Montgomery Dominates Speed Skating Titles

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31096, 27 June 1966, Page 14

Montgomery Dominates Speed Skating Titles

The reigning New Zealand long track speed skating champion. R. J. Montgomery' (Lake Ida Winter Sports Association), gave tangible evidence of his great versatility when he won every event in the Canterbury championships which concluded at Little Lake Ida yesterday afternoon.

Although he had little strong opposition, Montgomery’ was in fine form and his times were well up to national standard in all races. At the end of the second day he was the only skater to have contested all events and accordingly was the only one eligible for the championship aggregate. Conditions on Saturday were excellent for the 500 and 5000 metres. There was a 14 degree frost on the lake at mid-day, though unusual cracks in the ice provided the competitors with some problems. Yesterday conditions were much worse. A very strong north-west wind began to thaw the ice and it cut up very easily. Unable To Compete

Much of the interest was taken from the championships by the fact that the 1965 aggregate title-holder, R. Falkingham, was unable to compete. He had trained himself almost to the point of a breakdown and a little more than a week ago was confined to bed with a tem-| perature of 103 deg. He was advised by his doctor not to defend his title. And so he settled for the next best thing. When he saw Montgomery battling against the elements on his own in the 10,000 metres yesterday it was too much for him. He raced up alongside Montgomery and paced him for some of the distance. Others also tried to pace him but they could not keep up for long enough to be of any great use. After the race, Montgomery’s coach (Mr J. H. Havenaar) expressed satisfaction with his time of 22min Isec. “Nobody could expect a good time with the ice and wind as it was.” Montgomery started the 10,000 metres a little too fast

[with two opening laps of 47 | and 48sec but soon settled down to consistently lap the 400 metre track at around 52sec. Ability Shown He showed just as much ability in the sprint over 160 metres. This was the last event of the championships and by the time>it was held there was quite a lot of water lying on the ice. His winning time of 19.8 sec was a good one taking the circumstances into account. K. Nicolle was second in 20.4 sec and xn intermediate, P. McLachlan, produced an excellent time of 20.8 sec for third. McLaughlan won the intermediate men’s aggregate.

Results were: Senior 160 Metres Straight.—R. J. Montgomery (Lake Ida Winter Sports Association), 19.8, 1: K. Nicolle (Centaurus), 20.4, 2: P. McLachlan (Lake Ida), 20.8, 3. 500 Metres.—Montgomery. 53.5. 1; Nicolle. 55.4, 2; I. Thomson (Lake Ida). 62.5. 3. 1500 Metres. Montgomery. 2.55.1, 1: Thomson, 3:39, 2: Nicolle. 3:43.2. 3. 5000 Metres. Montgomery. 9:27.6. 1; Thomson, 12:39.2, 2. 10,000 Metres— Montgomery. 22:1.0. 1. Overall Aggregate.— Montgomery, 234.676 points, 1. Intarmadlata 500 Metres—P. A. McLachlan (Lake Ida), 55.8, 1. 1500 Metres. McLachlan, 3:25.2, 1: C. Sparrow (Centaurus), 3:46.2, 2. 3000 Metres.—McLachlan. 6:58, 1 5000 Metres. —McLachlan, 12.23, 1; Sparrow, 13.43.9. 2. Overall Aggregate.—McLachlan 1.