BRITISH EMPIRE GAMES.

Evening Star, Issue 21716, 10 May 1934, Page 6

BRITISH EMPIRE GAMES.

I'd THE EDITOR. Sir, —It is with great interest that I have followed through the papers the nominating and selecting of the New Zealand team for England. Naturally we arc most concerned in Otago in seeing that any of our own men who are up to standard arc included in the team. After following closely the results of the various swimming and athletic performances which have been put up during the past season, comparing them with the winning times at the last Empire Games, and reviewing the newspaper correspondence relating to the subject 1 have come to the following two conclusions: —(1) That W. J. Jarvis has as good a chance as anyone else in Now Zealand or the British Empire of winning the 100yds swimming championship. (2) That, next to W. J. Jarvis, W. A. Pullar, the Now Zealand 440 hurdles champion, is the one with most claim on Otago’s support for inclusion in the team. Jarvis recently broke the New Zealand and Australian 50yds record, the former by over a second, the latter by l-sth—-this in the slow Dunedin water. His best time for. 100yds is 50 l-ssec (in Dunedin water), while Crump’s, the Auckland nominee, is 54 4-5 in Auckland in salt water, which is recognised by all swimming and rowing experts as being from one to two seconds faster in 100yds than fresh water. How much faster " salt water is than fresh is, of course, a controversial point. The real test of who is the better man is, however, direct competition. Crump and Jarvis have met only twice over 100yds this past season. The first was in the heat of the 100yds New Zealand championship (in cold fresh water), which Jarvis won in 57 2-5, Crump being second in 57 4-5. The second occasion was in the final of this same race, Crump winning in 58sec, Jarvis being a dose third. A photograph of the start of this race shows clearly by how much Jarvis got left at the start—it must be fully a second. If these two boys had got away together my unbiased opinion is that Jarvis would have won. However, it is obvious that there is nothing much between the two swimmers cither way, and as their times are much better than the winning time of last Empire Gaines, and to the best of my knowledge better than any put up in the Empire this season, it behoves the Otago public, now that Crump is definitely in the team, to see that Jarvis’s inclusion is approved by the controlling body and that financial support is forthcoming if an appeal is made. Now for W. A. Pullar. This boy, 1 understand, has just turned twenty, yet in his first season of hurdling he goes up to Wellington and wins the New Zealand championship, defeating the then champion and record-holder, Anderson, of Canterbury, by Byds, and although track and conditions were not of the best, equalled the existing New! Zealand record of 56 2-5. If Pullar can reach this high standard in his first season of hurdling it is obvious that he will go on improving considerably yet, and as all the known 440 hurdlers of high class in the Empire—Lord Burleigh and Golding, to mention two—have now retired, and as the last games* were won in 54 4-5, it is quite reasonable to expect that with the extra practice and better conditions Pullar would easily get down to this time and thus have a good chance of winning—quite as good a chance, working on the same line of argument, as has Broadway, of Canterbury, who is being sent for the 880yds, and whose best time is, I believe, Imin _sssec, against the last Empire Games’ time of Imin 52 2-5. • Incidentally, A Wilson, the Canadian, who was second in Olympic Games, 1932, in Imin SOsec, will be opposing Broadway this year. Thus it will be seen that Pullar’s claims are very strong and his chances of winning bright. Among the correspondence published on this matter mention has been made of sending E. C. Brown, of Otago, to compete in the marathon, and while I agree that Brown is a very fine road runner and would like to see him given a chance against the Empire’s best, I think it is Otago’s first duty, if financing any athlete, send Pullar, as Pullar was- the’ first Otago athlete nominated by the New Zealand Athletic Council, while Brown’s name was not approved by the New Zealand Athletic Council for nomination. Under these circumstances I would suggest to the governing bodies of swimming and athletics in Otago that they immediately take steps to raise the necessary money, by newspaper subscription and a street collection, as I am sure the Dunedin public would be only too pleased to separate themselves from a few bawbees to have two such high-class youngsters as W. J. Jarvis and W. A. C. Pullar representing them at the Empire Games. —I am, etc., '• Enthusiast. . May 10. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —I saw i,n your paper of the 9th that Jarvis was not to be sent to the Games, and I would like to ask why ? Have the selectors any excuse to offer why he should not be sent? They cannot say that his times are too slow. I think it a shame that a boy with his records and ability should not be sent. In my opinion he should be one of the first. He is miles ahead of some of the swimmers that are being sent. I think it is time we had a new lot of selectors; some who can see past the North Island. I am not writing this just because I have also been turned down by the selectors; but because I think Jarvis has been treated very badly by the Now Zealand selectors,—l am etc., E. C. Bnowx. May 10.