ATHLETIC "GATE"

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 102, 3 May 1939, Page 8

ATHLETIC "GATE"

NET PROFIT OF £313

NATIONAL MEETING

The net profit from the national amateur athletic track and field championship meeting condu led by the Hawke's Bay-Poverty Bay centre at Napier in March was £313 14s Bd. A report to this effect was made to the council of the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association last night. Of the net profit, the N.Z.A.A.A. receives half. The question was asked whether the Napier "gate" was a record for the New Zealand championship meeting. The secretary (Mr. H. McCormick) said he thought that one year the Auckland centre made £360. The Hawke's Bay centre, said the president (Mr. R. W. McVilly), was deserving of congratulations on the wonderful success of the meeting. Mr. H. I. Austad: It is certainly a very good result. Mr. McCormick reported that the Hawke's Bay-Poverty Bay centre's computation of the points gave the Queensland Jubilee Commemoration Shield to Hawke's Bay, with 13 points. Canterbury being next with 10 points. However, on the analysis he had made, Canterbury won the shield with 10 points from Hawke's Bay, nine points. The explanation of this difference lay in the fact that in a heat of the. 220 yards hurdles and in the final of the 120 yards hurdles P. F. Sharpley had been credited with scoring three points in each for equalling the record. But no application for recognition of these performances had been received, nor had they been passed, and it was necessary under the rule that a performance should be passed to entitle the centre to three points. Mr* McCormick added that the position was that the putting up of time did not automatically mean a record. The Hawke's Bay centre in his view was entitled, for these two performances by Sharpley, to be credited not with three points for each but with one point for each, the New Zealand standard having been broken. A standard performance was recognised no matter what the prevailing conditions at the meeting.

The council accepted Mr. McCormick's view and awarded the shield to the Canterbury centre. The shield is competed for annually at the New Zealand championship meeting, and is won by the centre whose team gains most points in records, best New Zealanders' performances, and standards. A sub-committee. consisting of Messrs. H. I. Austad, A. L. Stevens, and H. McCormick. was appointed to make a report on the question of the association adopting New Zealand championship medals more distinctive and exclusive than those at present in use. The subject was raised at the April meeting by Mr. Stevens, who expressed surprise that the' New Zealand championship medals are the same as can be purchased by clubs for their events.