Athletics: Greene holds her own

Rising Otago star Rebekah Greene held her own in the 1500m final at the world junior championships in Canada yesterday.

Greene (16) found the going predictably tough in a field stacked with classy international runners and finished 11th in the 12-woman field.

But qualifying for the final at such a young age is further evidence the St Hilda's Collegiate school pupil could be set for great things.

Her time in the final - 4min 27.75sec - was nearly 9sec slower than the time she ran in qualifying, when she broke the New Zealand aged 16 record.

The race was won by hot favourite Tizita Bogale, of Ethiopia, in a scorching 4min 8.06sec.

"This is my first time competing at the championships and I'm delighted to have won it," Bogale told the IAAF website.

"There was a fierce struggle for the win and I am happy to withstand all that."

Bogale's victory was the first for her running-mad nation since Abebech Nigussie's success a decade ago.

But there was almost more excitement about the performance of Ciara Mageean, who finished second in 4min 9.51sec to break her own national record.

"It's Ireland's first ever medal on the track" Mageean said.

Kenyan Nancy Chepkwemoi was third in 4min 11.04sec.

Ron Cain, of Otago, who has been involved with the sport for 66 years, was honoured with life membership of Athletics New Zealand in Wellington last week.

Cain (78), a former president and cross-country and road selector of Athletics New Zealand, and a president and life member of Athletics Otago, was blown away when his name was announced.

"It came out of the blue, really.

"You enjoy your sport and if you do get an accolade you put it down to all the other people that have helped you, clubs and suchlike," Cain said.

Cain said two of his competitive highlights were at the New Zealand cross-country championships.

"In 1955, I was second in Timaru and we [Otago] won the teams race.

"I was captain for the three years running when we won three national team titles."

Over the years Cain said that he has enjoyed dealing with people.

"I've run with some good people and that has kept me young and kept me fit," he said.

"But the running was hard.

"I started the same time as Arthur Lydiard started his 100 miles [160km] a week in training and that was what I was doing at the time.

"I found being short I had to get my stamina up as speed was the hardest thing for me.

"It came but didn't last long enough."

Cain said his administration highlight was being an official at the 1990 Auckland Commonwealth Games.

Cain now plays a lot of golf.

"I'm coming up 79 and if you don't keep yourself fit you just fade away.

"I haven't got time to fade away.

"I've got a lot of things to be done yet."