JUNIOR ATHLETES

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 132, 7 June 1939, Page 4

JUNIOR ATHLETES

NATIONAL MEETING RECORDS BY SCHOOLBOYS The Auckland centre reported to last night's meeting of the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association council j that the national junior and women's ' championship meeting held in Auck- j land last March resulted in a net profit i of £88 16s. This amount, less a dis-! tribution of 10 per cent, to the Auckland centre, was available for distrij bution as follows to the other centres i i towards the cost of sending their teams I !to Auckland:—Canterbury £20 2s 9d, jHawke's Bay-Poverty Bay £12 19s 9d, !Otago £23 8s sd! Wellington £14 15s 7d, jWest Coast (North Island) £8 11s lOd. A sub-committee was appointed to consider a number of recommenda-1 itions made by Mr. H. L. Towers, presi-J----(dent of the Auckland centre, relating to i the events and conduct of the national junior and women's championship [ meeting in the future. ! ; The Hawke's Bay-Poverty Bay centre : ! applied for the national junior and women's championship meeting, for 1941. It was decided to hold over the I application for the views of the other j centres. I A letter from Mr. Towers asked the! council to give consideration to the j question of recognising record per- j formances registered by schoolboys outside the national championship J meeting. Among the submissions he I made was that the opportunity to hold a New Zealand junior record would be an incentive to a secondary school boy, and would also bring the junior competitions provided by the N.Z.A.A.A. more before the schoolboys. Unless a school controlling body was affiliated to the N.Z.A.A.A. record performances could not at present be recognised by the association under its rules. Such bodies could put themselves on side by affiliating, but a difficulty there was that there were a number of secondary schools which were not : members of secondary schools athletic associations and had no opportunity of joining one. Another point made by Mr Towers was that the junior records should also be the best performances of any juniors in the country: such records would lost prestige if they were bettered by performances at secondary school sports all over the country. He added that he realised that an important point would be to be insistent upon the competency of the school officials, but he submitted that this could be safeguarded The president. Mr. R. W. McVilly, said he agreed with Mr. Towers that everything possible should be done to encourage boys to continue their in- < terest in athletics after leaving school. At Mr. McVilly's suggestion a sub-corn- < mittee was appointed to consider the ' question, l :