OLYMPIC SPORTS

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 59, 3 December 1919, Page 3

OLYMPIC SPORTS

WILL NEW ZEALAND BE REPRESENTED? THREE CHAMPIONS

(By "Sprintor.")

It has been pointed out that if New Zealand is to bo represented at all at the big athletic sports gathering, hold under tho auspices of the Olympic Council in Antwerp next year, it is time steps were being taken to consider the matter seriously. Those who aro competent to. judge in tlieso ' matters say that no Australasian team would bo completo without the inclusion of at least tlireo New Zcalauders.' These were Wilson, of Wellington, tho champion 120 yards hurdler of England; Lindsay, ol' Christchurch, the champion "Digger" sprinter; and Mason, the champion half-miler. .The records of these three men in England with tho soldier team aro astonishingly good. Wilson won the English championship over the sticks, and was only beaten by the champion 120 yards hurdler of the world, the American, Simpson, who went across the Atlantic to compete in the big sports at the Pershing Stadium in l J aris during tho last year of the war. It wiis' lit tho Pershing Stadium that' Wilson met Simpson. They rose together at the last fence, and it was only in the run to tho tape that Wilson was beaten—by a yard. Wilson himself would dearly like to try conclusions with the American again. Tho exhibition he gave oil the collogo grounds on Monday afternoon electrified the sportsmen present. D. L. Mason's timo over the lialf-milo constitutes a record for the world (lmin. 53 2-ssec.), so it is not to bo conceived that a team would go to Antwerp from this part of tho world without liini. J'. Lindsay, of Christchurch, is the sprinter of tho team, and at the present time is probably tho fastest man in Australasia over 100 or 220 yards. In England lie boat Applegarth (the world's record-holder and Olympic champion) over the 100 yards, his time on that occasion being 9 4-ssec. The procedure will probably bo that tho three men mentioned, and possibly J. H. E. Wilton (of Wellington), the 440 yards runner, will bo sent by tho N.Z.A.A.A. to competo in the Australasian championship meeting on January 31. which will give the Australian Council nn opportunity to see the men in action and so guide it in its selection of tho team to represent Australasia in the Olympic Games at Antwerp.