ATHLETICS

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 287, 2 December 1911, Page 16

ATHLETICS

Th» news by the latest mails fTon England shows that the powers that bi are waking up. and are alive to the facthat sodm big prion must be made if thi United Kingdom is to even "hold it. own" at Stockholm next year Th: sporting papers are devoting columns o space to the selection, training, am coaching of the British team, and then is evidently a big "shake-up" going on. When the last mail left Australia thi Victorian team for the Australasiai championships had not b=en chosen, bu' ail arrangements had been made for thi team to travel. Tho=w chosen will lea\< by the Ulimaroa on December 13th, anc will travel via Hobart and the Blufi reaching Wellington on December 22nd Tbe X.S.W- and Queensland teams ar< due to leave Sydney on Decemi»er 13. Billy Queal. of Alexandria Bay. proved on September 4. at the annual prof eg sional games of New York Caledonia! Club at Washington Park. Maspeth, thai he is the best long-distance runner ii America. He won threr consecutive dis tance races from one to five miles in re markably fast time. A. Shruhb, th< Englishman, performed the same feai three years ago. but his times were noi as fast as those of the American. Th< up-Stat-e athlete won the mile race ir ■imin. 2fl 2-ssee. His next race was th< three miles event, which he won ii ljmin. 3Ssec. and he covered five mile* in :h>r In. Iteec. Jimmy Lee. of Boston was second in all three races, and Car! Niemenen. of Finland, was third. Th( latter two were- outclassed by Queal. R. E. Walker is said 1-0 be rumring as well as ever in Soir-, Africa, and he is expected to take seriously to the track once mo'-e. A match was recently decided over 13 miles between Ljtujgstrom, the Swede, -who has gained great fame in the United States, and Dorando. the Italian. The race was decided at the Gota Lifeguards' Spcrts Ground, when Ljungstrom won in Ihr. 24min. 27sec. DorancL. gave up, after running 14,000 metres, so that he was badly beaten. The first call for funds to send an American team to Sweden for the Olympic Games has produced £800, the subscribers being Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan. Colonel Thompson (president of the X.V.A.C. i. tbe Amateur Athletic Union of the Metropolitan Association. E. W. Hjertberg. a Swede, who in hj day was successful as a trainee to the Iffefc-Amerkran A.C.. New York A.C., and Co!urnW»e University, is now back in bis native land, strivm, for the development of his counWTmerj in view of the Olympl: Games at StaAholm next summer. Here are his views with regard to Swedish prospects:—" I actually think that, the Swedes are going to win the majority of the events.. I never saw any men come up so fast, and '.he pride and patriotism they ,= bow in their work, the care they lake of themselves, and their obedience show how much in earnest they are. Tbe world will be surprised in 1912."