Australians Should Press Mackenzie

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31027, 5 April 1966, Page 19

Australians Should Press Mackenzie

1 he Commonwealth Games aspirant, D. W. Mackenzie, w hose New Zealand 100 yards record of 93sec may not be recognised because of a technicality, could possibly repeat his outstanding performance during the athletics between Canterbury I Diversity. Lincoln College and Australian Universities at St. Andrew’s College tonight.

There are some fine sprinters in the Australian team and they could force .Mackenzie to greater effort. However, perfect conditions are necessary for such a world class time and with the approach of winter the grass’ track may not be very’ fast, I I Henry and A Rowe, both of Queensland, have regularly sprinted the 100 yards in 9.9 sec. Rowe has a best time of 97sec while Henry was third in the Queensland State 100 metres in 10.7 sec. Both athletes are also out-

standing performers over 220 yards. Rowe won both the 100 and 220 yards titles at [ the Australian university championships last season. His time for the longer sprint was a very creditable 21.7 sec. ' Henry was second in the 1 same time Unfortunately, today’s programme only caters for a 100 'yards sprint, although both events will be contested in the Universities tournament • and the following test- match ■ at Dunedin. The 440 yards event could ' provide G. McKechnie, the holder of the New Zealand junior title, with a chance of

■ recording a fast time. He will run against the Queensland champion, R Clarke, who holds the inter-university record at 48sec. .Isec faster than Mackenzie’s Canterbury record. Another good quarter-miler in the Australian team is T of New South Wales, who has recorded 51 sec for the 440 yards and 49.45ec for 400 metres in recent events. Half-mile Runners An event which should provide considerable spectator interest is the half-mile. In this the Wellington champion, P. Marks, now attending Canterbury University, will be matched against F. Larkins (Melbourne), who ran the distance in Imin 56 sec at Wellington on Saturday. Canterbury University will find itself hard-pressed to match the Australians in field events. L. Walkley (Sydney) and G. Taylor (Queensland) were first and second, respectively. in the Australian universities championship triple jump last year. In the Queensland championships. Taylor recorded 48ft Bin in the triple jump and 24ft 61 in in the long jump.

Walkley is the New South Wales junior champion in both jumps. L. Crawford (Canterbury) will be thoroughly tested in the discus event. His main competition will probably come from P. Fitzgerald (Sydney), who has thrown the discus 142 ft.