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The Napier Harrier Club
Green Shield Relays
Park Island, July 14, 2001
Saturday�s Green Shield relay displayed several things about the club. Apparently a considerable number of the members are unfamiliar with the concept of how to evenly select teams, and also that the members are quite unaware of the other members of the club and their running abilities.
As the available runners were lined up for selection, it became obvious after the first round of choices that the teams were going to be very uneven. Those given the first choices had not only failed to select the fastest available juniors but had left almost the entire �upper level� of juniors untouched. It was also apparent that the seniors doing the selecting were unaware of the names of a lot of the juniors.
After that first round of selections, Wayne Smith was tempted to try and correct the imbalance but elected to allow the teams to �live by the sword, die by the sword�.
The second round of selections once again showed the lack of club knowledge of both ability and names, as the highest ranked runner present, Craig Mathers, was not selected until the fifth pick, and by the end of the round both Trevor Fulton and Wayne Smith were still not selected. Trevor was ranked 8th of those present and Wayne 9th!
Worse was to follow, as Wayne explained that both he and Trevor would have to run as Juniors and do just the one lap, they should have been the first two chosen on the last round of selections, but amazingly were not. Trevor wasn�t selected until fourth pick and Wayne left until the last! This left the team who had the fastest �slow� runner also with the third ranked �fast� runner and the second ranked �junior�. It wasn�t hard to predict a probable winner from there!
Anyway, on to the race itself. The course at Park Island is flat and relatively fast, with only some tricky footing down the side of the creek to worry you or slow you down at all. It is the same lap that the Vet�s used in their estimated time run earlier in the season. Times would seem to indicate that it is well short of 2km, probably around 100-150m short per lap (or 20-30ish seconds depending on how fast you are!).
Stu McKie�s brilliantly selected team immediately hit the lead with Mark Speakman easily leading the pack around the first of his two laps with Brent Jones chasing hard. However Brent�s lack of recent training showed on the second lap and �Sparky� Speakman extended his teams lead to a whopping 1:31 at the changeover, with Brent hanging on to second spot and leading third placed Sheila Smidt by 2:24. The tactic of running the fastest runner first had paid huge psychological dividends as the set of Juniors who then took over believed their cause to be lost. They perhaps did not realise that they had the fastest runners to come and should in theory be able to make up the lost ground in the next leg, if they ran hard enough in this leg. Still, it is hard to explain that to a junior runner who is taking to the course up to five minutes behind.
The second leg proved to be a �jog in the park� for Team McKie�s Wayne Smith as he trundled around the course with his eldest boy Stefan in hot pursuit. Stefan ran the fastest time on this leg with Wayne second and Eric �Hawkeye� Speakman third. At the end of the leg Team McKie�s lead had been cut to 58 seconds, with Jones� team still second thanks to Stefan�s efforts and Smidt�s team still third but now 3:13 down, as Hogan Green ran fifth fastest. By this time there was over 6 minutes separating the field after only 6km.
The third leg was where the other teams should take time out of the first two teams and the big charge came from the teams of Leigh Aitken and Adele Marsh. Kevin Fisher running the two lap leg for Team Aitken, started the leg 4:43 behind Team McKie (whose Captain Stu McKie was well into his run), in fourth spot but by the end of the leg were sitting just 1:06 behind McKie, in second spot. Craig Mathers, meanwhile, was doing similar things for Team Marsh. They only gained one place on the track but started 5:32 down in 5th and finished in 6th, just 2 minutes behind Team McKie. The biggest gain on the track, however came from Team McLeod�s Leo �Heineken� Pearce. Starting from last place, Heineken ran third fastest time for the leg to bring his team up to fifth place moving them from 6:11 down to 2:46 behind. Team Smidt were still holding third spot as the ever consistent Eric Phimister produced another solid run.
The final leg saw Andre Smith consolidate Team McKie�s lead taking the team to a 1:26 victory over team Team Marsh, whose final runner Laura Smidt ran second fastest time. Laura�s 7:18 final leg dragging the team from fourth up to second as her Mum�s team, Team Smidt, continued to hold the third place they had held all day. Fastest on the final leg was, not surprisingly, the oldest �Junior� on the leg, Trevor Fulton, who took Team Sherburn from last to fifth. Third fastest was Andrew Prosser.
So, first in was Team McKie � Mark Speakman, Wayne Smith, Stu McKie and Andre Smith
Second was Team Marsh � Adele Marsh, Ahsley Aitken, Craig Mathers and Laura Smidt
Third was Team Smidt � Sheila Smidt, Hogan Green, Eric Phimister, and Hayden Schofer
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Sparky
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