ATHLETICS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 770, 19 March 1910, Page 12

ATHLETICS.

(Br Meeodbt.)

V; ; 7:V : ' y pixtubes. : .. 'To-day.-C.Y.M;A.A.C. meeting.- ,-.■ March 2fi '.(Easter -. .A;A.C; Inaugural' Meeting. , Easter , Monday.—University Tourna- -> ment. ;•■■■;■.' '■ '.■!.','■•'"";. •■.•,; Easter Monday.—New 'Plymouth A.A.C/ ," Meeting/ ■ .'■■•■■ ~ ■ .' .'■ i. " Easter ■ '■• - : Monday.—Manawatu A.A.C. \ Meeting .(Palmerston North). ■ . "•' last ..week; reference waa made to . the handicapping iai'. the running events at local-sports: meetings, with special regard to the. tasks set our backmarkers owing to the. generosity of. the • starts allotted ■to limit men. It was pointed out that, good as our scratch men are, they .are not .world-beaters; and.tnat the worth ofi'their; performances was being nullified, as. far as the greater:proportion of the/spectators was concerned, because the harshness' of the handicappers;,utterly precluded.any. chance of their making a good showing atth« business' end. of a race. Quite apart from the .point o£ view o{ the runner himself, it is a fact that nothing impresses the putilic so much in'a race as seeing the scratch man run his field down, and make a fight'for it at the finish. It is everything to the public that the' scratch man should be in at the death,, and in : a reasonable, number of ■'times • irin in, say, 10 i-Ssec., 2niin., 4min. S3seo., .or; whatever the time and distance may be. They find no amusement in seeing him. run unplaced time and, again,,- even though, .he be'.consistently recording lOseCj* lmin. SSsec., 4min. 29sec;, or ..even ;bettor/;,The .public like to see a scratch man win, especially so when they : have had it'.tola to them with great reiteration that "he is a champion, or a coming champion, and they judge a man by his position at the end of a race...

. How often does it, occur that a scratch man turns oat, say, in" a mile and runs a poor third in: a race run,' say again, in tain. 27sec., or 60, ;bis own. time being about 4inin. 32&6 C, 'and one hears on all sides: "So-and-so 'didnot good, did he?" whereas'had "So-and-so" won the race, even had he taken three or' four seconds longer to run. the distance, them he would have been acclaimed with fervour. Thia blighting'sort of thing has boon far too frequent this sear son. v '"" ■

: And the public must be considered. In the long run , their/view-point is right, and, moreover, as they pay the piper, they surely have, a right. to ' call the tune. Bound up with- them and their views, too, is the good of the sport. Tho sport cannot . thrive, without public' interest, and'public interest is jiot to be fostered by witnessing race after race in whioh long-mark men run in winners, while the scratch men, whom the public has. really como to. see, labour hopelessly in the rear. . , : .; ' . ■ .'■'"

Now for the view-point of the runner. The scratch man does not, of course, always look to win, but. he should reasonably expect to be able to win at least as often as a middle-marker 01 limit man. Or, at all events,, he should at least be given a' chance to justify himself in the eyes of the public. It is not the trophy that counts—the feeling that his presence in the race has been used as a "draw" for-the public, and the desiro to justify himself in the pnblio eye. It is a poor satisfaction to him after the"race to; know that he has put up a fine run,, and registered a .good time, if his efforts in'so doing are hidden beyond recognition. And' as stated above..the effor,t is hidden unless the runner is there or thereabouts at the finish. ■•■'',

Then again, with the long-mark man— v;hat satisfaction is it to him to win a race in a time that debars another man in the race from any chance of extending him? Very little,, one would think. So no one .ia really pleased. Tho scratch man isn't pleased, not becauso he didn't win, bpt becauso he was debarred from making a fight for it. The winner isn't satisfied, because he knows the back men were not given a chance. The haiidicapper is uneasy becauso lie sees that he has sf*t the scratch man too hard a task, and the public is disappointed because it considers the scratch man did not do ns well as ho should have done.

These remarks have been forced into print by last Saturday's happenings at the Petone Junior Clubs meeting, nnd here "Mercury" desires to explain that he is extremely sorry that he is to be found decrying the handicap.pera. No

one understands and appreciates the difficulties which theso ollicials take upon themselves more than' the writer, but he honestly thinks that the welfare of the sport is likely to be affected unless some changes in the direction indicated are made. Tho writer has been a handicapper, and he knows the ehoals and quicksands of the position only too well. In the case of the Petone meeting, what might havo been a highly successful gathering from a competitive standpoint —unfortunately: the attendance of tho Petono public left a lot to be desired— was completely marred by just this feature—the undue leniency shown to the long-mark runners.

