INTERPROVINCIAL MEETING

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27883, 3 February 1956, Page 7

INTERPROVINCIAL MEETING

A THLETICS

PROSPECTS FOR TOURNEY TOMORROW

Canterbury will have a good chance of regaining the Dorie Leslie Shield in the annual athletic tournament with Wellington at Rugby Park tomorrow. Wellington, with 98 points, defeated Canterbury by 5 points last year. Apart from the national championships, the clash with Wellington should provide the best competition of the season in Christchurch. The visitors will be particularly strong in the junior middle-dis-tance and distance events, where they have boys of such outstanding ability thac most provinces would be happy to rank them in their senior teams. M. J. Stephens recently set a new junior national record of Imin 54.45ec for the halfCanterbury’s best seniors have run a shade slower than Imin 59sec. R. War*d has returned 4min 20.4 sec for the mile, and some observers consider that he *s capable of breaking Murray Halberg’s time of 4min 17.2 sec. The third membe; of this outstanding trio, B. Everritt, has done the three miles in 14min 29sec. lhe best senior time in Canterbury is C. F Reece’s 14min 27.8 sec, made last week. Canterbury has good strength in the women’s section, with Mrs D. May and Miss M. Chamberlain for the sprints, Miss V. Sloper (shot put), and Miss G. Harris (high jump). Misses J. Dennehy and L. Beresford (sprints and long jump) and Miss H. Wright (hurdles and high jump) can be relied on to give good showings for Wellington. In the senior section Canterbury sprinters will be strongly opposed oy R. Dick, B. Thwaites, a former outstanding Canterbury junior, and the Wellington all-rounder. J. G. Hawkes. The hammer throw will be a duel between J. M. Carr (Wellington) and D. D. Leech (Canterbury). At the West Coast championships recently Leech bettered the Canterbury record with a throw of over 160 ft. In a 20-kilometre road walk, J. Hyslop will meet N. Read (Wellington), a former English junior champion. Although he is named in the Wellington team, it is unlikely that A. McKnight will take part in the distance races, as he was in a three-mile record attempt at Auckland last evening and is scheduled to compete in a six-mile attempt on Monday. The main opposition for Canterbury men will come from B. Derwin, R. Mitchell and B. Mollier.