First N.Z. Girl To Throw Discus One Hundred Feet

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 76, 31 March 1945, Page 4 (Supplement)

First N.Z. Girl To Throw Discus One Hundred Feet

Relay Records Topple As Fitting Climax To Auckland Athletics

By MELANION

AT last! For the first time in the history of New Zealand athletics a woman athlete has hurled the discus 100 feet! This is the achievement of the young Auckland athlete, Miss Billie Singe.

At the provincial relay and team championships last Saturday the Ellerslie Club member, only 16 years of age, showed that the high hopes of those who have encouraged her, even before she won the Auckland provincial title, were well founded. Her throw of 104 ft OJin broke the record of 99ft 8 7-Bin held by Miss F. M. Gibson, of Otago.

Actually, the record for the discus was Droken only a few minutes before Miss Singe made her great throw. That most consistent performer, Mrs. Mona Poultney, of Hamilton, who was second to Miss Singe in the Auckland championships and second to Miss J. Gibson in the national title, threw her very best to reach 99ft lOJin. Hard luck, indeed, but the Hamilton athlete was the first to congratulate her younger rival.

The final meeting of the 1944-45 season in Auckland was a most successful one. The provincial relay and team championships have quite captured the fancy of all athletes, male and female, and it is doubtful if there is a more popular athletic meeting in the year. Competition was very keen and at times thrilling, while the standard was very high. Auckland Club's Successes As anticipated the Auckland Club won both sprint relays and it also accounted for both the one mile and the two miles. Rarely has such a brilliant sprint quartet, been seen in action as the oldest club in the city fielded in the half mile (each man running a furlong ), Ron Agate, Doug Harris, Brian Nordgren and Ron Lumley. This splendid team lowered the existing provincial championship record by 1 2-ss. For the 440 yards event the club replaced Harris with L. P. Burgess, the former Wellingtonian, and the team only failed by l-5s to equal the existing record figures.

In both the mile and the two mile Auckland teams lowered the records. While this is creditable enough, even more worthy of note is the fact that both teams included three juniors. B. Beach, M. Marshall, J. Mahoney ran splendidly in the mile (four men each a quarter mile) and with the national champion and record holder, D. M. Harris, to run the final leg the team knocked a full second off the 1938 record. Both Marshall and Mahoney were members of the two mile team, completed by still another junior, J. Pringle,

and G. Dagicevich. In this race Owairaka, who fielded a very solid combination—E. Mclnnes, J. C. Daley, M. R. Craighead and H. A. Payne—was expected to win but they couldn't hold the Auckland team, who clipped three seconds off the record. j Entries were so good for the junior ; 440 yards relay that semi-finals were necessary. This added a great deal to the efforts of the runners who were in both sprint relays. Despite this the Old Grammarians teams won both the 440 yards and 880 yards races, taking 2-5s off the record in the first event and a full second off the previous best in the second and logger race. However, they could not be allowed the record as their club B team, in winning its semifinal, clocked 45 3-ss, 4-5s better than the record. The effort was too much for this fine quartet and they did not get a place in the final. The introduction of a relay race i over the 120 yards hurdles for juniors j proved most popular, entries being i received from four clubs. Lynndale was disqualified at the start, but a fine race resulted in a win for Old Grammarians. Incidentally those two fine footballers, J. Kawharu, of Auckland Grammar, and J. G. Myles, of Mount Albert Grammar, were members of the winning hurdles relay team as well as the 440 yards relay and the 880 yards relay team. The Women's Events Though not so spectacular the women's teams events produced some fine performances. In the broad jump event Kiwi broke the record established last year by themselves by nearly two feet. On that occasion the Misses Zelda and Lois Corbett and M. Frood totalled 44ft 8?in; on Saturday the two former young athletes, with Miss Ruth Dowman, totalled 48ft 6Jin. Zelda Corbett again bettered 17ft and it seems quite evident that she will eventually record new figures for New Zealand.

Ellerslie added no fewer than 19ft to the javelin team record. All three members of its team—Mrs. G. Robson, Mrs. P. Mayer and Miss B. Singe, bettered 82ft. In the shot put Mount Albert increased the record t-. 80ft lljin, bettering the figures created by Otahuhu in 1940, while- in the discus Ellerslie added no fewer than 27ft to the record created by Kiwi last year. This was only to be expected with a team consisting of the Singe sisters and Miss Shirley Mead.

With the women's marching competition as the final event the meeting concluded in a most impressive fashion. Onehunga regained the marching cup from Kiwi after a display that was frankly commented upon by many as being the equal of any marching seen locally for years.