ATHLETICS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 31, 5 February 1916, Page 16

ATHLETICS.

Alfred Shrubb, the famous runner; now of Toronto, and for the past six seasons coach of -the Harvard crosscountry teams, has decided to become an American citizen. He will shortly apply for citizenship papers in the state of Massachusetts. Shrubb will

go into hrnsiness in Boston this winter, b-at -will conrtinne to coach the crimson harriers. Tho great little runner has awunrulated a competency since going from England to Canada, where he came a. professional. He held all the world's amateur records from one to twelve miles. Since his arrival in America the Englishman has won a good deal of money as a professional, and, what is more, he has not -thrown it away. As a building contractor and real estate speculator in Toronto he has increased 'his financial resources. Ho is popular at Harvard and throughout Greater Boston.

A writer in tne English ---%-.h,11$ Life" is very loth to credit Donaldson with the world's record for 30,0 yards, and in a, regent article says timing in sprint races has ever been a, subject pf prolific discussion, and man*-;' are the arguments that have been raised.' 0 n the question oi sprint times, especially the tunes between the fifth ox" fourth of a second or' other' fractions' recorded on the dial of a watch.' Who has hot read of the old-timers who could get a man's pace to inches? In proof whefeof'we are told of the thousands they w6n by the accurate knowledge gatoe-j'tnu'swisc; that others equally well versed in Watchholding lost these thousands "is a'mere incident. Still, I' am'not' in the least inclined to deny the merit-Toi; a go'p'd watch-holder, and a good, W.atcj*. ' Moreover, it is undeiiiaple that a man 'who knows his watch'can most" accurately estimate Ul9 pace of any/ runner by thg' record which his own timepiece affords, even though lie may npV always'agree with official returns. But it 13' on the point of actual "records" that I woiild write.

The occasion thereof is Jack Donaldson's accredited 2a' OT-64s.ec fpr 300 yards, which is hailed in spile quarters as a recerd, displacing the 30sec flat registered by garry Butchers. "% discussion has arisen in a cpntemp'prary responsible for the organisation of the race in which Donaldson" put 'up this hair-splitting time on the subject "of the returns. A *,yell known old' hind declared that these dog watches, running in sbiteenths, wpuld hot register thii sixty-fourths. Ho said, in point pf fact, "you can try a week arid ypu cannot stop it on 29 CJI-Oi"? In reply, '"W.L.S." puts in a photo to show {he spider, hand stopped pn 29 61-64, whjci*. wis accomplished, so we are informed, •it'the fifth attempt. Undoubtedly the gnawer' is all-satkfying sp far as the 'assejtipn that a dog watch would not stop pn the sixtyfpurs is cencerned,' but net as" regards the actual time of the event hi question, fndeed, some margin of doubt is now introduced since are informed that the Australian, "as explained, at the time,'" did not do 20 61-04 \4 afl three"wa't-cties-j Mr. John Bramham, df Bradford, hai him the slowest of the three; i&XJoseph Chad wick, of Oldham,'the fastest; Mr. Gepigc Johnson,'of Sheffield, had a tune between the' two. Altpgether, the margin was very slight, but "when the average between the tfcree watches was calculated," the result was found to be 2$ 01-04. Certainly a strange method of returning the time in a "record" race.

It is common knowledge that whereas this contemporary claims the 300----yds record for the Australian, the "Sporting Life" holds firm to the opinion that Hutchens should still be credited with the record. Donaldson did not win the race in question, and therefore the time returned is not that in wliich he breasted the tape, but that at which the different timekeepers considered that he passed the finishing line, a very different matter, and the admitted discrepancies in the returns give point to our contention that the conditions under which the time was put up were not such that it would be fair to deprive Hutchens of the record. It is contended that the fact of Donaldson not breaking the tape does not matter; that records, even ainatonr records have been made without breaking the tape, ln distance races, where the margin was ample, perhaps. Certainly not in sprint races.

Tho whole point is that if a man docs not actually break the tape the margin of possible error is increased. The A.A.A. certainly does not pass sprint records in which the record-breaker dofa not breast the tape. Is "W\L-S." unaware of the fact that Applegarth ran 220 yards in 21 2-ss, at Kettering, when running second to the winner of a 21 l-5s heat, being actually not more than a yard in the rear, and that, although the old record was then 21 4-ss, the claim for record was rejected? A good many people, myself among the number, were perfectly satisfied as to Applegarth's actual time on that day, but "that did not justify the authorities in placing on the books a record made under circum-| stances which admitted of doubt. Now I wonder what our Northern friends would have said if at that time, when Applegarth was "only" an amateur, not a professional champion, it had been proudly announced that in a heat won in 21 3-5s he had beaten C. G. Wood's record by, say, three-fourths of a second.