Athletics Mighty throw by Wgtn visitor

Press, 1 March 1982, Page 20

Athletics Mighty throw by Wgtn visitor

By

ROD DEW

A mighty winning heave of 15.77 m in the senior men’s shot by the powerful Wellington thrower, Henry Smith, provided an unexpected national championship preview for spectators at Queen Elizabeth II Park on Saturday for the Canterbury interclub track and field meeting. Smith, aged 26, already a winner of the New Zealand shot championship three times, is favoured to win a fourth title in the national championships at the park next week-end. In spite of an achilles tendon injury which has been troubling him for the last three weeks, he looked every inch a champion on Saturday. His first put was an impressive 15.35 m, and that would have been good enough for victory, but in the next round he sent the iron ball thudding out to 15.77 m. The only athlete close was the former New Zealand decathlon champion, Mene Mene (Technical), who achieved a good distance of 15.09 m on his second attempt — below his best but perfectly satisfactory as a preliminary to his big effort next Saturday. Mene has hopes of , breaking the Canterbury record of 15.66 m, set by Harvey Ruffell 10 years ago. ' Smith and another top Wellington athlete, Roger Knaggs, who was fourth in. Saturday’s shot, have come to Christchurch a week early for the national championships. They will both spend the week training with Mene and under the guidance of the accomplished Canterbury coach, Mr Valdemars Briedis. "If I can work with Valdy it will be marvellous,” Smith said. “He is a terrific coach. It was through his influence that ! broke 17 metres in the shot last season.” Smith, a postal supervisor with the Post Office, describes himself as “a parttime athlete.” Unlike, some others, he says, he has to work. This summer his best has been 15.98 m, not much greater than he achieved on Saturday. His 15.77 distance was quite outstanding considering it was achieved at something less than maximum effort. “Next week I will give it everything I’ve got, regardless of any injury,” he said. Later in the day, Smith won the discus with a modest

(for him) distance of 47.10 m from Matt Leech (Technical) and Mene. Leech recorded 45.56 m and Mene 44.30 m. In the national championships, Smith has no intention of restricting himself to the shot. He will also attempt the discus, in which his main stumbling block will be the evergreen international, Robin Tait, of Auckland. “I need to throw at least 55 to 56m to beat him, but I feel I can do it,” Smith, also, a New Zealand representative, said. This will mean an improvement of more than three metres on his best so far this season. Tom Birnie (New Brighton), who will attempt three championship races next week-end, confirmed his recent good form with a 52.7 s run over 400 m and an effortless win in the 1500 m in 3min 47.65. Behind him, Canterbury’s two steeplechase specialists, Neil Lowsley and Peter Renner (both New Brighton), filled the minor placings. Lowsley was runner-up in a smart 3min 48s and Renner was three-fifths of a second slower. Sue Bruce (New Brighton), Canterbuiy’s outstanding middle distance runner last season, is making a late recovery from a stress fracture in a leg which has kept her away from racing for much of this season. She emphasised the speed of her recovery with an outstanding win in the women’s 1500 m, in 4min 33.95. Mary O’Connor (University), the national road champion and a New Zealand cross-country representative for many years, gained what appeared to be a winning break on the last lap. She sprinted strongly from ,300 m and was still comfortably ahead coming around the final turn. However, Miss Bruce slowly narrowed the gap. The two were level half-way up the straight. Miss O’Connor surged ahead, but it was her last effort. Miss Bruce edged past in the final run to the finish, winning by centimetres. Miss O’Connor was second in 4min 34s and Anne Marie Keown ' (University) was third in 4min 395. Jan Bishop (Technical) won the shot with a put of 14.46 m, but she did not have competition from Vai Young (Technical), who will be her main rival next week-end.

Mrs Young was resting a sore wrist, but this did not stop her winning the discus with a fine throw of 44.04 m. Miss Bishop was second with 42.44 m and Mrs Mene third.

Miss Bishop, the national javelin champion, was under pressure from. Lynn Aben (Technical) in this event, which could hardly be a great comfort with the championships only a week away. Miss Bishop achieved 40.40 m and Miss Aben’s best was just 26cm less than this. Sally Mene (Technical), holder of the national record, was close behind with 37.44 m, a promising effort on a limited training background. The New Zealand heptathlon representative, Karen Forbes (Old Boys), showed good form, winning the long jump with 5.52 m and the 100 m hurdles with a smart 15.2 s run. She cleared 1.64 m in the high jump for her third victory of the day. Christine Sutton (Old Boys) had slightly too much speed for her young rival, Rebecca Allison (Toe H), in the women’s 400 m, winning in 59.75. The men’s 400 m was won by Paul Cuff (Technical) in a very close finish with Tony Gill (Toe H). Both were credited with the same time, 49.85.

The Peterson family again dominated the sprints. Evan Peterson (Technical) won the men’s 100 m in 10.8 s and his sister, Bev Peterson (Technical), dipped under 12s with a fine 11.8 s dash. Vicky Lewis (Old Boys) just missed a sub--125 run in finishing second. The New Zealand high jump record-holder, - Terry Lomax (Old Boys), won this event with a leap of 2m. This was considerably below his best, but his great reputation for rising to the occasion still leaves him as favourite for the national event . next week-end.

The senior pole vault provided the biggest upset of the day, .with Canterbury’s two top vaulters, Kieran McKee and Mike Ritchie (Toe H), failing to achieve a height. Ritchie came in at 4.50 m and took the bar down on each of his three attempts. McKee gambled on starting with a Commonwealth Games qualifying height of 4.95 m — and lost. Nevertheless, top honours stayed with the McKee family. His younger brother, Derek McKee, won with an excellent vault of 4.50 m.