Clarke Wins Marathon Championship

Chronicle (Levin), 8 March 1948, Page 2

Clarke Wins Marathon Championship

Presis AssociauonJ

(Per

DUNEDIN, March 7. The New Zealand inaj'atlion championship vrliich was decidecl 011 Saturday in conjunetion with the New Zealand triu'k and field championships was won by J. R. Clarke, the Canterbury crossoountry and road champion., who compieted the course of 2G miles ana 385 yards in 2hrs. 4-tmin. (5sec. This vvas the fastest tiine in whicli the championship liad been won and was 54 seeonas r u/ider the New Zealand standard tune, altliougli outside the Olympic qualifying standard of 21u-. 30min. The raee Wfls lield. under ideal conditions, the -vypa.1 hei; • being -nuld , wjth only a ; lighl breiwp; anjl of the; ninp startei's seven linished. ... The stiprjt was from in front- tof . fcfte finaiu sjt,and at, Carisbrook andjafter .proceedi,ug r'ound'the track thp;rpnner§J,ett the ground apd followed a.pourse ivhielT eventually took thjcm along : Fdrbury Road to Vietoria. Road,,. thenee .througn ./the >St. Ivikla tram terniinus to the Kennels. After eoming on to Peninsula ! Road thcy proeeeded Tb tlie »tuming point 150 yards' on the eity side of-tne .Droad .Bay jc.tty, tlie sajue rodfe bemg covered on tlie homeward journey. •The tillekolder (/i. Bromley, West .Cpast,. Nprqi-'Lslandl'led out from L. E. Fox. (a former champion of Canterbury)-, W-. ,u. Wells (West Coast,' North Island, the New Zeal&nd .crosscountry champion), and Clarke, 'E. Jjittler and. A., B. Brownc (Auckland). For the • lirst Oouplo of miles these men ran in a hiinch with the O.tago trio (D. ^ F'mcham, F. Arthur, and A. J. Barr) aboux 400 vards back. The four-mil^ mara was let't behind in 24min. 7sec., Weiis and Bramley being at the head of tne lield with Biowne, Clarke, and Fox on llioir licels. Tbere was little cilange in the positions at the end of eight miles whicli were compieted in 49inui. 35sec., Wells, Bromley ajid Clarke Oeing 20 yards ahead of Browne and irox who had opened up a gap of about 50 yards on Littler. Thal order was still maintained at. tlie lurning point whicli was reached in 81 min. . 40sec. Fincliani and Artliur were 10 minutes behind the leaders at this stage ot' the journey and Barr fol lowed four minutes liiter. Wells. Clarke, and Bromley were togother over Ihe next live miles but with Clarke forcing the pace. Wells collapsed atter 10 miles had been covered. Clarke runniiig strongly opened up a gap of 100 yards from Bromley in the next miie, covoring the 20 miles in 2 hours 4 minutes. Fox was 75 yards back l'ollowed by Browne and Littler. Witli tlirec miles to go Clafke had lncreased lus lead to 200 yards, Fox being about .'500 yards behind# Fox, however, was slowiug down to a wai k and was passed by Littler, Browne having withdrawn at this point. Tliere was a large crowd. at Carisbrook vvhen Clarke sprinteu on to tlie track to finish full of dasn more Llian 400 yards ahead ol! Bromley whose timo was 2 hours 45 minutes 50 3-5 stk'onds. Then came Littler who had run wcll throughout. Result: — Marathoii : J. Clarke (Canterbury) i, G. Bromley (West Coast, North Island) 2; C. Littler (Auckland) 3; L. K. Fox (Canterbury) 4; F. Arthur (Otago) 5; D. Pineham (Otago) 6; A. J. Barr (Otago) 7. Tiine 2 hours 44 minutes 0 seconds.