Strong Field For Kennett Cup ’Chase

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31079, 7 June 1966, Page 15

Strong Field For Kennett Cup ’Chase

Record entries have been received for the Christchurch Harrier Club’s Kennett Cup steeplechase at Queen Elizabeth II Park next Saturday in which a total of about 350 runners will compete.

With nine leading national athletes competing by invitation and strong entries from Canterbury, the six-mile race should produce the highest standard of competition yet seen in this important annual fixture. The senior event has attracted about 150 starters. The Otago University team, headed by P. Welsh, is the favourite for team honours, but Tokoroa with the Olympic miler, J. Davies, and the Empire Games selection M. Ryan, could produce strong competition. The Christchurch Harrier Club, with W. Kennedy, J. Power, B. Dyer, and K. Williams, should produce the strongest competition from among the clubs in Canterbury, nearly all of vhich r*e represented in the event.

About 30 runners from clubs outside Canterbury are starters in the senior event and come from Auckland, Tokoroa, Dunedin, Marlborough and New, Plymouth. The large field has been made possible mainly through the sponsorship of the race by Skellerup Industries and the trophies ire probably the most substantia] of any offered for an annual steeplechase event in the South Island. The individual winner is expected to be P. Welsh, of Otago University, but M. Ryan (Tokoroa), who recentlyachieved a two-mile cross-

country time of 9min 15sec, could cause an upset. The Olympic miler, J. Davies, is reported to be very fit after recovering from a heel tendon injury and could also be among the major placings because of his redoubtable speed between the jumps.

B. Rose, who with G. Dravitzki, is competing from New Plymouth, could also prove strong competition. Rose returned a time of 13min 21sec for three miles recently. P. Sidon and B. Taylor from Dunedin can also be expected to be among the close finishers.

Among the Canterbury runners Kennedy, Power, Dyer, Williams, all of Christchurch, and J. D. Macdonald, of Olympic, who is currently very fit, should be among the leaders.

The race is run over four laps of the mile and a half circuit, which has 32 jumps. The hurdles have been lowered about five inches this year and some Canterbury steeplechase jumps introduced to make what should prove a fst and testing course.

The junior event is over three miles and th- two colts races and the women’s races will be over miles.

Chile Win.—Chile’s World Cup team beat Sheffield United, the English First Division side, 2-0 in the five-nation soccer tournament on Sunday.