The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 53

19 SPCnrSMONDAY SIDTODD WOODS mrQSEHjrsifiDtKDini S. rip. a mi 14 JULY 1997 THE AGE Picture: STEVE HOLLAND marathon and the Australian title. second in 2:44.12, with last year's winner, Sylvia Rose, third in 2:47.09. In another dramatic finish, David Evans outsprinted Takeshi Arisumi to win the Gold Coast half-marathon in 63:16, the lapanese runner slipping on the wet bitumen and crashing to the ground in the final 10 metres.

Another lapanese, Ikumi Naya-gama, won the women's half-marathon in 70:37. The best of the Australians was national champion Susan Michelsson, fourth in 73:10. Athletics By LEN JOHNSON, Surfers Paradise Pat Carroll won his fourth Gold Coast marathon, and the associated Australian title, in dramatic fashion here yesterday, passing race-long leader Gert Thys of South Africa with less than 400 metres to run. Susan Hobson made it a local double, winning the women's race as the Australians turned back an expected strong international challenge. With a $65,000 bonus pool for world records, Thys had bravely gone out at the pace required to beat the two hours six minutes 50 seconds set by Belayneh Dinsamo of Ethiopia in 1988.

For well over 30 kilometres he ran at an average speed of three minutes a kilometre. Pacemaker Eddy Hellebuyck of Belgium could not stick with the South Afri-can much past 12 kilometres. Even when Thys began to slow, he remained under world-record sched 1 didn't know was coming the crowd. do anything. getting give was well over two minutes.

Three kilometres later, the Australian was still almost 500 metres behind. At Southport Bridge, with just over a kilometre to run, Carroll caught his first glimpse of Thys, who by then was suffering badly from stomach cramps. Finally, with the finish in sight, Carroll drew level. For an instant, he wondered whether he should go past. "It was an incredibly gutsy effort," he said.

"The guy deserved to win. "Then I thought, 'Stuff it'. A lot of people have been there before at 35 kilometres (and blown up). I have, too." He swept through to the line in 2:11.20. Thys dropped 33 seconds behind, with Sean Wade of New Zealand third in 2:14.54.

"I didn't know he (Carroll) was coming until I heard the crowd," Thys said. "Then I couldn't do anything. The pain was getting worse. I had to give up." Carroll sympathised. "I've been at the finish of marathons when, if a guy offered you $1 million to sprint flat out to the finish, you couldn't do it," he said.

But Thys, who recovered remark- ably well after the race, says he has no fear of running the 42.195 kilometres at world-record pace and will do so again. "I'm not scared (of that pace). I'll take a chance again," the dimunitive South African said. "If you don't take chances, you're not going to succeed." Carroll missed the bonus money, but took $20,000 for winning. His time was almost two minutes slower than his best, but he thought he had Basketball he (Carroll) until I heard Then I couldn't The pain was worse.

I had to ule. But a slight deceleration gradually turned into total degeneration. With five kilometres to run, the world record was out of the question. A few more minutes and Robert de Castel-la's Australian open record of 2:09.18 was also beyond him. With two kilometres to run, it became clear Thys was not even going to break the race record of 2:10.11.

Through all that, however, he still looked rock-solid as the winner. At the 37-kilometre point, the gap to Carroll Magic searches for new tall timber Pat Carroll with his wife Annette done his best on the day. He had not got caught up in the hype about records, which dominated pre-race discussion. "I honestly believed I wasn't able to break the world record," he admitted. Carroll ran the Gold Coast race in preference to accepting a place in the Australian team for next month's world track and field championships in Athens.

He admitted to some sense of letting the team down, but said: "I've represented Australia in the past but it appeared to make little difference during the second quarter of Saturday 96-89 loss to Melbourne, when he spent a considerable time benched with early foul trouble. The Tigers led 22-13 late in the first term when Anstey had the better of Tigers centre Mark Bradtke, but could not capitalise on their 26-22 lead when Anstey was benched. Enter unlikely hero Jason Smith, who carried on his good form from the overtime win against Adelaide last Wednesday to be the Magic second-highest scorer with 17, one behind Mike Kelly, and keep the Magic in touch in that second term. Goorjian described Smith efforts In the past month as taking him to the next level, going from a bit-player to someone who Is now relied upon. But it was too much to ask to keep the Tigers down all game.

