WILL IT GO ?

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 60, 12 March 1926, Page 9

WILL IT GO ?

A LONG-STANDING RECORD.

Tl.-RT.Tn OF THE NINETIES. 'Ti3 a far cry to 1891 in athletics when the Xew Zealand Amatesx. Athletic Association was but a bantlinf; of four years, and there were no Olympic Games to weld the world in the common bond or" sport. Since the modern revival of the Olympic Gamea in IS9G there lias been consistent effort on the part of athletes from every corner of the earth to bear existing records, and of all the nineteenth century running records for distances between 50 yards and 15 miles, there remains unbeaten in this twentieth century but one —the record for the 250 yards flat race, made on the Auckland Domain cricket ground 33 years ago by \Y. T. Macpherson, of Sydney. An attempt "will be made to-morrow by Jackson Scholz, the present sprint champion of America and winner at the last Olympic Gamea in record time of the 200 metres event, to conquer this oldtime record on the very ground where it was made.

The standing of this record for 30 1 many years probably is due partly to I the fact that it is over a distance which has gone out of favour with the growth of the metric distances as the result of the Olympic Games, and was to some extent overlooked when C. W. Paddock in 11 i* great year of 1921, several times equalled the last world's record for 100 yards and broke the records for 120 yards, 220 yards, 300 yards, 100 metres. 200 metres and 300 metres. At the same time, the fact that Maepherson did tiu--100 yards in 9 4-5 seconds and that hi* 250 yards record has outlived the man, indicates that it was a great performance that has endured very largely oil its merits. So it is left f<y Paddock's immediate successor to the American long-sprint championship to make this dramatic attempt at the home of itI original performance. I It is interesting to recall that occasion lin 1891. It was the first occasion in I Xew Zealand that cyclists were combined lin Xew Zealand with pedestrians in an amateur sports meeting. As has been mentioned, the X.Z.A.A.A. had been formed only in 1887, and the first c-ham-I pionship meeting of Xew Zealand had been held in Dunedin in 1889, when three Aucklanders. B. Owen, J. H. Huicliinson and J. W. Winks, competed without success. In IS9O, a Xew Zealand team went over to Sydney to the Australasian championships, and R. B. Lusk, jof Auckland, carried off the 120 hurdles. I while J. H. Hempton, then of Southland, ! beat W. T. Maepherson in the 100 yards championship. In this distance, both Maepherson and Hempton had records o£ 9 4-5 seconds, so that it can be seen that they were sprinters of quality. In j 1391, when the Xew Zealand champiouj ships were held at the Auckland Domain. 1 Ilempton did not compete, with the I result that Maepherson won the 10(1 yards easily in 10 seconds. He then 1 made the world's record of 24 3-10 ! seconds for the 250 yards race, beating jE. H. Pelling's (London) record of 24 4-5 seconds, and he -won the 440 yards championship in the Xew Zealand record time of 50 2-5 seconds, with Hutchinson, of Auckland, only a yard back in second place. At that meeting H. W. Batger, of Auckland, also made a world's record of 01 2-5 seconds for the quartermile hurdles, which was beaten a year or two later by Tommy Roberts, another ' Aucklander. As instancing the public interest taken in those days in athletics, it might be mentioned that though Auckland was only a fifth of its present size, the attendance was 7000.