AMATEUR ATHLETIC TITLES

Evening Star, Issue 23833, 13 March 1941, Page 5

AMATEUR ATHLETIC TITLES

OTAGO CHAMPIONSHIPS ON SATURDAY A REPRESENTATIVE ENTRY Very keen competition is assured at the Otago track and field championships on Satiirday afteni on, and the highlight of the meeting in.gm quite well be provided in the mile championship in which the field will include liarbld Nelson, the New Zealand junior mile champion, who established a New Zealand junior record of 4min 30see at Wanganui last Saturday. Tlie young Civil Service athlete is believed to be capable of reducing this time, and since he will have opposition from experienced men of the calibre of the Empire Games representative, A. R. Geddes, to mention one, while the New Zealand junior halfmile champion and record holder, R. T. Harris, will also be competing, the race should be worth seeing. The field includes a couple of Varsity representatives, as well as competitors from South Canterbury. Harris, who represented Wanganui at the recent junior' championship meeting, will make the half-mile his special objective, and his-appearance here is creating a lot of interest.' Last week he was timed in Imin 58 4-ssec, a remarkable performance for a junior runner. The shorter distance running events have attracted large entries, and the 100yds especially should be a very race, with A. R. Duff (who was recently selected for service with the Fleet Air Arm) as likely to take a lot of beating. Duff, who has been running well of late, should also figure prominently in the furlong.. The ex-Otago champion, R. H. Motlram, will be competing in the sprints, and another contender is W. A. Black, the Otago representative footballer. The 220yds low hurdles competitors include I. Hall, of Invercargill, a former Australian athlete, who showed top form at the recent Southland championship meeting. Interest m the walks will be enhanced by the presence in large fields of N. M'Carthy, the New Zealand mile and three-mile walk champion, who is now undergoing training in the Air Force at Taieri. Of the younger brigade, J. R. Hyslop, who was second in the New Zealand junior walking championship at Wanganui, is expected to perform well. The field events have attracted some of the finest athletes in the Dominion, and particularly pleasing is the reappearance of A. A. Cameron, one of the greatest allround athletes this country has ever developed. R. 0. Johnson, former Empire Games representative, who has won many Otago titles in the past, is another whose reappearance after an absence from Dunedin of some years wall he welcomed. Some rare tussles may be expected in shot and discus throwing events, in which the dual New Zealand junior champion, K. J. Morgan, will be a competitor against such experienced men as J. Dalgleish and A. A. Cameron, while University will be represented by a promising exponent, in M. J. L. Phelan. I. L. Vosailagi, K. Caldor, and R. M'Kenzie (New Zealand junior record holder and ex-champion) are among the competitors in the javelin throwing event, put perhaps the titbit of the field programme will be the meeting of two of New Zealand’s greatest hammer throwing exponents, J. G. Leckie and M. R. Spillane, in the hammer ihrow. Spillane is the present Dominion champion, and Lcckie, who is an ex-champion, captained the Now Zealand learn at the last Empire Gaines. He has shown good form lately, and is expected to give Spillane a great contest on Saturday. R. O. Johnson, A. L. Fagg, and C. E. W Black arc competing in the pole vault. Women’s events and cycling are included on (he programme of what promises to be an excellent meeting.