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Cyclist won Commonwealth gold

Racing cyclist, nurseryman b March 11, 1947 d August 23, 2021 – By Peter Bidwell Sources: Heidi Oliver, Max Vertongen, Ron Cheatley, Des Williams, author of Born to Thunder.

In a few weeks in 1970 Harry Kent became New Zealand’s greatest cyclist. He was the first to win a Commonwealth Games gold medal, and the following month he became the country’s first world cycling championship medallist too.

Kent excelled in the gruelling 1000m time trial track event, which played to his great strength and ability to push a big gear. Yet the manner of his selection for the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh that year hardly suggested the Trentham nurseryman would achieve such success.

In those days New Zealand’s Games athletes were named in two categories and, being in the second, Kent was required to pay a fair proportion of his own way. As such, he was not regarded as an outstanding medal prospect. How wrong the selectors were. In fact, New Zealand’s only gold medals in Edinburgh were won by cyclists. Bruce Biddle was later victorious in the road race, and Kent’s selfless ride, in putting Biddle’s aspirations ahead of his own, was important to the final result.

Kent, though, needed to get used to the board track at Edinburgh before he could focus on his performance. It was steep and fast, and so unlike the much flatter asphalt and concrete surfaces he raced on in New Zealand. ‘‘It was so steep I was almost s...ting myself the first few times I ventured on it,’’ Kent said years later. ‘‘It took three or four days for me to just get confident on it.’’ That he did was very much the work of the cycling team’s only coach, Warwick Dalton.

However, his trip to Britain was not over. Down the road in England was a similarly inviting prospect – the world championships in Leicester. He again demonstrated his wonderful athleticism in the time trial, securing the silver medal – losing out on the gold by just 0.39s.

Recognition of Kent’s ground-breaking deeds came quickly. He was named New Zealand Sportsman of the Year in 1970, and awarded the Lonsdale Cup by the New Zealand Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association for being its outstanding athlete.

Kent’s grandmother, Helen Kent, established the family nursery in Trentham on land that Kent was to work and live on all his life. It was invariably hard, and it would help give Kent the physique that would be such an asset when cycling. He was very close to his grandfather, William Harold Kent, and his father, Huia Jim Kent, the latter Kent’s first coach, who would drive him to races in the family truck. Jim’s death in January 1970 was quite a setback ahead of the Commonwealth Games.

Jim was a good rider himself at the Poneke club (now Poneke-Port Nicholson), and though Kent started at the Upper Hutt club he would soon become a leading figure at Poneke.

He won numerous national championships on the track, and was an exceptional road rider too. In his day the three big tours in New Zealand were the Dulux six-day from Auckland to Wellington, and the Southland and Manawatu¯ events. In 1968 he won three stages in the Dulux, the Manawatu¯ tour, the North Island championship, and was fastest in the Taranaki round-themountain handicap race.

Ron Cheatley was a good cyclist, and is among New Zealand’s best coaches. He remembered how formidable Kent was if he got to the front in races. ‘‘He was so big and strong you couldn’t get past him. He always rode bigger gears than anyone else. He was ahead of his time in that regard.’’

After 1970 Kent’s career lost some momentum. He was searching for something that would take him further, convinced that any more international success in the time trial would require him to cope with riding in a bigger gear.

He lifted weights to make him even stronger, and found help outside of cycling. He went alone to the 1971 world track championships in Varese, Italy. It was a disappointment, with Kent unable to wind up the bigger gear. He was chosen for the Munich Olympics in 1972, and again didn’t do himself justice, finishing 16th in the time trial.

Munich was overshadowed by the actions of a Palestinian guerrilla group that invaded the Olympic village and killed one Israeli athlete and held 10 others hostage. The New Zealand team was housed next to the Israelis, and Kent’s eldest daughter Heidi Oliver said he was traumatised after a Palestinian gunman mistakenly burst in to his room. ‘‘It scared the life out of him,’’ she said. ‘‘He didn’t want to be away after that.’’

Kent faded from the scene, seemingly happy that he’d had his special moment in 1970, and taken New Zealand cycling to a loftier place than many thought possible.

It seems that Kent’s character was very much shaped by his experiences at school. He was small for his age, and thin, and Oliver said he was often bullied. His grandfather taught Kent to successfully defend himself, and he was later known to step in if he thought someone was in need of support. Oliver called her father ‘‘eccentric’’ and not always easy to understand, but she said he was a great father and much loved by the family.

In her early teenage years Kent took Oliver out for rides when he was no longer competing seriously, which would be lengthy, and demanding, but ‘‘fun’’ in the end. She said ‘‘I thought I was going to die’’ on one occasion, and of others when he’d ride up hills having to push her by holding on to the back of her seat.

There were never any new bikes for the family. Oliver said Kent would get bits and pieces of old ones, even from the dump, and make something. ‘‘Dad would say it’s not all about having flash gear. It’s all about willpower and ability.’’

Kent had a deep interest in Upper Hutt, and the environment. It led to him serving on Upper Hutt City Council for three terms between 1977 and 1992, and endeavouring ‘‘to keep the council honest’’ even when he was not directly involved.

Kent’s health dipped after he suffered a couple of strokes in 2007, and another this year led to his death aged 74. He still continued to ride his bike till quite recently. He was of Waitaha descent, a very proud wearer of his New Zealand blazer, he stood up for things he believed in, and was generous with his time. In 2016 he was inducted in to the Cycling New Zealand Wall of Fame in Cambridge.

He is survived by daughters Heidi, Josephine, and Michelle, son Harry, 12 grandchildren and one great-grandchild, a sister, Margaret, and nephew Jamie. The PPN club is arranging a remembrance ride for Kent around Wellington on December 12. His funeral will be held on Tuesday, at the Silverstream Retreat, at 11am.

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2021-09-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-09-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

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