HARRIER H. HOPPER WINS DOUBLE EVENT; SENIOR TITLE AND HANDICAP

Wanganui Chronicle, 25 July 1949, Page 3

HARRIER H. HOPPER WINS DOUBLE EVENT; SENIOR TITLE AND HANDICAP

Henery Hopper won both the Wanganui Harrier Club senior championship and sealed handicap event on Saturday afternoon. The junior title was won by C. O'Donnell, while J. Little won the junior sealed handicap. The seniors ran over 61 miles on the Bramwell course while the juniors ran 34 miles, both races starting and finishing at the racecourse. The seniors got away to a good start with the field being tairly well bunched in the early stages, then going up Springvale Road, Hopper, Burnett and Hoskins were showing the lead to the remainder. Entering the first hill climb, Hopper was just ahead of Burnett by making a good jump over the ference, with Hoskins about 20 yards behind, a similar distance to Vvauter and Towgood, who were teaming well together, while Locke making a strong bid to catch up. After crossing the country and along the road on the turn for home, Hopper had increased his lead slightly on Burnett, while Hoskins was about 60 yards back, and the remainder at short intervals. On the run down to the Church corner, Hopper was going really well, and here Burnett was forced to retire owing to cramp, and as Hopper had gone over the last hill, Hoskins, who was now in second place was just commencing to climn, while Walker and Towgood were a similar distance behind. Despite the heavy going over the last two paddocks, ail runners kept the pressure up and Hopper was first to enter the racecourse and came on to win his first club championship by nearly a minute margin from Hoskins, who had run a game race for runnerup. On the latter s’tages, Walker dropped his co-marker to finish a minute behind Hoskins for 3rd., while Locke had struggled on hard and came up in 4th, place just heading off Towgood. The remainder finished at close intervals, with Hickey and Myers showing improved form. Th e pace was very slow at the start of the junior race, and was not until the road was reached that they started to make a forward move, then O’Donnell went out to the front, with Goldsack, Just and Belfit chasing him. However, O’Donnell’s fitness and ability on the road proved too good on the home .run and he was able to hold a comfortable lead and thus win his first championship race over crosscountry. Goldsack and Just, running together tried gamely to overtake O'Donnell and only failed by about three-quarters of a minute, while Just faded a little in the sprint in. Belfit ran really w ell in his first season to be just another minute behind, the others being not far behind, actually just over 5 minutes between the first and last runner. Results, Senior: H. Hopper, 41.37, 1; A. Hoskins, 42.34, 2; H. Walker, 43.38, 3; P. Locke, 43.58, 4; W. Towgood, 44.01, 5; E. Reu, 45.26, 6; D. Weller, 46.03, 7; B. Russ, 46.34, 8; I. Burgess and J. Greig 47.52, 9; W. Hickey, 48.14, 11; L. Meyers, 48.28, 12; F. Sedon, 48.30, 13 ;G. Hopper, 48.55, 14; B. Simpson, 49.54, 15; J. Harrison, 50.20, 16. Junior: C. O’Donnell, 21.23, 1; R. Goldsack, 22.06, 2; F. Just, 33.25, 3; K. Belfit, 22.35, 4; D. Collins, 23.37 5; J. Little 25.01, 6; B. McCarthy, 25.27, 7; L. Moodie, 26.46, 8. A sealed handicap was run in conjunction with the championships and resulted as follows:—Seniors: H. Hopper (25sec.) 41.12, 1; I. Burgess (6.30), 41.22, 2; L. Meyers (7.00) 41.28, 3;W. Hickey (6.40) 41.34, 4. Junior: J. Little (5.00) 20.01, 1; F. Just (2.00) 20.25, 2; B. McCarthy (5.00), 20.27, 3; K. Belfit (1.50), 20.45, 4. At the conclusion of the race members and supporters were entertained to afternoon tea by the married men of the club. REP. TEAMS SELECTED. The following teams have been selected to represent the club at the West Coast championships to be held at Marton on August 6:—Senior: C. Doreen (capt.); H. Hopper; J. Burnett A. Hoskins; H. Walker and P. Locke. Senior B: C. Guy (capt.); W. Towgood: E. Reu; B. Russ; J. Greig and P. McAfee. Individuals: S. Hopper and I.' Burgess. Junior: C. O’Donnell (capt.); R. Goldsack; F. Just; K. Belfit; D. Collins; and J. Little; (Individual) B. McCarthy and R. Taylor. Colts: Individual, L. Moodie.