NOTES AND COMMENTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 21, 25 January 1936, Page 23

NOTES AND COMMENTS

The meeting conducted by the Hutt Amateur Athletic Club under floodlights last Monday evening was easily the most successful held this season. It attracted the majority Of Wellington's leading athletes, and, as a result, was productive of some first-class competition. The crowd was quite the largest which has witnessed a fixture here this year and generally appreciative of the effort of the club to stimulate interest in amateur athletics in its district. The Hutt Club is to hold a further meeting on February 10 for which it intends having additional acetylene flares in operation.

The highlight of Monday's meeting was the exhibition given by E. J. Winter, of New South Wales, in the pole vault. His display was an object lesson of what can be done by close application and perseverance. He made light of his task of clearing 12ft l£in, and it was a great pity that it was impossible to raise the bar any higher. He gave the impression that he could have exceeded his personal record of 12ft 6in made recently at Dannevirke. Winter takes a long run, and makes three definite accelerations in the speed of his approach. He floats the last five yards, and then drives the pole into the box with no uncertain vigour before levering himself gracefully over the bar. There is no more spectacular event than the pole vault, but it is one in which success can be achieved only when its mechanical details have been mastered. What Winter has done can be done by any New Zealander with an

aptitude for the event. But it cannot be done in a day or a week. Concentration and courage are needed in abundance to make a success oi it.

If the half-mile contest at the Hutt between W. Ogg, the provincial champion, and E. Forne, winner of the national mile title, and runner-up in the 880 yards; last season, was a taste of what can1 be expected in the provincial championship race on February 15 then a first-class tussle will result. Ogg was handicapped on 7 yards, but he elected to start from the scratch mark with Forne, and until within five yards of the tape appeared a winner. Ogg cut down his field very quickly and opened up a big gap on Forne, with the result that on entering the straight he held an advantage of fully 20 yards. Forne, however, produced a fine finishing burst, and caught Ogg to get home by a yard or so. Ogg stil suffers from his inability to turn on a sprint finish. He seems quite unable to gather himself and change his action at the business end of a race, a failing which has kept him from possibly winning higher honours. There seems to be no reason why he cannot do sc—-he has actually plenty of pace—and it is probably all a matter of adjustment of training. Forne has yet to appreciate the value of tactics. Despite his success in the New Zealand championships last year there was a definite weakness about his method of running, and on Monday he pursued a plan of campaign which would have been unavailing against a man possessing a sprint finish.

The action of the provincial mil* champion, A. R. Wilson, in withdrawing from the mile handicap at Petone last Saturday when he had practically caught his field after two laps was, to say the least, unexpected. There did not appear to be any reasonable explanation for his retirement. A runner is, of course, at liberty t* withdraw from a race,if he wishes, but in Wilson's case one would hay« thought that he would have appreciated the opportunity of getting in a competitive run. He appeared at the Hutt meeting and won the mile as he liked. He is in fine form, and since it is evident that Forne is concentrating upon the 880 yards he will hot be troubled to retain his provincial mile title.

W. J. Fitzsimmons, the Wellington sprint champion, has had limited opportunities of competing this season due to the nature of his employment, but he has been training consistently,, and his form on Monday indicated that a few further races will bring him

right back to his best. He can be expected to be in top gear on provincial championship day. The time, 53min 4sec, returned in the ten-mile road race staged in conjuncticn with the Hutt meeting, was exceptionally good, so much so that A. L. Stevens, who was beaten by inches for first place by B. Buchanan, was inclined to doubt the accuracy of the distance. The world's record lor ten miles is 50min 15sec made by Paavo Nurmi. This, however, is a track record, and the great Finn would no doubt have returned somewhat slower time on the road. It iS not known whether the distance last Monday was correct or not, but*there seems no reason to believe that it was short, despite the time. One thing the competitors had in their favour was that it was a perfect evening.A runner, whose appearance in the provincial 880 yards championship should lend that event added interest, is C. Wyeth, of the Masterton Club. Wyeth performed very well at Petone last Saturday when he ran Ogg to within a yard in the half-mile. He is a relative of W. Wyeth who won th« national three miles title in 1920.