Brave Rear returns to running

Press, 16 May 1989, Page 36

Brave Rear returns to running

PA Auckland When Gail Rear woke up at her Kawakawa home today she felt as though she had not even run a step. Yet only the day before the 28-year-old former national crosscountry champion had completed one of the more remarkable comebacks in New Zealand sport. Rear had finished second in the women’s section of the Huntly Power Station halfmarathon in her first

competitive outing since her near-fatal accident last August. She was on a training run in Whangarei when she was hit by a car. She fractured her skull and spent several weeks fighting for her life in an Auckland hospital. In Sunday’s halfmarathon the courageous Rear started conservatively before threading her way through the large field to be second woman home behind Aucklander Helen Moros running the 21.2 km in Ih 16m 555.

Moros ran strongly throughout to win in 1:15.33. “I’m really thrilled with the way I went and the support I got from all the other runners,” Rear said yesterday. “And I’ve no after effects from the race which is great. When I woke up this morning I wouldn’t even have known I’d run a race. “I’m absolutely amazed at the support I received. All along the way the other runners were calling out and encouraging me. It’s certainly given

me the incentive to continue.” Rear underwent a series of tests with a neurologist in Auckland on Friday. She has yet to hear the results but will have further tests on May 26. Her aim now is to run the cross-country season and, if she continues to progress, it is not inconceivable she could regain the national title she won for four consecutive years from 1984 to 1987. She says she is un-

likely to try to make the New Zealand track team for the Commonwealth Games, however. She has run times just outside the guideline selection standards for 3000 m and 10,000 m but believes the competition for places in these two events would be too tough for her to make it.

Paul Herlihy, meanwhile, gained a personal boost to his Coipmonwealth Games hopes when he beat John Campbell to win the men’s section of the Huntly half-marathon.