STRICKE COULD WIN POLE VAULT TITLE

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30998, 2 March 1966, Page 15

STRICKE COULD WIN POLE VAULT TITLE

rpHE multiple Canterbury pole vault champion, C. F. Stricke (Technical), will have a wonderful chance of winning his first senior New Zealand title this week-end. In the last few years he has been steadily improving his Canterbury record and now he is in a position to challenge the New Zealand Empire Games representative, K- F. Gibbons (West Coast North Island), who has won the national pole vault title for the last three seasons in succession. Unfortunately, Stricke is to be denied the chance of matching his skill against Gibbons in the New Zealand championship at Rugby Park

on Saturday. He has entered for the championship but has told reporters that, an injury would prevent him competing again this season. Gibbons won the championship at Palmerston North last season with a vault of 13ft 6in. G. M. Townsend (Otago) was second with 12ft 6in and Stricke third with 12ft. Since that time the Canterbury athlete has improved considerably. He has managed to obtain a fibre-glass pole,- an absolute necessity in national competition, and a short time ago broke his Canterbury recqrd with a

magnificent leap of 13ft Sin —at his first attempt. And this was after his closest rival had dropped out at lift. In the national competition, he could be forced to even greater heights. His strongest opposition is likely to come from B. D. MeGonagle, who reached 14ft earlier this season. He has been doing a considerable, amount of weight training and should be in peak form for his title attempt on Saturday morning. The breaking of the New Zealand resident record, held by Gibbons at 14ft Sin, will not be quite so easy. Stricke has the potential to do it but it seems unlikely this season. He could, nevertheless, reach 131 ft, a height which only three other New Zealand athletes have achieved.