WHY RECORD WAS REFUSED

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21909, 9 October 1936, Page 6

WHY RECORD WAS REFUSED

V. P. BOOK’S HALF-MILE RUN

ATTITUDE OF WELLINGTON OFFICIALS

“If Boot had been a Wellington man his name would have been in the record book to-daysaid Mr J. K. Moloney at a meeting of the executive of the Canterbury Centre of the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association last evening, when the New Zealand Council's refusal to recognise V. P. Boot’s half-mile record was before the meeting. The centre decided to write to the council expressing its dissatisfaction at the refusal to consider Boot’s performance. Boot ran the half-mile in. Imin 53 2-ssec at an evening meeting at Lancaster Park in March. The Canterbury centre sent forward a request for recognition of his time as a New Zealand record, but the application was refused by the New Zealand Council on the ground that a survey of the track had not been made on the day of the race. A second request from the centre, this time for reconsideration, was sent to Wellington, but the council refused to reopen the matter as further details required from the Canterbury centre did not arrive*in time.

Reporting to the centre last evening, the president, Mr E. M. Todd, said that Boot’s run was openly accepted in Wellington as a New Zealand record. The council was refusing recognition purely on a quibble. In any case, the rule requiring a survey of the track on the day of the race was ambiguous. The centre should not let the matter rest. The second request had been refused simply because the letter was late, but there was no cause for urgency.

Dr. D. McK. Dickson moved that the centre should write to the council expressing its dissatisfaction, and also to the centre’s Wellington representative, Mr H. I. Austad, asking for his assistance.

Mr Moloney said the centre was up against obstructionists in Wellington. and until they were removed little could be done. Boot was not a Wellington man; if he had been his name would have been on the record books to-day.