Close Finishes For Athletics Titles

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28820, 14 February 1959, Page 5

Close Finishes For Athletics Titles

'pHE first day of the Canterbury athletic championships at Rugby Park on Saturday produced several close and exciting finishes, an excellent throw of 156 ft s]in in the discus by Miss Valerie Sloper, and the disqualification of both the senior and junior Technical teams in the four by 110 yards' relay. The disqualification of the junior team was unfortunate because the runners put everything into this event and broke the old record of 45.25ec by .01 sec. Although the team was not allowed this record, its performance came as no surprise, for the Technical club is gifted with many sprinters who all seem destined to do welL Experience In the senior mile it was thought that D. Dixey, the junior record-holder, would take the senior title in view of his rapid improvement in the last few weeks, but the greater experience of the former Otago runner, G. Smith, was too much—but only just. Smith won this race by a nose, but the decision could easily have gone the other way, and indeed, the result would have been very interesting if the tape had been in place. There was an unexpected result in the junior 100 yards when J. Neither, of Technical, won narrowly from D. Mackenzie and A. Steel in 10.5 sec. The keen competition between these three since Christmas has added a fillip to the sprint events, which earlier were monopolised by Steel and Mackenzie. Neither is a quick starter and a consistently even runner. He should do well in the senior ranks if he maintains his present rate of improvement. Unusual The junior mile was an unusual race, the first three laps being as slow and uninteresting as an apathetic pacemaker could make them. In the last quarter, an impatient J. Power burst into the lead after being boxed in and sprinted for the last 300 yards.

S. Payne, another good miler, allowed a big gap to increase for a while, then he accelerated, but was unable to bridge the gap. It was a weak race, spoiled by the front markers who did their best to keep the pace down.

A pleasing feature of the meeting was the efficient organisation which had each event running strictly to schedule. The second and final day will be held today.