AMATEUR ATHLETICS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21233, 13 July 1932, Page 15

AMATEUR ATHLETICS.

ROAD RACE FROM ONEHUNGA.

SECOND WIN FOR N. F. COOPER

EVENT AT HAMILTON

The annual Onehunga to Auckland road race was decided last Saturday, when the finishing places were exactly the same as those last year. Run in a steady rain throughout, the race was always interesting, as was proved by the number of motor-cars and cycles which accompanied the 62 runners on their long journey, and the large crowd which gathered at the finishing point at the foot of Queen Street. Individual honours again went to N. F. Cooper, who won the race last year. lie has been rather off form of late, but on Saturday made a decided return by going to the lead right from the start and making a good pace all the way to win comfortably by nearly two Minutes.

J. Nicholson again proved himself a fine runner by finishing in second position. Browne and Briggs, the two Lynndale men, both gave fine performances, running together just ahead of Nicholson for practically the whole distance. As expected, W. Bradley ran a sterling race for Technical to finish in fifth position. Two of the fiijest runs, however, were made by the University representatives, Hazard and Ball, who improved by about 10 positions on last year's results, in finishing sixth and seventh respectively they v defeated several good men. S. Andrews, eighth, ran well, but Francis, ninth, was not so close up as expected. He will be much harder .to# beat across country. Kells' Good Performance. Gordon Kells was in town for'the weekend and proved what a wonderful runner lie would be, if fit, by finishing in 11th position on practically no training. Henischall, Birtwhistle and Dowle, in finishing 10th, 12th and 13th respectively, brought off the big surprise, but must be congratulated on their fine efforts, which failed by only one point to give the Auckland Club (champions last year) victory in the teams' event. Bainbridge was Technical's third man to finish, but it was Pelham, the club's novice champion, who ultimately gave his team the narrow victory. University was unfortunate in not having a fourth man closer up, for its first three men, by finishing sixth, seventh and ninth respectively, made 22 points, only two behind Technical's, and two ahead of Auckland's first three men. After Browne and Briggs finished third and fourth for Lynndale, its next man was in 32nd position. Calliope did not come up to expectations as a team,' although Andrews and Rowlands did well. The sealed handicap for the Walker and Hall Cup was won by the veteran A. Clark, who completed the distance in 46 minutes 28 seconds. It was a wonderful performance for a man of his years. JR. Whitmore, of Calliope, was second, and in finishing 18th and being the third Calliope man he caused a surprise, as he was not included in his club's team. G. Hill was right off form. First Cross-country Event.

Altogether it was a fine contest, and being the first of the season showed that there will be some fine inter-club crosscountry races ahead. The first of these will be the 10-mile event conducted by , the Hamilton Club next Saturday. The course is a most difficult one, being of one lap only and almost entirely across rough and broken country in the direction of Whatawhata and back. On the outward run there is a fair amount of swampy ground, while on ths return trail there will be some difficult hill work encountered.

Ten miles will be the longest race attempted by most of the field, for of the Aucklanders, only J. Nicholson, w}io ran in the 20-mile event at Wellington last year, and S. Andrews, who has Wellington Vosseller Shield experience, have raced over more than miles. Both these good chances of success, while Cooper must also be considered after his win last Saturday. L. Barker is improving all the time in distance events, arid strong opposition will come from Readdv and Lindsay, of the Hamilton Club. Several members of the University Club are contesting the event, and they may score in the teams' contest, although the Hamilton Club runners will have an advantage in knowing the course.