and Harris followed it precisely, listening to the calls of Ron Cheatly.

Less than half way into the nige and a third lap pursuit; Harris had caught

her opposition, Susannah Limbrick, of Auckland, and just kept spinning her way closer and closer to. the record.

Sue Golder, of Auckland, has held that record at 4min 1.35 s since 1986, and Harris stopped the clocks at 3min 58.225. It was the first national record to fall in the championships. Harris has had her eye on the mark for some time. She was seeded to ride against her team-mate, Michele Gammie, in the qualifying round but Gammie withdrew from the championships.

Because of the withdrawal of Auckland’s Sue Golder, Harris met her opposition, Limbrick. Harris was pleased to have broken the record but conceded she had faded a bit in theVlatter stages. “It gives me'some-

thing to work on now,” she said.

In other racing, Canterbury scored well in eliminations for the senior sprinting semi-finals. In the quarter-finals four of the eight were from Canterbury but unfortunately Clark Burns was drawn against Jon Andrews, the reigning champion. Burns, who has been riding impressively in the sprinting, . considering he started tile' season as a B grader, lost the first round to Andrews after allowing the champion too much room near the final 200 m. In the: second ride he drew the lead and rode technically very well but was not up to the standard of Andrews who burst around Burns for his place in the semi-finals. Bums went on for the fifth to eighth ride off and won that. Russell Owns-

worth and William Rastrick won both their quarter-final rounds in two rides. Rastrick now faces Ownsworth, as he did in the Canterbury championships in the semi-finals; and Andrews faces Auckland’s Richard Schmid. Teams’ pursuit qualifying rounds were run yesterday and Canterbury had no trouble in getting both its senior teams, both its junior teams and its novice team through to the semi-finals. Unfortunately for the senior teams, Canterbury A, which rode the 4000 m fastest in 4min 37.36, meets Canterbury B, which qualified slowest, in the semi-finals. Auckland Blue meets Auckland White. Today’s racing will be the highlight of the championships. As well as the

senior and junior sprints and individual and teams’ pursuit finals, the senior 15,000 m will be held. That event will wrap up the championships and with names like Brian Fowler, Graeme Miller, Glenn McLeay and the titleholder, Carlos Marryatt, featuring the race will be heated. • Stuart Imrie (Auckland) and Aaron Lauder (Canterbury) have been selected to represent New Zealand in an international road cycling series in Japan at the end of May. The convener of the national cycling selection panel, Graham Sycamore, also announced yesterday that Blair Cox (West Coast, N. 1.) was the replacement rider for his brother, Stephen, to contest the Milk rage in Britain on May 28. r