Harriers

The Varsity Harrier Club recently held its Novice and Veterans Cup Race over Seatoun Heights. The race, some 2— miles in distance, is the first club race of the season and provides an indication of how good performances are going to be later in the season.

The Novice Cup which is competed for by runners who have not won a major race since leaving High School, was won by Eric Cairns in a time of 13min 20 sec. This broke the Novice record set by Ian Hunt in 1969 (13min 46sec) and also the Open Record of 13min 35sec set by lan Stockwell in 1970. Second home in 13 min 36sec was Bruce Batten who represented Vic at Easter Tournament in the 800 and 1500 metres. Third was Peter Konig in 13min 47.5sec followed by Bryan Dawkins with a time of 14mms 4secs.

The Veterans Race was won by George Seconi in 13mins 39sec, second in 13min 57sec was Ian Hunt and third was lan Stockwell. The first Junior home in this race was Bruce Batten, second was Frank Nolan (15min 1sec) and third was lan Tracey (15min 22sec). These good times for the junoirs indicate that Vic will have a lot of strength in the seasons to come.

The Vic Harrier Club recently competed in the inter club Shaw Baton Relay race held at Johnsonville West.

Varsity fielded three Senior teams and one Junior team. This was Vic's biggest participation in this race so far. Each team consists of six runners who each run a lap of one and one tenth miles.

In the Senior race the Vic. A. team was lying 8th at the end of the first lap run by Eric Cairns in a time of 5mins 40sec George Seconi in the second lap (5min 41sec.) passed the Kapiti team, the Wellington E team and the Hutt A team! Bryan Dawkins maintained this place with a time of 5 min 46sec, lan Hunt (5min 56sec) on the fourth lap lost a place to the Hutt team and Peter Konig (5min 57 sec) on the next lap was unable to reverse this placing. In the last lap Ian Stockwell with a lap time of 5min 42sec. passed the Hutt runner and took Varsity back to 5th place with a total time of 34min 42sec. The first teams home were Wellington Harriers A. 32min 58sec. Olympic 33mm 27sec, Scottish A. 34min 6sec, Wellington Harriers B. 34min 8sec.

The Vic 'B' team saw Wayne Stevens finish 25yh in the first lap with a time of 7 minutes. Bernie O'Donnel improved this to 20th place with a time of 6 min 9sec. Richard Owen gained one place with a time of 7 minutes and Roger Clark (6min 40sec) also gained a place. The two strong runners in the 'B' team, Tony Burge (5min 59sec) and Tony Woolhouse (5min 58sec) pushed the B team up to finish in 14th place with a time of 38mm 43sec.

The C team finished in 30th place out of 33 teams competing. The C team members and times were as follows; Norm Rodley (8min 29sec), Alan Jenkins (7min 52sec). Steve Havill (6min 44sec), Malcolm Rise-borough (7min 32sec), John Riseborough (8min 59sec) and Peter Wiltshire (8min 17sec)

The Junior team finished 6th in their race with a time of 37min 3sec behind Scottish A (35min 7sec), Hutt A (35min 42sec), Olympic A 35min 55sec),United A (35mm 58sec), and Master-ton (36min 57sec).

The individual Vic Junior times were: Bruce Cumming (5min 52sec), Lance Malkin (6min 39sec), Frank Nolan (6min 3sec), Philip Rodley (6mm 51sec), Ian Tracey (5min 58sec), and Bruce Batten (5min 40sec). Bruce Batten's time was the 6th fastest for a Junior that day.