Cycling Colin Ryan extends sprint record

Press, 1 March 1982, Page 22

Cycling Colin Ryan extends sprint record

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RAY CAIRNS

. While Colin Ryan (South Canterbury) was extending still further his glittering ’ record in sprinting, on. Saturday, there was perhaps a pointer to his ultimate successor in the New Zealand professional hard track cycling championships. Ryan’s brother-in-law and. protege, David Williams, (South Canterbury), had a memorable first championship as a junior by winning all three titles. Not once was Williams led across the line.

He accounted for Tony Ward (Mid Canterbury), a second-year junior who enjoyed a very warm favouritism for each of the championships, in straight races for the sprint title, and pushed Ward back to second in each of the 1600 m and 8000 m too.

Williams simply had too much strength, and generally it was coming off a wheel and powering away in the straight.' On the face of it, there was not a great deal to threaten these two. but one worth a look at in the future is' Karl Stratton, -from Taranaki, who first showed his worth in the qualifying round of the team pursuit. Wen he had a dreadful run in the 1600 m, but showed fine nerve and initiative to battle his way through for third. Ryan, just as predictably as he was to win his ninth successive senior sprint title, his twelfth in all grades, had his old sparring partner and club-mate, John Reid, to beat for. the sprint, and it was Reid who was also closest, if a length away, at the end of the 1600 m too. But the rest of the meeting, apart from the storming veteran 4000 m victory by Alan O’Hagan (Canterbury), belonged to the Otago teamwork and the Auckland youngster, Bruce Broadman.

The latter was beaten in the first cadet sprint final matching by Darrel Kircher (Mid Canterbury), but in the second of two ridiculously severe referee’s rulings — Tony Crosbie (Mid Canterbury) suffered from the other in the ride-off for third — Kircher was disqualified for

allegedly going above the racing line. But Broadmari well and truly had,his measure in the second and last sprint matching, and was an equally easy winner of the

However, the final accolades had to go to the Otago team. Certainly, the very warm conditions were conducive to fast times, but never before in these championships has a pursuit team all three times gone under smin for the 4000 m, as did Brian Thomson, Robert van der Loo, Paul Hoskin, and Kevin Tait. Thomson and Tait started contesting national championships, 18 years ago as amateurs, but they may look back most fondly in this pursuit series, in which they broke the national record in the qualifying round, then, in the final, caught a goodlooking South Canterbury team with a lap to ride. But that did not finish the Otago team-work for more was to. come in the senior 16,000 m. The willing pair of Clayton Yaxley (Canterbury) and Owen Wylie (Mid Canterbury) had a .useful break established, but the pursuit champion, Wayne Hillary (Otago), who had a rela-tively-comfortable win at the expense of Greg Cox (Canterbury), took the title-holder, Steve Roulston (Mid-Canter-bury) and van der Loo up to the break. That job established, he withdrew; Roulston was dropped; but success still went to Otego, with van der Loo having too much finishing power for the gallant Wylie. At. 34, too, Yaxley could be well satisfied with his two third placings. The 50km points race yesterday morning resulted in a comfortable victory for Tait. He scored consistently throughout to register 63 points, well clear of Ward (41), who owed his second placing to a solo rideaway in the middle stages. Abbreviations used in the results are Auckland (A), Taranaki (T), Canterbury (C),

Mid Canterbury (MC). West Coast (WC), South Canterbury (SC), Otago (O). OPEN 4800 m. individual pursuit Semi-finals- G. Cox (0, 5:28.2, beat P. Hayward (A). 5:30.5. W. Hillary (O) caught S. P. Doherty (C). Finals.- Third place: Doherty, 5:30.0. beat Hayward, 5:30.0. First place: Hillary, 5:15.4, beat Cox. 5:17.1. 4000 m team pursuit Semi-finals.- Otago A, 4:54.9, beat Auckland, 5:06.8. South Canterbury, 5:01.0, beat Canterbury, 5:03.2. Finals— Third place: Auckland, 5:05.6, beat Canterbury A. 5:059. First place: Otago. 4:58.2, beat South Canterbury. 5:15.2. SENIOR 500 m sprint Semi-finals— C. Ryan (SC), beat K. J. Tait (O), 12.6. 14.3. J. Reid (SC) beat M. D. Doyle (C). 13 2 138 Finals.- Third place: Tait beat Doyle, 12.7. 13.8: Doyle beat Tait, 12.6. First place: Ryan beat Reid, 12.7, 12.4. 1600 m Final.- Ryan 1, Reid 2, C. D. Yaxley (C) 3, C. Morris (A) 4. Time, 2:00.6. 16,000 m Final.— R. van der Loo (O) 1, O. Wylie (MC) 2, Yaxley 3. Reid 4, O’Hagan 5. Time, 21:15.6. JUNIOR 600 m sprint Semi-finals— A. Ward (MC) beat K. Read (MC). 12.8, 13.6. D. Williams (SC) beat M. Jones (O), 12.8, 12.4. Finals— Third place: Read beat Jones, 12.9,12.8. First place: Williams beat Ward, 13.2, 12.4. 1600 m Final.- Williams 1. Ward 2. K. Stratton (T) 3, G. D. Schist (C) 4. Time, 2:08.6. 8000 m Final.— Williams. !, Ward 2, Jones 3, Schist 4. Time, 11:16.9. CADET 500 m sprint Quarter-finals.— N. Boardman (A) beat K. Teraki (SC), 13.1. D. Kircher (M) beat C. Easson (O). 13.3. A. Crosbie (MC) beat P. Blackburn (MC), 13.1, G. Gardiner (O) beat T. Corry (5C),13.8. Semi-finals— Boardman beat Gardiner, 12.9, 13.1. Kircher beat Crosbie, 13.4, 13.4. Finals.— Third place: Crosbie beat Gardiner, 13.3, 14.1. First place: Boardman beat Kircher, disqualification, 12.9. 1600 m Final.— Boardman 1, Kircher 2, Blackbum 3, Gardiner 4. Time, 2:16.2. VETERAN 4000 m Final.— A. J. O’Hagan (C) 1. B. McCarthy (A) 2, G. O. Moore (MC) 3. Time, 5:51.1.