Track Too Short; Time Not Record

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30961, 18 January 1966, Page 13

Track Too Short; Time Not Record

The outstanding performance of the New Zealand quarter-mile champion, D. W. Mackenzie (University), in winning the 440 yards event at the Rothmans international athletic meeting on Saturday in 47.8 sec will not be recognised as a Canterbury record.

When the surveyors measured the Lancaster Park track an Sunday, a requirement stipulated by the Canterbury Athletic Centre before an application for a record is accepted, they found that the third lane, the one Mackenzie drew, to be 2.8 links, or just under 2ft, short. Every one of the other five

lanes used on the day was found correct. Officials inadvertently had painted Mackenzie’s mark for the staggered start in the wrong place. Mackenzie already holds the Canterbury record for the distance at 48.2 sec. Last evening, Mackenzie said: “It is just one of those things.” He conceded that it was a disappointment, but said he now had an incentive to repeat the performance on a properlymarked track. The 2.8 links difference might have been worth a tenth of a second. Making allowance for the short track, Mackenzie still would have been three-tenths of a second inside his old record. He is training for the New Zealand championships in March and a performance such as this at such a time is a sign that he will be a strong contender for a place in the New Zealand Empire Games team later this year.