ATHLETICS

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27639, 21 April 1955, Page 9

ATHLETICS

NATIONAL MARATHON CHAMPIONSHIP AUCKLAND REPLIES TO OTAGO COMPLAINT (New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, April 19. The Auckland Amateur Athletic Centre denies a Dunedin charge that it relegated the national marathon championship to the background. The president (Mr E. M. Horan) said today that his centre was doing all it could to encourage marathon runners.

He was replying to comments made by Mr J. G. Barnes, former president of the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association, at the Otago Centre’s monthly meeting in Dunedin. Mr Barnes said that Auckland had relegated the national marathon championship to the background by holding it miles away from the main athletic ground, the Newmarket Olympic Stadium. Mr Horan said that at a meeting Of the New Zealand association he had given the reasons for having the finish of the marathon at Waikaraka Park, and these had been accepted and approved. "If the Olympic Stadium had been nominated as the finishing ground, runners would have had to contend with a steep grade at the end of a tiring race, and they would have had to run through a very heavy flow of late Friday afternoon traffic,” said Mr Horan. "The harriers committee of the Auckland centre actually put forward the suggestion of an alternative course.” No attempt had been made to detract from, the glamour of the marathon. Runners had rather been encouraged by getting consideration of their difficulties.