ATHLETICS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 77, 26 February 1930, Page 10

ATHLETICS.

TRACK AND CYCLE. ' NOTES AND COMMENTS. There was an attendance of about 12,000 people on the second day of the Australian amateur athletic championships at Melbourne. The gate takings were .£798. The Auckland Star states that J. Fleming, of Wellington, will probably be invited to run against Golding (Australia) when the latter appears in Auckland. Golding outclassed the field (including Fleming, New Zealand champion) in the 440 yards event at Christchurch last week, the time being 49 4-ssec. Lermond, in paying a recent tribute to Randolph Rose, said that he was ono of the greatest runners in the world at the present day. Lermond himself is in that class and a race between the American and the New Zealander would bring a crowd. It is rumoured that Peter Hill, the well-known rider, who won the Warrnambool to Melbourne road race in 1922, is to stage a “come back.” Chris Olsen, a former Now Zealand half-mile champion, has resumed training, and may bo a competitor at the Otago

championship meeting on March 8. The Otago Centre is seeking permission from the Auckland Centre for Olsen to run for Otago should ho earn selection as a momber of the provincial team. , _ i The Now Zealand Athletic and Cycling Union has allowed tho record of lmin. 53 2-sscc. recently registered by J. D. Fitt (Australia) in a half-mile race at tho English Park Stadium, Christchurch. Tho union has forwarded a certificate regarding this performance for presgntation to Fitt. , _ .. 1 Tho Now Zealand Athletic and Cycling Union is circularising affiliated centres in connection with cyclists’ registration with tho Australasian Federal Cycling Council. If this registration is adopted all. cash cyclists will bo required to pay the sum of Is in addition to the annual registration fco of 2s 6d,.and a return of registrations will bo required each month. In conversation with a Christchurch reporter last week, G. A, Golding, tho Australian quarter-mile runner, said he thought that before the season was over he would havo a shot at breaking the 440 hurdles record of 54scc held by A. J. Watson, of Victoria. His ambition is to get to tho Olympic Games and have a go ' at the record on a cinder track. Of 1 course, that depends on whether lie is : good enough. . George Golding, who is 22 years old, is . a native of Coogoe, New South Wales, | and began athletics at tho ago of sixteen, j As a boy he won the championship of . the Cleveland Streot High School. lie ran the 100 yards in lOjseos, a school record, the 220 yards in 22 2-ssec, and the 440 yards in 53soc. He also won the 120 yards hurdles, the high jump with sft. 7in., and the long jump with 21ft. Speak- : ing of his performances, lie gave the following list: 100 yards, 220 yards and 440 yards New South Wales championships in 1924; the 100 yards and 220 yards Australian championships in the same year; identical winning performances in 1925; the 100 yards and 440 yards militia events in 1926 and 1927, which still remain records; the 440 yards Dunn Shield in 48

1 4-ssec, the Australian 440 yards record in 48 3-10 sec, a few weeks ago. In the international relay against Peltzcr at Manly ho Was clocked at 48 l-sscc, but the time i is still unofficial.—Otago Daily Times. 1 The Christchurch Sun states that an effort is to be made to raise funds to send 1) McLennan, the New Zealand cash jiprint champion, to Melbourne to contest the' professional sprint championship of the world on April 5 and 12. The following comments by Lynch Cooper on Mej Lcnnan are interesting: I ha\e never seen a man of his inches who can get out of the holes as fast as lie can. I am known in Victoria to be one of the fastest out- of the boles, and over 25 yards I . had never been beaten. But McLennan is every bit as good as I am. A lot of improvement could bo made in him from tho time he has done 20 yards onwards, in the matter of knowing where to ‘kick and in throwing at the tape. He has been unfortunate in not meeting the class to improve him,, for if he learned these two tilings he would be four or five yards better than lie is now. My idea of McLennan, on tho way he is running now, is that he is well worth a place in the world championships, and I would oxpoct him to lie woll in the places in 75 yards and 100 yards.” The cost of sending McLennan to Australia will be at least £IOO. A fair number of donations have been promised, including one of £5 5s from tlie North Canterbury Centre of the New Zealand Athletic and Cycling Union.