The evil was not' confined to the flat events—it extended to the field sports as well. Thus, in the broad jump the handicaps ranged up to 4ft. 6in., and in the high jump up to 10in. The running events were as bad, as witness . the limits throughout the programme. In the 100 Yards Club Handicap tho biggest start was 14 yards, and this from Strickland, who, in the 120 yards open, had C yards from Woodger. .

This prepares us for something startling in the open event—and we get it. The limit in the 120 yards was 20 yards, with a man on 19 yards, and several on 18 yards. In the 220 yards handicap it was 25, with eight men on 20 yards and over, and in the "quarter" 50 yards. The half-mile provided a maximum of 85 yards, and the mile. 170 yards. Of course these limit men do not always win, but tho point is that they stretch out all the other handicaps in proportion. Even the officials' race was won by the limit man —Mr. T. M. Wilford, off a big mark. Certainly the times recorded on Saturday do not point to anything particularly good being asked'of the scratch men, but this is accounted for by the track, which was quito liko a billiard table in some respects—it was nice and green, and had pockets in it every yard or so. On two or three occasions the runnere put a foot into one of these pockets ; and came down with disastrous results to themselves and their immediate neighbours. The best work was done in the jumping department. L.' M. M'Kay gave an exhibition,of pole jumping that compares with anything he has ever shown us. He vaulted in "excellent'style,' and finally-got over 10ft. din., with only one "fault — at 9ft. Cin., when he knocked the bar off with his elbow after getting over it. It is a pity that he did not continue, as he seemed good for'lift, easily, but after clearing 10ft. Cin. with ease he put his pole away. In the broad jump he cleared 20ft. 3in. and 20ft. 3Jin., but owing to the generous natnre of the handicap, as mentioned, this did not get into the first six, notwithstanding his own allotment of 5 inches. . ' •■! Hubbard, the other field champion present, also "made good" in the broad jump. With no 1 board as a take-off, his three efforts panned out'at 20ft.Bin., 21ft. 4in., and 21ft. ijin.—a really first-class performance, but under the circumstances not good enough to earn him a , place. Last year at this meeting Hubbard jumped 20ft. llin. The entries for the meeting were extraordinarily good, and, despite the complaints about the handicapping, the fields were largo throughout. ■J. 1). Fraser, who,-it will bo; remembered, won a maiden race at tho' Basin Reserve recently, ran well, winning a club handicap and 220 yds. open. . Of theother: local men, Strickland made a good .showing, winning the 120 yds. open, and jumping 19ft. sin. ' . ■..:'.■ ■ Tho town, athletes present included T. M. Hefier.who ran a solid mile, as usual, from, scratch, but who .also, as usual, found the handicaps:;too. big; J. Wilton, who ran well in his heat in the 120 yds. open, but could not get up in the final; J. F. Wilsonj. who, from scratch,.' was asked to concede starts up ; to 55yds. ;ini the half-mile, and :who naturally failed; 'and W. Dunn, H. Pollock, E. E. , Bust, Baxter, Binnie,- Cunninghame, Casey, Bridge, Dawson, Teutenberg, Green, and Carde, all turned out to assist in-pushing the suburban club along. The attendance was disappointing, but, as,the club was in the fortunate position, of being independent of the "gate" for trophies, etc., this will' not be.avserious drawback. The twenty-fifth, "meeting of the Dunedin Amateur Athletic Club was held last Saturday. The."Weekly Press" . correspondent says-that the' fields were small, the sport poorj and, though the weather was glorious, the meeting was poorly attended. -This makes • disappointing reading, as we have been happy in tho belief.that.the.sport, was doing r well with .our southern friends.. .'.J.. Beatson,' the Dominion's champion three-miler, won the milo handicap off. scratch from D. R. Thompson (25yds.) by two feet,, in 4min. .-49 .1-isee.' Two of the snrint-events were ■wprivby who might easily be an QX-Wellington-College runner of promise of that name now studying medicine in Dunedin. '- ■■■ ;..':...■ .

