Cross Country Championships Will Be Decided Tomorrow

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 755, 30 August 1929, Page 14

Cross Country Championships Will Be Decided Tomorrow

SAVIDAN DEFENDS TITLE CLASSIC event of the harrier season in the Dominion, the race for 10,000-metres 'cross-country championship of New Zealand is to be held at Dunedin tomorrow, starting and finishing on the Wingatni racecourse.

This year It. A. Rose is missing • from tiro list of entrants, having gone i into retirement after his valiant but unsuccessful attempt to wrest Hie premier long-aistance event of the year irom Aucklander J. \V. fcSavidan at Wanganui last winter. Auckland’s scratch team, led by Savidan, will be there, but there is little hope of our men doing anything as a learn against strong combinations from Otago and Wellington. Savidan nas lveiu. the title lor the past two seasons; ana if he is again successful tomorrow his Mill be a record unique in crosscountry history. F. L. Witten, Auckland’s second string, is a fine runner, whose performances, umortunately, arc liable to be spoilt by erratic periods. It he strikes lorm and maintains it tomorrow, he ( will no aoubt surprise the Southerners. The only oilier man In the Auckland team likely to win a place in the van is S. Andrews, who last year ran m the Wellington provincial team. The three others, Eyre, Barker and Crum should bo capable of putting up a sobu effort as a team, but the inability to travel of Kells and Cooper, who M ould have been second and third men respectively, is a loss which cannot be completely made up. STIFF COURSE The race tomorrow will be a cross-country event in every sense of the word, for the Otago centre has had good reason to remember the fiasco here in 1926 when the ‘"cross-country" race was run on Alexander Park. Through the bluegum plantations, over sod walls, wire fences, up-hill, down-hill, , through gorse and manuka, the two dozen or so competitors will be compelled to find their way. Other “obstacles” include watercourses, gates, ditches, boggy ground and ploughed fields. Especially if the weather is wet, the six and a-half miles over such a course will make the race a most arduous one. Competition for the individual and the teams titles promises to be very keen. J. W. Savidan will start as a decided favourite for the individual j title, and on previous track and cross- j ! country form, he looks like the winI ner. But both J. G. Barnes, the Gani terbury champion, and J. J. Morris, the ! Otago champion, will be able to make the title holder show his best goods. Seventy started in the Canterbury Championships a week or so ago, over the full 10,0ou metres of a very severe course, and Barnes, going out on his own after two miles had been covered, won as he pleased in 40 20 2-5. When Savidan walked off with the New Zealand title on the Canterbury course in 1927, he also won very easily in nearly a minute under Barnes’s time. The j Canterbury star, however, is in great ’ form, and Savidan will have to find out 1 just how good he is. Alan Park, who ran second to Barnes j in the Canterbury race, is a youthful runner who improves every time out. and should finish well up in the list on Saturday. Another good youth, R. M. Barrer. finished third, and these two men are likely to show improvement at the New Zealand fixture. Age and experience in the Canterbury team will be represented by A. D. Kane and G. L. Austin, Canterbury champion last year, who finished fourth and fifth respectively, both being somewhat disap- | pointing and capable of better things. Otago must have a royal chance of winning the teams’ race. The Southerners, with such a big number of runners to call on, and running over their own country, should be very hard to beat. J. J. Morris, who will lead the Otago .

team, won the Otago title over five miles in 34 42 3-5 from a field of 74. He won thq Edwards’ Cup race, tlie classic Otago road handicap, Barnes running scond to him, but Mas beaten bv J. W. Topp, the veteran in the five miles’ Caversham Club Championship. Ho disposed of Tapp comfortably enough in the provincial title race. E. J. Johnston, who was second to Morris in the title race, is 'still in his t.ecns, but hold the Otago three miles’ track title. His second to Morris was his best effort to date. Tapp, who was third, will have to be reckoned with in the national title race. He won it in 1924, was third in 1925, second in 1926, third in 1927 and fourth in 1928. In 1925, too, he was second to R. A.. Rose in the Australasian C.ross-country Championships. GOOD ENGLISHMAN Wellington will be .represented tomorrow by A. L. Stevens, F. Silver, J.

Sheppard, G. McCarthy, A. Barclay and Francis. This team is looked upon in the South as a particularly strong one, and likely to make Otago go all out to secure the team championship. Francis comes from Gisborne, and is a runner who has some wonderful performances to his credit in England. Savidan first won the event after a brilliant race at Christchurch in 1927. and later the same year represented his country at the Australasian crosscountry title race at Adelaide, when he ran second to Hyde, the great Victorian distance runner. At Wanganui last year Savidan retained his title by defeating Rose by 200 yards in a thrilling dash up the straight to the tape. Silver, Mho competes again this year, was third, and J. W. Tapp, of Otago, fourth. Wellington won the teams’ race, Auckland being third. Following is a list of New Zealand 100,000-metre cross-country championship holders since 1909:

W. F. Simpson (C.) .. . . . . 1909 G. McK night (O.) .. - . .. 1910 J. Beatson (O.) . . . 1912 J. Beatson (O.) ... 1913 C. AV. Frye (O.) . .. 19:20 H. Moore* (AAVt ID. Todd (W.) . .. 1922 J. H. Nalder < O. ) . . . . .. 1923 J. AA*. Tapu (Wang.) .. . . .. 1924 F. I.. Brown (O.) . .. 192.1 G. Kells (A.) J. AN'. Savidan (A.) . . . J. AA . Savidan (A.) .