Would Rather Race Russians

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30956, 12 January 1966, Page 13

Would Rather Race Russians

A notable absentee from the field for the Canterbury 10-miie road championship on Saturday will be B. R. Jones, the 23-year-old University student who raced away with last season’s title in such effortless fashion.

Instead, he has elected to pit his ability against the Russians, L. Ivanov and V. Kudinskiy, in the international 5000 metres track event at Lancaster Park, which will also take place on Saturday. This removes much of the interest from the 10-mile championship for it promised to develop into a stirring struggle between Jones and the young Greymouth marathon runner, D. C. McKepzie.

Jones considers that the defence of his Canterbury title is only secondary to the opportunity of being able to compete against the Russian internationals and New Zealand's top distance runners, W. D. Baillie, N. Scott, J. L. Davies and P. Welsh. If he can perform creditably in such company it will considerably boost his standing on the national athletics scene.

Two other prominent 10milers, J. Comber (Marist) and E. Gray (Greymouth), have also decided to race in the 5000 metres in preference to the road championship. Gray was the third Canterbury competitor, behind Jones, to finish in the New Zealand 10-mile championship at the beginning of this season The entry of the Jugoslav athlete, F. Cervan, in the 5000 metres has now been confirmed. Financial problems had to be negotiated with Auckland before he could be allowed to compete and at one time it appeared that he would be watching the race from the stand because Auckland wanted too much money for him.

The complete field for the 5000 metres, which promises to be the feature event of the

meeting, will be: Ivanov, Kudinskiy (Russia), Cervan (Yugoslavia), Baillie, Scott (Auckland), Welsh, B. Ibbotson < Otago), K. Hamilton, Jones, Gray, Comber and J. Power (Canterbury).