ATHLETICS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 168, 15 July 1916, Page 16

ATHLETICS.

A Victorian Press report states that "as the outcome of complaints respecting betting by competitors and others at amateur meetings in Victoria, the following recommendation by the Victorian A.A.A. has been forwarded to the Amateur Athletic Union headquarters in Sydney, for the purpose of taking a mail vote: 'An amateur shall lose his status by wagering, or being in any way interested in a staked bet or wager ■made in connection with any competition.' Another resolution submitted for mail vote had for its purpose the relaxation of the rule that a track, in the case of a record, shall be measured after the race and on the day of the race. The suggested amendment provides that measurements of approved tracks may be made at any time within the two days succeeding the day of the race." An American paper tells the following ; interesting story concerning a great race: Patriotism is seldom ' thought of as the motive power in athletics, but was a prime factor in one of the greatest middle-distance racee on record. The event was the combination 800 metres and half-mile run at the Olympic games at Stockholm in 1012, and Ted Mere!dith, the present captain of the University of Pennsylvania track team, was the hero. At that time Meredith was a student at Mercersburg Academy. He had won a good deal of fame by running a quarter-mile in 48 4-ss, and a half-mile in lm 55 4-ss. But the oldtimers were sure that hie inexperience would be fatal to him at Stockholm. When the runners toed the mark for the final heat of this event, it was the consensus of opinion that the fight would be between Mcl Sheppard, Ira Davpnport. and Hans Braun. of Germany, with Meredith, the schoolboy, a possible contender. Sheppard jumped into the front at the start, and took the pole, followed by Meredith and Braun. Sheppard 'was up to his old trick of setting a killing pace at the Btart, then gradually slowing down in order that his phenomenal sprint might beat the field at the finish. But he had beaten Meredith with these tactics once before, and the Mercersburg boy was waiting for him. Meredith moved up, determined to take tha pace the moment Sheppard slowed down. With two such men as Meredith and Braun at his shoulder Sheppard did not dare to slacken speed, with the result that he continued to set the pace, and made the first quarter in the phenomenal time of 52sec. The men remained in this order until 75 yards from home. Meredith never supposed that he had a chance to win. and, as he said afterwards, was satisfied so long as the winner was an American. But suddenly Sheppard began to tire, and Braun spurted and moved up on even term 3 with the two Americans. "I may be beaten by an American," said Meredith to himself, "but never by a foreigner." With this he dug in his spikes for one supreme effort. It took him past Sheppard, and caused Braun to collapse. Meredith. won the race, struck the SOO metres tape in lm 5 7-lOs, and the halfmile in lm 52Js, both world records. Of course, Meredith was a great runner, but his sturdy Americanism was the contributing factor. The ten-mile running match for the world's professional championship, which was recently docided at the Powderhall Grounds, Edinburgh, Scotland, resulted in Willie Kolehmainen, a brother of Hannes, being badly beaten by the Scottish runner George McEae. The race was for stakes of £50 a-eide and a tJiare of the gate receipts. To allow the event to be run, three inches of snow had to be cleared from the track. ilcßae set a fast pace, and led by SOyds at the end of the first mile, lie reached the hairdistance in 25.35, and was then a-quarter of a mile to the good. " Steadily increasing his lead, the Scot eventually won in 52.22 by nearly half a mile. Recently it was announced that Earl Thompson, of the University of Southern California, and Robert Simpson, of the University of Missouri, had both brought the world's record for the 120 yards high hurdles down from 15s to 14 4-os, and that .1. E. ("Tod") Meredith, who was just finishing his studies at the University of Pennsylvania, had ect up a new record of 1.52 1-5 for the BSO yards flat. Now comes new that the 120 yards hurdles record has come down another fifth of a second. That the high (3ft 6inl nurdles at 120 yards was likely to have a fresh record set up for it this year was demonstrated by the fact that several American amateur athletes had equalled the old record (15s) in the past year or so. Simpson showed up as the most likely record breaker by his performances early iv tile present season in America. Twice he equalled 15a on cinders. Then be did life on graes, which was practically a new record for the event on grass. In fact, the record books show that the old record in grass was the 15 l-5s which G. R. L. Anderson, the famous Oxford athlete, registered in London four years ago. But at the Olympic Games of "1908, aleo in London, Forrest Smitheon did the 110 metres (120.2 yards) hurdles in 15s. From his fine performance on grace, Simpson went on to bring the record on the cinders down to 14 4-ss, which time was equalled by Earl Thompson a week later. But at the Missouri Valley Conference Meet, on Slay 27, Simpson brought the record down to 14 3-ss, on a heavy track, and he ako equalled the world's record of 23 3-5s for the 220 yards low hurdles. That these performances were not "flukes" he proved a week later, when, at the annual meet, held in Chicago, of the Inter-Collegiate Conference Athletic Association (which consists of the Universities in the Middle West of the United States), he again won the 120 yards high hurdles in 14 3-oe, wliile hie time for the 220 yards low hurdles was only one-fiith of" a second outside his time of a week before. Another world's record went emash at the American Inter-Collegiate A.A 4 Championships Meeting—the bi<™est inter-collegiate event of the year—in the Harvard Stadium on May 27. J. E. Meredith was the hero. The famous Pennsylvaninn won the 440 yards dash in 47 2-ss, which is a new world's record around a tnrn. The previous record was M. W. Long's 47 4-5e at Tiawas Island OSew Yorfc, in 1900. Meredith's was only two-fifths of a second behind Long's lecord of 47s flat on a straight-a couiee. But in the" Chicago meet, at which Simpson equalled his own hurdle record, Bmger Desmond, Chicago's great I negro runner, equalled Meredith's new i mart of 47 2-5s for 440 yards round a I torn. I A new wonder in the pole-jumping line i has recently been discowirrai in America. At the indoor meet of the Kansas City Athletic Qnb, F. W. Floyd, of the University of Missouri (Columbia) eet np a world's record for an indoor performance on a board floor. 'Floyd cleared the remarkable height of 12ft BJio, beating the previous of 12ft. ! 5m., held by Rochine, of Notre Dame. Floyd afterwards attempted lift., and though he cleared the bar, Jiia arm brushed it as he fell