ATHLETICS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 101, 10 February 1936, Page 2

ATHLETICS.

TWO NEW ZEALAND RECORDS. AUCKLAND, February 9. Two New Zealand records were broken and several championships changed hands at the Auckland provincial athletic championships, decided on Saturday under good conditions. F. A. Finlayson lowered his own Dominion record of 25 3-ssec for the 220 yards hurdles to 25 2-ssec. Miss E. Munro, with a distance of 17ft 2|in, broke the women’s broad jump record. W. S. Bainbridge (New Zealand 220 yards and 440 yards champion) was disqualified in the 100 yards contest. He retained his S2O yards title, but was brilliantly defeated in the quarter-mile event by M. C. Baker. HOWARD YATES. YOUTHFUL VICTORIAN SPRINTER On the quarter-mile track at Olympic Park (Melbourne), which was by no means fast, Howard Yates flashed ovei the line a winner on January 4 by several yards in 49 3-10 sec. Considering that he finished into a stiff breeze, it was remarkably good time. I am firmly convinced that on a really fast track and on a favourable day, Yates..will clock 48sec, writes J. J. Maber in the Melbourne “Sporting Globe.” At the moment he is knocking hard at the door for Olympic selection for the Berlin Games next August. He may prove the greatest and fastest sprinter Australia has produced. Not since the days of that one-time champion and wizard of the track, Nigel Barker, of New South Wales, have I witnessed such an excellent quarter as that done by Yates in the final Vic-* torian trials last week. Previously, he had more or less concentrated on thp lOOy’ds and 220yds, running occasionally over the “quarter” to help his club. I think that Yates may find the furlong and the quarter more to his liking. He may emulate the feat of Barker by winning the triple sprints—loo, 220 and 440—titles at an Australian championship meeting. Four years ago an astute trainer had an eye on Yates for the Stawell Gift. He had hopes of getting the young flaxen-haired Melbourne High School boy and putting him in “pickle” for two or three years. But Yates had other ambitions. He was then a rising young sprinter who was gaining experience, and had an ideal—the Olympic Games—and though one or two “feelers” were indirectly put to his friends, he was deaf to the tempting offers held out—the possibility of winning the rich Stawell Gift and being backed to win anything up to £SOOO. A bronze medal for a State or Australian amateur championship or a laurel wreath had a much bigger appeal. Yates’ form augers well for Victoria in the Australian track and field championships at Hobart. The burden will fall on him. If he wins the 100yds, 220yds and 440yds he will have scored valuable points for his State.