McKenzie Wins 10 Mile Road Race

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30960, 17 January 1966, Page 14

McKenzie Wins 10 Mile Road Race

The ginger-haired West Coast athlete, 22-year-old D. C. McKenzie, forged yet another link in the chain that promises to secure him a berth in the New Zealand Empire Games team as a marathon runner when he raced away from a large field to win the Canterbury 10-mil,e road title, held in conjunction with the international meeting at Lancaster Park on Saturday.

McKenzie entered the park at the end of his journey well ahead of the field and had completed his victory lap before the second man home, C. F. Reece (St. Martins), came through the gate. His time for the distance of 48min 46.55ec was a world class one, well inside the official Canterbury 10-mile track record of 51min 4sec held by R. J. Stevens (Olympic). However, it was not quite as good as the 48min 35sec he recorded in finishing second to W. D. Baillie (Auckland in the New Zealand championship earlier this season.

Reece’s performance was also an excellent one. His time was 51min 19sec, lsec faster than B. R. Jones’s winning time in the same event last season. He set his own pace instead of trying to head McKenzie throughout and at the finish was running very easily and well ahead of the third runner, R. Alcorn (Methodist).

Jones did not defend his title and raced in the international 5000 metres instead. Consistent Performances The consistency of McKenzie’s two 10-mile runs this season suggests that the official world record, held by M. Batty (Great Britain) at 47min 26.8 sec, is not beyond his capabilities. The young Greymouth runner took the lead at the three-quar-ter mile mark and was never headed. At the four-mile marker he was more than 100 yards ahead of C. F. Reece, who was followed by his brother, D. Reece, and Alcorn. At the half-way point McKenzie was timed at 24min 23sec, and at this stage he had increased his lead over C. F. Reece to more than 350 yards and 47sec. The first two placings appeared to be virtually decided. However, there was a race within a race going on between Alcorn and D. Reece.

Alcorn finally came out on top, recording the excellent time of 51min 55sec, D. Reece finished 30sec later. Results were:— D. C. McKenzie (G.), 48:46.5, 1; C. F. Reece (St. M.), 51:19.0, 2; P. Alcorn (Meth.), 51:55.0, 3; D. Reece (St. M.), 52:35, 4: T Preece (T.H.), 53:3, 5.