THE CHAMPIONSHIP ATHLETIC MEETING.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 9298, 26 December 1895, Page 4

THE CHAMPIONSHIP ATHLETIC MEETING.

Next Saturday the lovers of athletic sports will hate an opportunity of seeing some athletic exercises worth wlttißSsing at Lancaster _*ar]s:. At thia meeting will be decided the Championships of the Amateur Athletic Association of the colony. The Amateur Athletic Clubs of Auckland, Wellington, Otago and Canterbury have entered teams to compete for the Championship Banner, which will be won by the Club whose team wins most points. Naturally the members of the teams hope to win glory for themselves as individuals as well as the banner of the Association. Besides the teams sent by these four Clubs there are other contestants to be present as individuals from various parts of the colony. We gave a list of the entries ' for the various events in our issue of Saturday last, which will show our readers who are competing. It may safely be asserted that all the best athletes in New Zealand will be there. New Zealand can certainly claim to have some athletes whose performances are worth witnessing. There is Hempton, for instance, the Wellington sprinter, who holds the world's record of 100 yards fiat in 9 and 8-sth sec. This has been nearly equalled by Macphebson, the popular New South Wales sprinter. Hempton, as will be remembered, has also distinguished himself by racing close np to Bradley, the English champion sprinter. Then there is Roberts, of Auckland, who also holds a world's record, viz., that of 61secs for a quarter of a mile over hurdles. Again,

there is Creamer, whose record for a three miles walk is 22_nin 58sec. Plethoric middle-aged people think three miles in an hour a remarkable performance. Here is a man who v/alb it in a trifle over a third of that tinig, On Saturday next we shall see some veterans on the track whose performances are sure to be worth witnessing. Wo refer to Bu_h men as H. M. Beeves, J. F..Grierso*D. Wood and others. There will be some comparatively new men too. There is Percy, from Hororata, who is earning distinction as a runner for a mile three miles. At the last meeting 0 f , our Canterbury Association he oeat such excellent performers as C. $, Clark and D. Woop. Altogether there will be a most excellent bill of fare for those who love displays of athletic feats. There is nothing to be ashamed of in a passion for witnessing athletic contests. We need not hesitate to follow the example of the ancient Greeks for whom contests of bodily strength had almost as much attraction as the exhibitions of the intel. lectual and artistic triumphs of those great artists, dramatists -and philosophers who have won for Greece her I lofty position in the intellectual I history of the human race. It { g interesting to remark that next yean will probably see a revival of the celebrated Olympian games, which were the delight of tho world in the flaya of ancient Greece. The programrbe of course, will be modified to suit the habits of modern times. There ia some ground for hoping that in the bloodless contests of the racing track and the gymnasium the great nations of the world will for the future find an outlet for their energies and love of honourable strife which will help the coming of that blessed time when there shall be no more war, aud when niilitary weapons will be transformed into implements for peaceful use. Some of the European nations are waking up to the fact that England undoubtedly owes much of her success in the enterprises both of war and peace to the physical and mental training which young Englishmen receive on the playgrounds on which while at school and afterwards they spend so much of their leisure time. There are, therefore, many justifications for asking the public to take a keen interest in all well-conducted athletic contests. To avoid confusion wo must reminii our readers that there is still to coino the more important athletic meeting on tho 2nd and 4th of January, when the competitions will be inter-colonial instead of inter-provincial, to which the meeting of Saturday next is undoubtedly a fitting prelude.