West Coasters Prominent At Christchurch

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 February 1947, Page 9

West Coasters Prominent At Christchurch

I Though they failed to win a pro- < vincial. title, West Coast athletes competing at the Canterbury senior championships at Lancaster • Park last Saturday were prominent in , most of their events and obtained several minor places. It was un- , fortunate that the performances of several were not up to !their- usual standard, otherwise they would have met with a greater degree of success’. The two Hokitika sprinters, K. Davidson and K. Warren, were expected to be strong contenders for major honours, but both gave in-. different performances. Davidson was third in his heat of the 100 yards, which was won in llsec, but the winner and second man, K. Plunkett and C. Steel (formerly of Greymouth) were both beaten by Davidson at the West Coast championships last month. D. R. Batten, who won the final in 10 2-ssec, beat Davidson at Greymouth, but only narrowly, and in similar time, j Davidson’s best distance is the 220, i but he failed to qualify in his heat, which was not run at a particularly | fast pace. Warren was third in his, heat, which was won in the comparatively slow time of 24 4-ssec. Batten, who won the final, recorded 23 2-ssec, which is two-fifths slower than the West Coast record of 23sec.] established by Davidson on the pre- 1 vious Saturday. J "Good Performance, . The Greymouth 440 runner, T. ; Harker, was second in his heat ot ■> the 440yds flat, but as the final of ] this event was held immediately I; after the 440yds hurdles, in which < ] he participated, Harker was unable < ro take his place. In the final of the ] 440yds hurdles, however, Harker did 1

. well, and was. beaten for first by ; inches. He and the winner, D.,R. . Kinley, hurdled the last obstacle, to- ; gether, but the Canterbury man was ’ faster over the final stretch. Sprinted Too Late. • J. Fitzgerald left it too late to make his finishing sprint in the mile championship, but secured a , good third. The time was 4min -35 2?ssec. In the half-mile Fitzgerald had bad I luck. There were 19 starters and Fitzgerald whs one of those. to be squeezed back at the start. Attempting to recover, he was again bumped in the unwieldy field, and met with similar obstruction when making a forward move in the last furlong. Nevertheless, Fitzgerald finished about sixth with more than half of the field behind him. The Greymouth Club’s other distance representative, D. Stewart, was obviously not suited to the three-mile event, which was run at a fast pace, and he failed to complete the course. i Field Events. i E. G. Walker was not at his best in the shot putt event, but managed (to get third. He would not.have won, but his best putt was 35ft 2in, almost ‘3ft below his usual. He was unplaced in the discus throw, his best effort being 97ft. J. Perrin was third in this event, his best throw being 107 ft 4in, but this was 3ft less than his throw at the Mahar Cup meeting on the previous Saturday. Perrin was second in the hop, step, and jump event to M. Carr, whose winning effort was only four inches better. Perrin was unlucky in that an effort of 43ft 7in, which would have given him the title, was declared “no jump.” In the long jump Perrin was fourth, half an inch behind the third man.