Marathon Record Entry

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31000, 4 March 1966, Page 15

Marathon Record Entry

(N.Z. Press Association) HAMILTON. Sixty entries have been received for the New Zealand marathon which will be held in conjunction with the national junior athletic championship at Hamilton next week. Included in the record lineup is the brilliant 22-year-old Greymouth runner, D. C. MeKenzie, who will be representing Canterbury. McKenzie is being hailed as the greatest marathon runner New Zealand has ever produced and a warm favourite to win the gruelling 26-mile

365 yard event at the Empire Games in August. Recently McKenzie, in searing heat, won his provincial title in 2hr 17min 22sec, which bettered by 16.6 sec the fastest time ever clocked in New Zealand. . The previous best was set by the Aucklander, R. L. Puckett, who ran in both the 1960 Rome and 1964 Tokyo Olympic marathons. Puckett will also be in the field at Hamilton, and will be making every endeavour to win his sixth national marathon title. He has never been beaten over the distance in this country. Such is his keenness to win at Hamilton and qualify for Jamaica, that he by-passed the Auckland marathon to concentrate on the nationals.

Also in the field is the wily J. L. Julian (Auckland), who on past occasions has beaten some of the finest marathon exponents in the world. A veteran of two Olympics and one Empire Games, Julian won the national marathon in 1963. Another with a fine chance of victory is Waikato’s M. R. Ryan who, in his first marathon at Hamilton before Christmas, ran 2hr 21min to finish only 150 yards behind Julian. It is expected these four will set the pace for most of the journey over a very fast and flat course. There is every possibility of a time being recorded of around 2hr 15min in good conditions.