Athletic Changes

Press, Volume C, Issue 29480, 5 April 1961, Page 13

Athletic Changes

FOR the first time since the 1949-50 season the senior men’s and women's New Zealand athletic championships were held in conjunction at Hamilton this season. Usually held with the junior men's events, the women’s championships were transferred to the senior meeting at Napier in the 1949-50 season to facilitate the selection of the Empire Games team in 1950. This year the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association made a policy change and combined the women’s and senior men’s events into one meeting and the experiment proved thoroughly successful, providing the public with much brighter entertainment. The really keen athletic enthusiast who wants time to see in detail every event, may complain of too much activity on occasions, but a very large portion of those attending the meeting at Hamilton were probably seeing their first athletic meeting for the season and for them the new type of meeting provided greater interest.

There was scarcely a moment during the meeting when some event was not being contested on either track or field and there was plenty of activity to hold the attention of the occasional visitor. The N.ZAAA. made other changes in the championship arrangements also and having broken the long-estab-lished custom of holding the women’s events with the junior men’s it switched the decathlon, pentathlon, marathon. and 50 kilometre road walk to fill out the junior title meeting. One point that may warrant further consideration, however, Is the holding of this meeting after the senior and women's championships. This year the combined junior meeting was held first and it was noticeable that some who competed in the decathlon in the previous week seemed lethargic in the senior event at Hamilton. The winner of the decathlon, Roy Williams, had one of his least successful outings in senior championship competition.