Runner unfazed by status

Press, 24 October 1989, Page 48

Runner unfazed by status

PA Wellington Inexperience could be an advantage when it comes to the 1990 Commonwealth Games marathon, a Hastings runner, Rex Wilson, said yesterday. Wilson, who returned home last week from a seven-month United States sojourn, heads the threestrong New Zealand men’s marathon team for the Auckland Games. But the personal best 2hr 12min 27s he ran at Long Beach in May was only his third marathon and came two years after his previous fastest, a 2:14 from the Peking marathon. “Sometimes being a little inexperienced at the distance can be an advantage,” Wilson said. But he said it could also cut the other way, especially with a field of the calibre the Games marathon is certain to attract < s

“If someone goes out really quick, the Africans or the Austra-

lians, I’m going to have to really start thinking for myself. I’m not going to let them go if I can help it,” Wilson said. “I’d rather be in the top three than the top five.” He.has no illusions about the time needed to be competitive. “If you run around 2:10, it’ll get you pretty close to the top five in the Commonwealth.” Wilson’s performance in winning Long Beach, a largely solo performance in warm, muggy conditions, has encouraged him to aim towards a time in that vicinity at Auckland. “I like to think I could do it, if everything goes perfectly.” > Wilson has not run a marathon since Long Beach, although his training has been a solid diet of 193 km a week and has included a ’! 29:35 10km and a 63min halfmarathon at Philadelphia. Now he hopes to combine a shift to Tokoroa with an attack on the 10,000 m Games trials jn Wellington

on December 9-10 as part of his speed-building programme towards the Games. Wilson came under fire for his decision not to return to New Zealand for the Games trial in Hastings on August 26. But he said the winning time at the trial, a 2:16.31 from Paul Herlihy, showed that it would not have been worth returning. Wilson applied for dispensation but it was not granted, a decision he accepts as reasonable. “It was a gamble I took — I knew I could have missed out. If the guys had run under 2:15 at the trial, I think they could have got-in front of us. And that would have been fair enough,” he said. The selectors pained Wilson, Herlihy and Aucklander John Campbell — who received dispensation from the trial because of injury — as the male marathoners for the Qmes.