Six-Mile Win Baillie’s Sixth N.Z. Championship

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31001, 5 March 1966, Page 13

Six-Mile Win Baillie’s Sixth N.Z. Championship

1 he New Zealand Olympic representative, W. D. Baillie (Auckland), won his sixth New Zealand six-mile title at Rugby Park yesterday—but only after a tremendous tactical battle and a shattering final lap of 58sec.

In die last 150 yards lie had to sprint desperately to stay ahead of the outstanding Wellington distance runner, B. J. Everitt. At the finish Baillie’s winning margin was only six-tenths of a second, one of the closest finishes to the race for some years.

This splendid finish was most certainly the highlight of the first day of the New Zealand senior track and field championships, which produced many fine individual performances but few outstanding times. Rain overnight and in the morning threatened to wash out the meeting, but the weather broke shortly before the start and most of the events were held in brilliant I sunshine. The track remained in exceptionally good condition throughout, although athletes found it rather dead, especially in the shade on the back straight. Second Fastest Baillie's winning time in) the six miles was 28min 48sec. j the second fastest for a New Zealand championship and | considerably better than his I winning time of 29min 14.4 sec j last season In finishing second in; 28m in 48.6 sec, Everitt! equalled the second fastest! championship winning time i on record. M. Ryan (Waikato) made! the finish a genuine three-; man affair by taking third! position in 28min 50.1 sec. Throughout the race Baillie followed his usual tactics. He did his best not to lead the field, although a surprising change of pace by Everitt caught him napping at the half-way point and forced him to take an unscheduled lap. But generally he sat behind j the leaders and relied on hisl sprint to bring him through I on the last lap. Nearly Failed These tactics succeeded i once again. However, they so i nearly failed. Baillie made his . move less than 200 yards from ■ the finish. He sprinted past; Everitt, who was leading at ■ the time, and gained a break <>f about two yards before! the Wellington competitor re-1 sponded. Baillie’s famous sprint! finish failed to carry him well | ciear and Everitt, although | straining badly, was able to; hold his own. Ryan, too, maintained his position in the runl to the tape. In spite of the relativelyl fast time, the race was a splendid tactical struggle throughout. It started extremely slowly so that an unusually large proportion of the field was able to stay with the leaders. On the third to last lap seven athletes made up the main bunch and it was only on the penultimate and final laps that the trio of Baillie. Everitt and Ryan showed any

superiority over the re- [ mainder. A tremendous throw of 61ft | 7in by the 19st Auckland giant L. R. Mills, in the shot put was the outstanding field events performance of the day. This distance, achieved on his last throw, was the best ever recorded in a New Zealand championship and not far short of his pending national record of 62ft 3Jin. Mills won the event virtually as he liked. Except for the first round, when he stepped out of the circle too soon [after putting the shot out to more than 60ft, he led throughout. All his throws were more than 59ft and he twice exceeded 61ft, demonstrating the consistency of a true champion. The surprise of the competion was the failure of the former Canterbury competitor. R. D. Tait (Otago), who 'could do no better than finish [third with a best throw of 51ft o|in, well below his best Retained Title ■ The 16-year-old defending ’ chamnion in the women's javellin, Miss S. A. Flynn (Canterbury), retained her title with [an outstanding throw of 133 ft i3in. This was the third best 'performance ever recorded at la national chamoionship meeting by a woman but it took her some time to settle down and reach something like her true form. For the first three rounds she trailed Miss B. Walker (Hawke's Bay-Poverty bay), taking the lead for the first time with her fourth throw of 110 ft Ilin. Her winning throw came at her next attempt. Miss Walker finally finished runner-up, her best throw being 119 ft 3in. [ Canterbury's Miss L. Curtis 'provided one of the surprises [ of the day when she thwarted the attempt of Miss P. Burnett (Waikato) to win her [third successive high jump ititle. Both Miss Curtis and [Miss Burnett were successful [with the bar at sft 3in and when both failed at the next [height the title went to Miss 1 Curtis on a count-back. Another Canterbury athlete, [Mrs L. Wilson, was a close (third after drooping out at 15ft 2in. Soft Take-off I The men's long jump was [extremely close, and D. S. Norris (Auckland), the national record-holder, only won after a stimulating struggle with W. Jowett (Waikato) and C. Jacobson (Wellington). His winning jump of 22ft lljin was well below his best on a soft take-off. Jowett was a close second with 22ft 6in. Jacobsen’s best was 22ft lin. The men's hammer throw provided several upsets. The defending champion and

record-holder, D. D. Leech (Wellington) could not produce his best form and finished third. The 1954 Empire Games captain. M. Carr (Wellington), failed to gain a major placing in the event for the first time in 21 years of continuous competition. He was sixth, his best throw being 149 ft 6in. L. Devlin (West Coast North Island) won the title for the first time with an excellent throw of 162 ft 7in. Macdonald Out Canterbury’s biggest hope in the mile, J. D. Macdonald, was unexpectedly eliminated in the heats. The pace was so slow that the result depended entirely on sprinting ability and Macdonald could not match four of his younger rivals. D. Sirl (Auckland) won the heat in 4min 28.8 sec. Mac(donaid, who recorded 4min ,7.ssec only a few weeks ago, (made the mistake of allow- ( ing the slow pace to be mam(tained. His best time would ( probably have been good I enough to gain him third 'place in the final today. : The other heat was won iby R. Maddaford (Auckland). J. Davies (Waikato), the dei fending champion, qualified for the final with a fourth I placing. Sprinters Qualify Canterbury’s leading sprinters all qualified in their respective events. D. W. Mackenzie, the defending quar-ter-mile champion, was second in his heat of the 440 yards and later won his 100 yards heat in the impressive time iof 9.9 sec. | The defending champion in (the 100 yards, A. G. Steel, (won the second heat in lOsec.l ID. Minards also qualified in the 100 yards. In the women's sprints, Misses J. Rose and B. Poulsen qualified for the 100 yards final. The Auckland girl. Miss B. Mathews, recorded the fastest time, lO.Ssec, in the first heat.

The Canterbury combination of Minards, A. Tweedy, Mackenzie and Steel easily won the 4 x 110 yards relay championship. Steel, who was favouring his injured leg. did not appear fully extended. In spite of this the time, 42.55ec. was a good one. Auckland was second in 42.8 s ec.

Men: Auckland 21, Waikato 7, West Coast-North Island 5, Southland 5, Hawke’s BayPoverty Bay 4, Otago 2. Progress points after the first day are: Women: Canterbury 11, Waikato 4, Hawke’s BayPoverty Bay 3.