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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine

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Speaker 1: from News Talks EDB.

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Speaker 2: Afternoon at Apollo Project Stadium in christ.

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Speaker 3: Church, and there's Todd Kristian in the Northern stand, question

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Speaker 3: Apollo Complete, Chanterbury in the tenure and Apollo Projects Stadium

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Speaker 3: as champion.

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Speaker 2: Indeed they do with their victory over Otago yesterday afternoon.

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Speaker 2: The Canterbury Rugby CEO is Tony Smail. He joins us

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Speaker 2: now Tony good afternoon.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, good afternoon earlier, wonderful day here in christ Church.

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Speaker 2: Well, I'm sure the celebrations have been in full swing

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Speaker 2: as well after what was a pretty special occasion yesterday too.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, it was a reasonably late night later for some

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Speaker 5: than me, but I'm sure they'll go on for a

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Speaker 5: couple of days yet.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, pretty special occasion. Otago obviously the Southern Classic, the rivalry,

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Speaker 2: but the match delivered as well for a sold out crowd.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, can't underestimate that crowd of blue and

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Speaker 5: gold and red and black. It was just a magnificent occasion.

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Speaker 5: And the two teams have played a pretty a pretty

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Speaker 5: crowd for.

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Speaker 4: Endly style of rugby all year, so couldn't have had

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Speaker 4: a bit of final.

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Speaker 2: It was right in the balance. Of course, later on,

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Speaker 2: how you as a CEO feeling with the game of

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Speaker 2: the balance.

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Speaker 5: I'm generally pretty good, but I knew yesterday it would

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Speaker 5: be a little bit different, so I did spend a

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Speaker 5: bit of time pacing up and down.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: How do you bottle that? I guess for the NPC

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Speaker 2: what we saw yesterday, eighteen thousand fans and the Sunshine

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Speaker 2: and christ Church supporting, they had seen plenty of passion

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Speaker 2: in the stands as well. How do we bottle that

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Speaker 2: as a rugby country for future NPCs?

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Speaker 5: Yeah, well, I think that the thing is the NBC's

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Speaker 5: built on those rivalries, doesn't it, and they stand the

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Speaker 5: test of time. We've been going over one hundred years.

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Speaker 5: Those passions still exist. So it's it's up to us

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Speaker 5: as leaders in our game to make sure we keep

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Speaker 5: that alive. What was the magic bullet?

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Speaker 4: You just? I think.

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Speaker 5: What can and what our organization has prided itself on

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Speaker 5: this year is trying to connect back to those fans

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Speaker 5: to make sure that we're at the part of the game.

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Speaker 5: And yeah, it's just an awesome occasion yesterday.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, speaking to it Tiger as well, they talked about connection.

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Speaker 2: Do you feel that maybe it's been lost over the

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Speaker 2: last few years and now it's important to restore that

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Speaker 2: that local connection.

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Speaker 5: I think that the break off COVID definitely put it

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Speaker 5: into that and it is if you've watched the NBC

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Speaker 5: for the last couple of years, all of the unions

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Speaker 5: have made it a focus of trying to connect, making

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Speaker 5: sure that connection is strong. So it has it's not

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Speaker 5: by accident, it's been deliberate and we've just got to

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Speaker 5: keep doing it.

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Speaker 2: You would have seen Tom Christy up close for it

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Speaker 2: for a number of years. Now what does he mean

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Speaker 2: to Canterbury and look you put in a heck of

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Speaker 2: it before once again yesterday and that final and his

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Speaker 2: last game for the side before he heads up to

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Speaker 2: the Northern Hemisphere.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, like pretty special for Tom. We started off with

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Speaker 5: Collen as our captain, who only lasted one game I

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Speaker 5: think maybe two, maybe even only one. But Tom stepped

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Speaker 5: up and when he said about his journey for this season,

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Speaker 5: it was so important and you could tell to him

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Speaker 5: just giving back to Canterbury and then it being there

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Speaker 5: last season at that stadium, it just meant everything to

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Speaker 5: him personally and he watch his performances over the whole season,

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Speaker 5: being absolutely outstanding and a great leader. The boys love

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Speaker 5: it and I couldn't ask for more from the.

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Speaker 2: Man mentioned that stadium obviously a temporary one, but for

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Speaker 2: players like Tom Christie and you know most of all

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Speaker 2: this generation really it's all the Nolan Apollo Projects stadium.

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Speaker 2: So how important was it to sign off with a

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Speaker 2: victory like that?

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Speaker 5: Were the Yes, most of those players have only played

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Speaker 5: at that stadium, so they know nothing different. For Canterbury

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Speaker 5: we set out in theme in the organizations theme that

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Speaker 5: this year was all about signing off at Apollo as

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Speaker 5: we head to one New Zealand stadium. So it became

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Speaker 5: a key part of the whole campaign and for ourselves

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Speaker 5: as an organization it served us well. But boy, we

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Speaker 5: are looking forward to what the new one will bring.

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Speaker 2: I was going to say, will will you miss it?

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Speaker 2: Or you quite content to be heading to that new

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Speaker 2: stadium which every time I'm in christ Church looks like

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Speaker 2: it's coming along very very nicely.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, it has been in a couple of times to

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Speaker 5: have a lock and it's looking magnificent. But I can't

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Speaker 5: underestimate how good that stadium has been particularly for NPC.

