ATHLETIC NOTES

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21648, 5 December 1935, Page 16

ATHLETIC NOTES

TRAINING FOR CHRISTMAS MEETINGS FIELD PERFORMANCES STILL POOR (By Relay.) It seems likely that the weather will allow athletes to do some useful and long-delayed training during the three weeks remaining before Christmas. There will be no inter-club meeting next Saturday, and racing will not be resumed until Tuesday, when the Canterbury Amateur Athletic Club will hold a trophy handicap meeting at Lancaster Park. Fields at the inter-club meeting at New Brighton last week were encouraging, but' every competitor, right from the A grade down to C grade, has still a lot of ground to make up, and if the Christmas meetings are to maintain their high standard, plenty of hard work will have to be done before then. C. H. Matthews and T. G. Broadway, who will probably be Canterbury's two candidates for Olympic honours, are turning out regularly, but are still doing very light work. Broadway has run in the sprints and Matthews is taking the mile: very easily. Members of the Canterbury Club, E. P. Newburgh and W. Redpath, as well as Broadway and others,, made an appearance on Saturday and helped considerably to build up the strength of the A grade fields. H. C. McCaskey, of Sumner, a former Canterbury re-. presentative, wafe also prominent, but all of these men have a long way to go before they can hope to get back to form. , C. R. Bradwell, the Technical hurdler, is unlucky so far in that he has had no one to extend him at all, and most of his races he has run by himself. He showed good form when he ran the 120 yards in 16 4-ssec, the standard time, on Saturday.

Initiative Needed It is distressing to officials to see the standard of field performances still far below a satisfactory level. There is nothing to indicate that Canterbury is even likely to do much better than it has in the two seasons, and it is in this section of the sport that improvement is jnost urgently necessary. Lectures and exhibitions of films have been tried before, and special, coaches have been appointed to teach young athletes how to improve their technique, but not a great deal seems to have come of this work. It was a great pity that the indoor training scheme which was neglected entirely last winter, should not have been used to improve performances. Some new plan is necessary, and whatever form it may take it is to be hoped that unlike others it will be pursued to its end. Too many schemes have been talten up only half-heartedly and not

given an opportunity to prove their value. Looking back over the various and attractive schemes the Canterbury Amateur Athletic Centre has had before it, it is clear that it is concentrated team organisation that the centre needs most to develop. Inter-Club Points Total points in the inter-club competition at the end of the third round on Saturday were as follows: Technical .. .. 309 Presbyterian -.. 192J University .. 176 Old Boys .. 164 New Brighton .. 139J Sydenham .. 121J Canterbury ..87 Civil Service .. 56 Sumner .. 43 Rangiora-Kaiapoi .. 32J The Technical Club has increased i's lead at every meeting and seems likely to have a margin of several hundreds before the end of the competition. The University Club will have comparatively small tepms in the field until thq New Year. Both Canterbury and Sydenham iiive lost ground, but the Presbyterian and New Brighton clubs have not let many opportunities for scoring go by. The inter-club series will be resumed on Saturday, December 14, at Ensor's road.