ATHLETICS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 250, 19 October 1907, Page 12

ATHLETICS.

The treasurer of" the A.A.A. and C.C., Mr. 5. S. Dean, is to be congratulated on the batanee sheet he presented to the club on Thursday night. Though there was but half a sovereign -i'} the treasury when the -season opened, and the carnival returned the diminutive profit of five shillings, he was able to show a credit of £25 on the year's "operations. The Grammar School sports will be held on the Domain on the 29th inst., and entries for the Old Boys' race, a. handicap of 150 yards, close at the school on Monday next. In-addition to a gold medal, the winner holds the challenge cup now held by A. M. Rowe, of the Training College.

It is virtually decided that the next -Australasian championships shall take place in Hobart on February 29 -and March 2. This willsuit New Zealand. I hear, says "Harrier" in the "Australasian," that G. A. Wheatley has duly noted Guy Haskin's prowess, and expects to be fit to tackle both Haskins and his old rival, Hector Burk. H. H. Hunter is home again from Philadelphia, but it is doubtful if he will don the shoes again in an -Australasian championship. I Two challenges have just been thrown but to George Hackenschmidt—one by a Cossack wrestler named Ivan Padonburg, I who has several times beaten the Continental crack, Constant Le -Maria and who j has deposited £"200 with the "Sporting I Life" £200 to bind a match at either Graeco-Roman or catch-as-catch-can with I the Russian; the other by Antonio"Pierri, agent for three Macedonians, any one of; whom he will let Hackenschmidt select,! and On behalf of whom he has deposited £100. r I

The remarkable spectacle of totally sigKless athletes competing on the cinder path, "throwing the hammer, putting the shot, jumping, and sprinting was witnessed in Philadelphia at the recent first in-ter-city athletic meet of the blind (says an American paper). The meet took place at the grounds of the Overbrook Institution for the blind. But for certain mechanical contrivances necessary in some of the events, there was little to distinguish this gathering from any athletic sports of an ordinary college. One of the noticeable differences was hi the sprint races. In these the blind boys grasped a spool that was made to slide on a taut wire. When the word was given, the contestants were off like the wind, their- grasp on the spool keeping them to the track as the reel ran along the wire. At the finish were lines of dangling cords similar to those that warn trainmen that a bridge is in close proximity. When the boys felt these cords touch their faces; they knew they had reached the finish line. Th the jumps, the boys were taken to the bar and allowed to touch it (with their hands. As they jumped they carried the bar with them, the height of the jump being measured by the referee's eye. In the broad jump the same official took the distance from the take-off to the finish, it being impossible, of course, for the contestants to jump from -a ; stationary take-off. The hammer throw was arranged :by the sound of the voice of one of the officials. The boys threw with a-mazmg accuracy in the direction

of the spot whence although this event made th B ; 2^* B ' feel far from comfortable, 'tl^ let^'^» the slightest approach fotaiSL** 1 contestants represented tt^JMh Philadelphia and Baltimore w* '<* planned to make this remwlJS %■* an annual affair. "r?*wie e^j An American paper states tfe+ll is expected between the AmatenViS IUB Union of America and tie c *"**•-*> Amateur Athletic Assbciatioa. tkT^ started over the disqualificatini - .'-™ >tte « sequent reinstatement -bf F^L B^1 " Since then internal trouble wT* 4, place in the Canadian ribve-rWi-and the Montreal has decided to send a team 'S^*^ 00 at the American amateur eiad^^ border, and is the American Union, the *onta3^ be the cessation of wjSffig* between the two bodies. . 'J**** 3o **