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Speaker 5: The fact of if you remember Lancaster Park, it was

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Speaker 5: one of the old round stadiums who played cricket in it.

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Speaker 5: This is a rectangular stadium. The team is up close

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Speaker 5: to our closest fans and they both I love it.

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Speaker 5: The fans like being close to the action and the

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Speaker 5: players love being close to the fans. So it's actually

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Speaker 5: served us really well. And if you look at the

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Speaker 5: design of the new stadium, it's it's for rugby and

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Speaker 5: football and all the other rectangular codes. There will be

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Speaker 5: no cricket in it, so it's going to be magnificent.

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Speaker 2: How will you approach that new stadium as an MPC side,

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Speaker 2: because it is bigger than a polyprojects stadium, the more capacity,

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Speaker 2: how do you approach that? I guess given the challenges

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Speaker 2: around getting in PC crowds, although used today was a

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Speaker 2: fantastic crowd obviously, have you thought about how you might

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Speaker 2: approach that?

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Speaker 5: You know, we definitely have and we talked about it

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Speaker 5: at the game with all the people who are there.

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Speaker 4: We will have.

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Speaker 5: An accessible, an accessible entry point into that stadium and

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Speaker 5: our plan is to encourage and join as much of

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Speaker 5: the community as we can, so that absolutely we know

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Speaker 5: it's sitting there and it's coming at us. It is bigger,

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Speaker 5: but we have a deliberate pain to make sure that

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Speaker 5: anyone who will to come to this stadium and be

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Speaker 5: a part of that action will encourage it.

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Speaker 2: Marty Burke's final game is Canterbury coach as well before

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Speaker 2: he takes on other challenges. What's he been able to

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Speaker 2: do with this very young team? And you know MPC

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Speaker 2: is often and your players come in and change every year,

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Speaker 2: you have to change and remold the team. How important

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Speaker 2: has he been in connecting these players together?

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Speaker 5: Yeah, Marty, Marty and his wife Kate just been magnificent

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Speaker 5: supporters of the game, is what I would say. Marty

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Speaker 5: has Mardy shares similar views to myself. The game is

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Speaker 5: about our community and making sure we build that connection

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Speaker 5: to it. So it was quite a perfect alignment. But

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Speaker 5: he he has spent his time in the community game.

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Speaker 5: He's out there with the club coaches, making himself visible

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Speaker 5: and that's that's pretty important in the job that I

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Speaker 5: need to do, which has encouraged people into the game.

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Speaker 5: We need to be Canaby Rugby needs to be seen

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Speaker 5: out there and so Marty brought that not only to

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Speaker 5: the rugby community but also to the fans.

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Speaker 4: So just been magnificent.

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Speaker 2: How will you go about replacing him for twenty twenty

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Speaker 2: six and beyond.

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Speaker 4: Well, we're undertaking the reviews.

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Speaker 5: They'll start next week and then we will be formerly

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Speaker 5: out in the market seeking applications for a head coach.

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Speaker 2: Tony Smail Canniby CEO with us. Tony, look, let's talk

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Speaker 2: the important question the mascot race, Larry the Lamb. That

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Speaker 2: was quite the effort from your mascot to win that

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Speaker 2: mascot race yesterday. You must be pretty proud to add

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Speaker 2: that title to the province as well.

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Speaker 5: Absolutely, we haven't. We haven't performed very well in that

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Speaker 5: in recent years. But just magnificent.

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Speaker 2: I'm hearing all sorts of rumors. I'm hearing rumors Tony

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Speaker 2: about who might have been in that suit. Can you

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Speaker 2: confirm clarify anything for us this afternoon.

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Speaker 4: Well, just that the man had a bit of pace,

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Speaker 4: that's all I can say.

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Speaker 2: He may have represented New Zealand maybe is that possibly.

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Speaker 4: To be truthful?

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Speaker 5: I actually don't know who it was, but what was

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Speaker 5: very clear was they were they were blessed with some speed.

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Speaker 2: They certainly were well Tony enjoy the celebrations and congratulations

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Speaker 2: NPC champions for twenty twenty five. Well done. Thank you,

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Speaker 2: Tony Smile. Joining us on News Talk zeb you might've

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Speaker 2: heard last hour, James Maconie sugdu. I think it was

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Speaker 2: tiar Whelpdon the New Zealand sprinter in that suit. If

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Speaker 2: you did see the mascot race yesterday, basically Larry the Lamb,

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Speaker 2: the Canterbury mascot, is about ten meters behind early on

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Speaker 2: and then just surges to the front and wins it

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Speaker 2: with about no one within thirty meters of them. Maybe

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Speaker 2: a little bit more could be t r Weldon. If

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Speaker 2: it was tiarnt we saw what a if of that is.

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Speaker 2: But I'm not sure they should be substituting next year.

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Speaker 2: We're gonna have someone's gonna try and get Usain bolt down,

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Speaker 2: aren't they. Next year one of the big unions might

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Speaker 2: be Auckland, maybe North Harbor. There'll be a way they

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Speaker 2: could get to when just get Usain bolts into the

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Speaker 2: mascot for the mascot race. Good fun none the less.

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Speaker 1: For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine, listen live

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Speaker 1: to News Talks it B weekends from midday or follow

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Speaker 1: the podcast on iHeartRadio