Saturday 25 Jun 2011. The biggest unknown in the weeks before Christchurch Avon's hosted race was : will the weather be OK ? This assumed more importance this year because the Sports House was unavailable to us after the earthquakes .In the past this had been our headquarters and shelter from the elements
as well as being ' toilet central ' for the 400 + athletes . Well the day dawned with a mild frost, but some promised rain didn't happen .It was overcast but not cold . In short , it allowed the day to be a great success for us .Setting up the course is so much easier without frozen fingers, and all the officialling during the races goes better without cold rain falling . The damage to the ground around the stadium was mainly in the form of giant potholes , smaller fumaroles and rift-like cracks in the ground . Luckily we were able to thread the course so as to avoid most of these features . The largest pothole provided children with a jumping pit .The fine grey sand surrounding it was perfect (and hopefully hygienic) cushioning. As usual, full accord has to go to John Gamblin who singlehandedly organised this event . And the club turned out in force to help him, along with specialist assistance from announcer( John McBrearty) and timekeepers (Craig and Shona Brown with Bernie Jago) . Kevin Jago was our referee .
The racing was divided into five massed starts each incorporating various grades . There were about 430 runners present in total . Not a lot of ' out of towners' this year (25 ?), but the quality of those that came was good .Dunedin's Ariki sent us two of our own 'expats' in the form of Zach Butler and Dave Catherwood . They both ran well and Dave placed 4 th in the Senior Men's race .
A modified switching system avoided last year's mix -up into the finishing straight .James was this time easily able to direct runners down either of two parallel chutes .
An electrical fault meant that Ian Brownie , the race starter , had to resort to primitive methods to mimic the sound of an explosion. Namely two small pieces of wood were clacked together violently .Ian requested that no false starts be occasioned because he , being over 80 , didn't need the extra work of clacking twice ,or more. Someone also observed that the wood , being tanalised , would release a small cloud of arsenic dust each time.
What else was humorous ? John Ingles couldn't find the Silvo polish so we had to display the cups in a tarnished state. I heard a few people tsk' ing , so tried an improvised cleaning method . A spare sock with a bit of water and a smear of fine mud brought them up to a presentable gleam. There was a lot of fine mud about courtesy of Feb 22.
We had many good results from the day . results here - Kennett Cup .
A modified switching system avoided last year's mix -up into the finishing straight .James was this time easily able to direct runners down either of two parallel chutes .
An electrical fault meant that Ian Brownie , the race starter , had to resort to primitive methods to mimic the sound of an explosion. Namely two small pieces of wood were clacked together violently .Ian requested that no false starts be occasioned because he , being over 80 , didn't need the extra work of clacking twice ,or more. Someone also observed that the wood , being tanalised , would release a small cloud of arsenic dust each time.
What else was humorous ? John Ingles couldn't find the Silvo polish so we had to display the cups in a tarnished state. I heard a few people tsk' ing , so tried an improvised cleaning method . A spare sock with a bit of water and a smear of fine mud brought them up to a presentable gleam. There was a lot of fine mud about courtesy of Feb 22.
We had many good results from the day . results here - Kennett Cup .
Matt Dryden and Sean Eustace were impressive winners in their races .
Perrin had a top run and was right up with ARJ and Richard S (where he should be ) .
Anthony Rogal was fastset 50 year old.
Rich S and Iain were 2nd best in their grades .
B14 trifecta of Sean E, Jacob R/J and Matt Prest took out the top three placings.
the Waddington twins got 2nd and 3 rd G12.
Anne Kennedy was top in her grade .
Roanne Kinney took out 3rd place in the VW 35 grade.
Not sure how we'll fare in the COTY calculation : quite a few of our runners didn't race , so our teams points may have suffered (latest news is we still lead the competition , but only scored 18 /20 from Kennett cup races. Well done all who ran ).
Perrin had a top run and was right up with ARJ and Richard S (where he should be ) .
Anthony Rogal was fastset 50 year old.
Rich S and Iain were 2nd best in their grades .
B14 trifecta of Sean E, Jacob R/J and Matt Prest took out the top three placings.
the Waddington twins got 2nd and 3 rd G12.
Anne Kennedy was top in her grade .
Roanne Kinney took out 3rd place in the VW 35 grade.
Not sure how we'll fare in the COTY calculation : quite a few of our runners didn't race , so our teams points may have suffered (latest news is we still lead the competition , but only scored 18 /20 from Kennett cup races. Well done all who ran ).
Good report Mike. Despite it looking like I would have a prolonged stay in Chch due to the ash cloud and hence might be able to come along to help out at the KC, I eventually I was able to fly out courtesy of good old Air NZ.
ReplyDelete