Andrew Gaze (35 points, 10 rebounds) and Marcus Timmons (23 and eight) were consistent throughout, and the Tigers got a lift out of a couple of their superstars after going Into the main break 42-41 up. yesterday after winning the Gold Coast and I'm proud of it." Nor did his performance necessarily indicate how well he could have run in Athens, Carroll said. Hobson led from gun to tape to take the women's race in 2:32.43, 14 seconds faster than her previous best. At halfway, she looked capable of breaking the race record of 2:29.29. But, though she did not slow as dramatically as Thys, she could not quite hold that pace.

Bev Lucas of South Australia was Bradtke hit his straps to draw level in the battle with Anstey (Bradtke had 10 points 15 rebounds, Anstey 14 and 11), while Lanard Copeland shot 15 of his 16 points in the second half to help the Tigers pull away late in the game. In other results, North Melbourne thrashed Newcastle 102-84, Perth defeated Adelaide 113-107, then Illawarra 106-86, Sydney downed Brisbane 109-85, and Townsville held off Canberra 97-95. Brisbane thrashed Canberra 87-62. IN WNBL results, a fine solo effort from Melbourne Tigers' captain Kristl Harrower was not enough to prevent her team losing to the Sydney Flames 64-58. Harrower scored 25 points and' Narelle McConnell finished with 11, but it was not enough to stop the Flames extending their unbeaten run this season to 16 games.

In other results, Brisbane was no match for the Flames, going down 72-66, Perth continued Bulleen miserable season, thrashing the cel-lar-dwellar 77-49, and Adelaide accounted for Canberra 72-58. NBL Pt SEMELB 13 4 109 76 PERTH 12 6 109 67 NMELB 12 8 101 60 BRISBANE 10 8 91 55 TVILLE 9 8 104 53 CANBERRA 10 10 98 50 Adelaide 9 9 103 50 Sydney 10 10 101 50 Melbourne 7 11 95 39 Newcastle '6 12 92 33 Illawarra 315 91 17 WNBL Pr SYDNEY 16 0 135 100 ADELAIDE 11 3 110 79 MELBOURNE 11 5 103 69 DANDENONQ 7 8 ,101 47 BRISBANE 5 9 93 36 Perth 5 10 103 33 AIS 4 9 85 31 Canberra 4 10 91 29 Bufeen 312 86 20 Ptay-off position aMured. By PHILIP JOHNSON South East Melbourne Magic is believed to be targeting one of New-castled "big three" to replace NBA-bound Chris Anstey at the end of this season. Magic coach Brian Goorjian yesterday denied the Magic had singled anybody out to fill the large void left by Anstey's drafting to the Dallas Mavericks, but admitted he had heard the rumors that placed one of Ben Pepper, Ben Melmeth or Scott McGregor at South East Melbourne. Goorjian said, however, the Magic would make strong approaches to the best tall timber fisted on the end-of-season free agents' list, with an emphasis on local talent rather than Imports.

"There no doubt that with Chris leaving and lohn (Dorge) another year older, that we're going to look for a replacement for Chris," he said. "We need to get an Australian big guy In to replace Chris. "We're going to be recruiting the best big man on that free agents' list, and there going to be quite a few. But who that is, and actually saying we've pin-pointed one, that definitely isn't the case. "There Pepper, (lllawarrals Matt) Zauner, (Adelaide Brett) Wheeler.

Who knows who going to be on there? If they're on there, and I think there are going to be a couple, we're going to be after them." hoped the loss of Anstey and the probable drafting of Sam Mackinnon next year would be offset by Australia best young talent viewing the Magic as the most inviting program to Join. The Magic will be without Anstey for the next fortnight after he left yesterday for a summer camp with the Dallas Mavericks, missing games against Illawarra and North Melbourne. He will return for the under-23 world championship, beginning on 1 August Anstey absence, combined with Dorge medium-term knee Injury, will create a huge hole for the Magic, t'c.