ATHLETICS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 473, 3 April 1909, Page 12

ATHLETICS.

(B? Meroury.l COMING EVENTS. Easter Monday—lnter-University sports. Por the first time in its history tho Catholio Young' Men's Club was favoured with fine weather for its annual sports gathering on Saturday last. Boing tho last open meeting of tho season tho fields wore vory largo, and all seemed keen on scouring at least one win before the close of tho season. As usual tho trnok was provqkingly unevon, and nil against fast times, which is testimony to the quality of 1 tho .winners.

The sprint events went to show how much a runner oan improve in the space of a week or two. At the Port Nicholson Club's meeting recently F. C. Hubbard, in receipt of 7}yds., was beaten into second place in tho 100 yds. handioap by W. Woodger, the soratoh man. On Saturday last Hubbard, this time receiving only sJyds., was again second in the hundred, whale Woodger was unplaced. Hubbard's win ;• in the 75yds. handicap was a comfortable one for him, Dawson and Duncan being quite unable to extend-him. A big strong runner, Hubbard gets along well at all distances up to a quarter of a mile, but ho seems to be at his best over a hundred yards' course. R. W. Tate made a decidedly good showing for a novice, winning the hundred by two yards in 10 l-sscc. from tho 10yds. mark. Though anything hut the ideal cut of a sprinter, he can muster up a good dash of pace, and on Saturday would probably have been equal to the task of winning from : tho Byds. mark. J. Wilton, the Dominion quarter-mile champion,, made his only appearanco at the meeting in the 100 yds. event, and secured third place, behind Tate and Hubbard. The distanco was not far enough for him to show' his true form. The disappointment of both :short sprints was tho , running of the Viotoria College crack, A. T. Duncan, who (in receipt of three nnd four yards in tho 75yds. and 100 yds.), was unplaced in both. However, his running in tho 220 yds. and HOyds. seems to indicate that he is improving at these distances. With his own heat taking 23 2-ssec., while , tho other two were both run in 22 4-sseo., it , was no wonder that Woodgor considered his jtask in the final of tho 220 yds. too much for (lim after his efforts earlier in the day. The *final of this event was not much as a spectacle, (Buna going to the front at the jump and staying there. His lead at tho tape of three yards ■could probably have been increased by another (yard if he had liked. A fortnight ago, with J2yds. handicap, Dunn could, only ran into third place in the 220 yds. at the W.A.A.C. imeeting, but, on Saturday, eleven yards proved ?to bo too much to give him. R. Bridge and ®un can fought out a strenuous battle for se- , -wind place, the former lasting long enough to beat Duncan, who finished fast, by a few inches. The time, 22 2-ssec., was surprisingly last for the Basin Reser.ve.' . IJ. P. Wilson, winner' of both the quarter ■ tad half-mile events, is' another runner who has improved vastly during the past few weeks. Early in the seaGon he won a couple of sprints pom near the limit, and, at the Wellington , Club's meeting a fortnight ago, captured the Quarter from the 21vds. mark. There was toothing in any of these wins to suggest that •he was capable of anything really good, and Siis two fine performances on Saturday were >omewhat of a surprise. In both events he ,yion with great care. Wilson, besides having jiace, is a determined finishor. Cumringhome' eeourcd second place in the quarter by a determined finish, but this fino quarter-miler has pot shown ns his best form since the spring. With a good rest in the winter, he should again be running in his best form when next season Tolls around. Ex-New Zealand Champion Burge was a disappointment in both the half and mile, showing nothing like his best lorra in either raoe. P. M'Grath .ran an. exceedingly good race m the mile, judging his run beautifully. Last ■year a mile was beyond his compass, but this season he is performing well over longer distances. At present he is probably capable of doing a mile off the mark in tain. 45sec. "One of the prettiest races over seen on tho reserve," was the popular verdiot on the 22Q yards hurdles. At each of the last four hurdles five men rose practically as ono,. and it /Was not till the last had been cleared that - it was possible to sort out the winner. 'Bogle put up a fine performance in winning irom owe ]5 yards in 33 2-ssec., and there can be little doubt that he is the superior ,of the provincial champion,- Evensen, at this distance. Kitto again ran well, but met more than his match in Bogle. Cashman and Turner fought out the walk with'great grit, the former getting home by a few yards., Turner, while maintaining his beautifully-correct style, is improving his pace with every outing, and next season ne should be well up in the front rank of our local walkers. .

Seldom a meeting goes without L. M'Kay scoring a win, and Saturday's gathering was no exception to the rule, the high jump being tho event to fall to his lot. At one time was good for sft. Bin., but of late sft. Sin. or 3in. has been his limit. His jump on Saturday, sft, ssin., was a good effort, considering the nature of the take off. His 19ft.. 6in. in the long jump was another good performance, when the fact that there is a foot rise in the run up to the board is taken into consideration. The hero of the meeting was undoubtedly the inter-university three-mile champion, T. Bigg, who, giving away handicaps up to 330 yds,, won the three miles event in the excellent time of 15min. 43scc. He could undoubtedly have bet- • tered this by several seconds had he been pushed along in the second milo. A beautifully easy-actioned runner, Eigg sweeps over the ground with a rather long stride for a distance man, and on the whole is a yeiy even-gaited runner. Could he acquire the art of which Shrubb was masterthat of running a fast lap in-every mile, he would go very near tho New Zealand' standard, 15min. 20scc. He will probably never bo in quite the samo olass as tho Canterbury wonder, M. Dickson, but, as he is only twenty, he has plenty of time to improve yet. After Dickson and M'Knight ho is probably tho best three-miler running in the Dominion to-day. ■Since he started running in opon company Eigg has only suffered one defeat—in the last mile championship of the universities, when lie ■was defeated by the Canterbury College runner, li. A. Dougall. His wins include threo one-mile and three three-milo events. The most important was his victory in the three miles university championship last Easter Monday, ■when he defeated Croker, of Otago ;University, in a stirring finish—one of the best ever seen on the Carisbrook ground. Since last Saturday's meeting some have been directing criticisms at the Wellington Centre's selectors for not including Rigg in the team which went south recently. As a matter of fact Rigg was asked to go, and was not selected becauso he could not make the trip. .The mooting of Rigg and Dougall 'in tho mile championship of tho university on Easter Monday should be worth goiug a long way to sec. This season Dougall has done •tmin. 40sec. for the distance, and a fortnight ago Rigg covered a mile in 4min. dlsoc. on the Basin Reserve. Having seen both men run this season, tho writer is of opinion that Rigg will a.bout win. On Easter Monday, also, the Wellington public will liavo the opportunity of seeing in action R. Opio, tho young Canterbury 6printer, who made such a close finish of it with Woodger in tho 100 Yards New Zealand Championship. Short and stoutly-built, Opio is altogether a different runner from Woodger so far as stylo is concerned, his action lacking that graceful ease so characteristic of the champion's running, but ho can muster up a great amount of pace over all the sprint distances and tho quarter.

On Saturday last at .the Napior A.A. Club's first meeting W. G. Harding put up a brace of decidedly good performances, by winning tha half-mile and. running second 'in the 410 yds. handicap. In the former event ho was conceding ten yards to K J. Williams, whom he defeated comfortably in 2min. 2 2-ssec., a second better than tho time in which he was beaten in the l'alf-milo championship by Raskins. In the 410 yds. he was defeated by a foot in 51 2-ssec., two seconds faster tlmn "Wilton's time at Dunedin. However, as the Napier track is one of tho fastest in New Zealand, times cannot be taken as fair test. Wilton would probably bo equal to 51 scconds on tho Napier ground.