WHY 600 YARDS?

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 17, 21 January 1939, Page 15

WHY 600 YARDS?

BOOT'S RECORD ATTEMPT

PARK OVAL, MASTERTON

Featured in the programme for the] big athletic meeting at Masterton Park Oval on Monday is an attempt which it is reported that V. P. Boot will be making on the record of 73 l-ssec for the 600 yards established at the Park Oval by R. Johnston, a member i lof the South African team which toured New Zealand in 1922K If conditions \. are favourable the record-, should, not be beyond Boot. The question ha? been asked, however, whether it will be worth the expenditure of effort required. . . . j Should Boot make better time than that credited to Johnston in 1922 it will be purely a lpcal record: the 600 yards is not an event recognised by the N.Z.A.A.A. for record purposes, nor by the International Amateur Athletic Federation. In v|ew of this, it has been suggested, if there is to be] a record attempt by Boot,, that, it would be a better plan if he; were to run the half-mile, for which he holds the British Empire Games record of Imin 51.2 sec, and the New Zealand re- j cord of Imin 53 4-ssec. j Although there has been no official pronouncement, the possibility has been mentioned in Wellington of W. A. C. Pullar attempting the one mile New Zealand record at', the meeting. This stands at 4min 13 3-ssec, and was made by R. A. Rose in 1926 on the same ground as the meeting is to be held on on Monday. Recently, at the meeting at the Basin Reserve for the visit of the Victorian athletes Backhouse and Best, the record was closely approached by Boot, whose time for the mile was only a second slower. Pullar in that race was beaten by Boot by 20 yards. In cold, windy conditions at Palmerston North on Thursday night Pullar won the mile event in.4min 24 l-Ssec.

A number of Wellington athletes also competed at the Palmerston North meeting, but with the exception of T. McCashin, who won trie 440 yds handicap off 18 yards in 50 l-s.see, none was successful. In the cycle events a Wellington rider, R. putton, scored two firsts and a second, and T. Roe, the Petone rider, won the three miles.