Sport in brief

Press, 4 April 1989, Page 32

Sport in brief

Baker begins season The world women’s champion triathlete, Erin Baker, leaves New Zealand tomorrow to begin a long season of triathlons. Baker is travelling to Palm Springs for two weeks training before heading to the first major event for the season, in the Virgin Islands. Apart from that race her plans are open for the rest of the season. "That is the only event I’m sure of right now," Baker said. “There are lots of events I will probably do but plans tend to change a lot as the season goes by.” Baker is taking an aggressive attitude to the first two or three high profile races of the season. "I’m going into these races really fit," she said. One reason for performing well early in the season is that organisers offer invitations to winners of the early events to race later in the year. When Baker is not competing she will be training, at a high altitude, in Boulder, Colorado. Tyrrell takes lead PA Hamilton r Waikato’s Grant Tyrrell has taken the lead in the national mountain bike championship series after winning the Karapoti Classic in Wellington at the week-end. Tyrrell led from start to finish in the gruelling 55km event to win the race in 2h 38min — five minutes ahead of the next rider, Aaron Dalton (Auckland). With just one race left to ride in Auckland in a fortnight, Tyrrell heads the points table, five points in front of second-placed Paul Bainbridge (Christchurch). Points to date: — Men: Grant Tyrrell (Hamilton — specialised) 27, 1; Paul Bainbridge (Christchurch). Steve Gurney (Christchurch — specialised) 22, 2; Simon Kennett (Wellington) (Milazo) 19, 4; Aaron Dalton (Auckland) 18. 5. Women: Kathy Lynch (Motueka) 29. 1; Donna McPherson (Palmerston North) 28, 2; Alison Mitchell (Christchurch). 25, 3. Six Canty juniors Canterbury’s representation in the New Zealand amateur golf championships at Taupo from April 16 to 23 will be limited to six talented juniors. The New Zealand representatives, Tony Christie — a semifinalist last year — and Lyndon Cron, a member of the national association’s Titleist development squad, Karl Mariu, the emerging Harewood player, Alastair Sidford, Ken Collett and Jason Sincock, are among the 103 entrants for the foursomes, strokeplay and matchplay championships. Cron and Christie, the present Canterbury foursomes champions, will team together for the national event, while Collett and Sidford and Mariu and Sincock have also joined forces for an assault on the foursomes championship. Leading combinations for the championship include the Australian pairings of Paul Maloney and Lester Peterson and Shane Robinson and Matthew King, while New Zealand’s best prospects of victory might lie with the Auckland pair of Terry Cochrane and Michael Leitch, the Waikato team of Colin Taylor and Allan Smith; and the Auckland-Waikato combination of Phil Aickin and Philip Tataurangi, respectively. First hole-in-one A member of the Christchurch club, Andrew Sloane, scored his first hole-in-one at his home course, Shirley, recently. A nine-handicapper, Sloane used a No. 5 iron to play the perfect shot at the 169 m seventh hole. Ice racers prepared New Zealand’s two ice racers in Europe for the world shorttrack speed championships, Mike McMillen, of Christchurch, and Andrew Nicholson, of Auckland, rounded off their preparations by competing in the Dutch open at the week-end. McMillen gained encouragement for the world titles in Solihull, England, from April 7 to 9, by making the quarterfinals of the 1000 m and finished in the top 20 over-all. Ninetytwo skaters from 10 countries contested the championships. Nicholson also met with reasonable success, being placed in the twenties. McMillen and Nicholson contested a club competition held in conjunction with the Dutch championships and were placed twelfth of the 25 clubs.