THE RACE REVIEWED.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 143, 16 December 1908, Page 3

THE RACE REVIEWED.

INTERESTING COMPARISONS. (By Telegraph.) (I'rom Our Special Reporter.) WANGANUI, This Day. In reviewing the race, it may be said that Arnst got hi.? bow to the front before a dozen strokes had been put in, and that throughout the whole twenty minutes of the race h& increased his lead steadily. WORK OF THE TWO MEN. Webb's supporters say that he rowed sluggishly, but that is hardly a fair statement. Bi3 form for the first mile was excallont/ but the fearful pace that lift tried to follow for the first mile took all the "ginger" out of him, and his was the position of an exhausted man making i* stern chase of ar opponent whom he had no chance of overtaking. Arnst's -work was strong and resolute, hio boat fairly bounded to his powerful stiokes, and his sculling was of tho clean, scientific order mentioned in <i criticism forwarded to The Post on the day preceding tho race. NOTES ON THE TIMES. It is noteworthy that the pace at which the nlst mile was rowed, swift A3 it proved, was less than that ot the second. Had tho last mile and a quarter been reeled off in anything like the same rate* the -world's record for the three and a quarter miles would have been cut down very considerably. The best on record is that mado by J. bury, when he beat George Towns <n 1905. There are several aspects to be considered in comparing this time with Arnst's. One is the fact that Arnst rr/wetl on a tide that should have been flowing out a trifle, seeing that floodtide was due at 4 o'clock, that the race b-gan ten minutes late and concluded at about 4.30. The othors are the fact that the race was contested on water .inbroken in the slightest degree, and that Stanbnry's time on the Parramatta was made on salt water — which naturally is faster to scull on than fresh water. There is also the possibility that when Stanbury njado his time t'lo^e was as much of moro current to favour him than there was to help Arnsi. The present champion's performance was quite a sterling one, and it is not a venturesome statement to make when one say? that had he chosen to finish tho last mile at say twenty-five or twenty-six strokes to the minute he would haveachieved a, new world's record. A succinct description of the raco given by a Wanganui enthusiast stated that so far as the positions were concerned it was the Webb-Tresidder race over again, with Webb in the place of Tresidder.