Port Hills Relay

Press, Volume C, Issue 29513, 13 May 1961, Page 5

Port Hills Relay

Conducted for the first time last year as a Silver jubilee race, the Marist Harrier Club's Port Hills Relay was voted one of the most popular and efficiently-con-ducted races on the interclub programme. With the approval of the Canterbury Cross-Country Running Management Committee, the club decided to hold a similar event again today and another excellent entry has been received.

Twenty teams are expected to contest the 22-mile event, run in five stages, and the number of teams would have been higher had the club not limited the entry from any one club to three teams. Next year the organisers may consider removing the restriction from the number of entries a club may make and there is a prospect provision may be made also for a race for colts (under 16) runners. Although the course for today’s race from St. Peter's School, Fisher avenue, will be the same as for last year, some variation has been made in the length of some of the laps. The first lap of 4.2 miles will take the runners to the Sign of the Kiwi. The second lap along the Summit road has been shortened from 6.7 miles to 5.3 and will end at the top of the Bridle path. The runners will continue along the Summit road to the Mount Pleasant road, where the runners will turn down to complete the lengthened third lap of 3.7 miles at Redcliffs. On the fourth lap the runners will turn along Bridle Path road to Heathcote, ending a 3.3 mile section, where Martindale street goes under the railway line. The last lap runners will have a distance of 5.5 miles to cover to reach the finish at the starting point.