Some misapprehension has been,caused bv a mistake in the reporting in the "Press" of the meeting of the Wellington Centre last.Monday evening. It , was stated that, as no certificate, as to the correctness of the watches used by the time-keepers had-been furnished, the application for. registration as a record of W.A. Woodger's 220 yds! run of 22 2-ssec. on the Basin .Reserve at the last provincial 1 championships had been refused. This is not so. . The application was simply referred back to tno centre for the necessary certificates, and the matter will be gone into again on the production of these decuments. At a meeting of the council of the N.Z.A.A.A. on Tuesday last, a pile of applications; for' reinstatement, was :dealt with, these including one from a veteran ofnote in, the. person , of J'. F. M'Carthy. McCarthy's'.. Case' presents" some peculiar features, .which necessitates its review by the , Australasian .Union, to which body it.has been' referred for favourabloS consideration': by 'the council. The veteran has not been a competitor for some years, and it is his past . performances that have occasioned this note. He has appeared at over'4oo meetings,' and in over 4000 events, principally in England, where he competed against that world-famous exponent of field games, J., J. Flanagan, tho burly Irish-American A.C. champion, and world's record M'Carthy*s performances; as furnished by him to the ■ council, include the following, which speak for themselves: —100 yds., 10 l-ssec,; 220 yds., 23sec; high jump, sft. llin.; broad jump, 23ft. j pole vault, 10ft. 6in.; hop, step, and jump, 45ft.; throwing 161b. hammer, 157 ft. j putting 101b. shot, 42ft.; throwing 501b. shot between legs (no follow), 26ft. . Mr. A. E. Brooke, the honorary secre. tary.of the amateur athletic section of the recent-Hobart Carnival, sends a further budget of papers containing reports of the championship meeting, and also an exceedingly interesting photograph of Eric Kussell, the Geelong College (Victoria) '• student, in' the act of clearing the bar at 6ft., thus establishing an Australasian record for the high.jump. The "snap" shows Russell to be a tall, slim youth, and gives an excellent indication of his style of fencing. Ho does not jump in the American style,- as do most of the six-foot toppers—that is, with both feet together, and the body.in a sitting position when clearing the bar, but in the style that ire are accustomed to locally—first one : foot over, and then the other. "Mercury" acknowledges ■Mγ. Brooke'B ; courtesy, with thanks,, and makes the following 'excerpts from the papers, which give interesting descriptions of the jumping, and also explain the slowness of tho times recorded at the meeting, a feature that was commented upon in this column last week. The Tasmanian_ Amateur Athletic Association meeting in connection with the Tourist Carnivnl was concluded yesterday at Elwick. As on the previous day the attendance was , small. The day was hardly a pleasant one, a stiff sea breeze rendering the atmoephore decidedly chilly at times, and making both spectators and competitors uncomfortable. The visitors were again very successful, A. D. Ellis (Victoria) winning tho 220 yds. championship, Murray (Victoria) the three-mile championship, Eussell (Victoria) the 120 yds. champion hurdles, and M'Cabo (Queensland) the 440 yds. championship hurdles. The tracks were in a frightful state, especially the circular one, whicli in- some places was ankle deep in snnd. This was duo in a great measure to the poor supply of water and, to the manner in which" the previous events had cut up the surface. Taking times into consideration, the outside track was easily four seconds slower than tho one on the Association Cricket Ground, and in future tho T.A.A.A. would be wise in holding its meeting apart from any other body. In this way tho association can mnke its own arrangements, for it is not fair to the officers or the competitors to hold a meeting under such adverse circumstances. Tho jumping matches provided tho sensation of the afternoon. In each of these, high and broad jumps, records were smashed. In thn case of the fornipr a new Australasian record of (ift, was put up by E. Euseell, the Mel-

bourne schoolboy. The Victorian fenced beautifully, and, with his easy action, looked likely to top the bar at a greater height. Twice ho hit the timber, once at sft. 9in., and the other time at 6ft., but at the eecond try he rose over the obstacle as gracefully as a bird. The track was slightly on the slope and there was a sea breeze behind the jumper. Theso advantages were considerably minimised by the uncertain nature of the "take-off." The previous Australian. record was sft. ll|in., jumped by P. J. English (N.S.W.) at Sydney in 1897, so that it is quito probable Russell's effort will stand for a long time. The other record was put up by H. M'Cabe (Q.) in the broad jump. In this event M'Cabe broko the Tosmonian amateur record of 20ft. 9in., put up by J. L. Davis (V-) at Hobart on March 2, 1908. The Queensleap measured 22ft 4in., which is lft.'SJin. behind M. Eosengrave's Australasian record at Sydney in 1896. Both jumpers, and Enssell in particular, received hearty ovatioas. Prom Mr. H. Burdekin, honorary secretary of the newly-formed Amateur Athletic Club at Hawera, comes a programme of the inaugural meeting on Easter Saturday. Mr. Burdekin writes: "We hope to get a team of Wellington runners up for it, as tl.ere is also a meeting in New Plymouth on the Easter Monday, so that visitors would have two meetings ,to run at. Being our first appearance in public we naturally want to make ,as good an impression as possible, and ho>c to get some of the. good runners up here." The events are:—looyds. maiden, 100 yds. handicap, 220 yds. handicap, 440 yds. handicap, half-mile handicap, one milo handicap, long jump, one mile walk, putting tho shot (post entry), boys' race (220 yds. under 16 years), one mile roadster cycle' race, and relay race. Tho trip is commended to such of our runners as can make tho trip as being a good wind-up for the season. Mr. D. Wilson's letter with regard to the walking championship at Auckland, which appeared-in Thursday's Dominion, reached too late, for comment this week, but will be dealt with later.