ATHLETIC NOTES

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4289, 23 February 1901, Page 6 (Supplement)

ATHLETIC NOTES

(BY ADVANCE.) • FIXTURES—MARCEL 6.—Cheltenhara-Kiitsa. 6.—Huntervillo (J.S. G-—Auckland Amateur Athletic Club. 6. —Eltliaiu Caledonian Society. 7. —Tariki Caledonian Society. 8. —VTaltara Athletic Club. -11.—Strathmore Athletic Club. 14.—Gisborne St. Patrick’s meeting. IG.—Wellington Hibernian Society. 18.—Blenheim Hibernian Society. •IS.—Geraldine Hibernian Society. 18.—Tim am Hibernian Society. 18.—Rungiwahia. and Pemberton. 18.—Alfredton. 18.—Waverley Athletic Association. 27.—Otaki Athletic Club:

J. O'Brien, who won the sack race at tho Johnsonville sports on Boxing Dav. has made a match with E. Ball, of Foxton, to race three distances in sacks fer £lO a-side. Tho distances agreed upon aro 50, 100 and 150 yards. Mr Arthur Stansell is stakeholder. The match is to come off at Foxton on Saturday, March 2nd. If Ball is in anything like the form ho was when he heat Neil Austin 'at Blenheim, it is the best of good things for him. L. J. Furrie was unable to spare the time to get to the championship meeting at Napier. ° The sixth annual sports meeting of tho New Plymouth Star Football Club will be held on Easter Monday. The Sheffield handicap, 120 v.’.rds, is worth £7, £2 and £l. Other athletic events are;—22o yards handicap, £4, £1 and 10s ; -140 yards, £7, £2 and £1; half-mile. £4, 30s and 10s; one mile, £7, £2 and £1; 300 vards Ladies’ Bracelet, £4 and £2. The Wanganui Amateur Athletic Club’s

meeting was postponed from 14th to 21sfc instant. Arthur Holder and L. B. Webster wore on scratch in the 100 and 250 yards, giving away 10 yards and 2o yards respectively. Holder was giving away 20 yards in the 120 yards hurdles and 80 yards in the quarter. Details of the meeting will appear next week. At the Poverty Bay meeting on the 14th inst., L. M’Lachlan was giving awav starts of 15yds (100). 26yds (220)," 45yds (440), and 85yds (half-mile). He did not journey to Gisborne, but stayed at Napier to reserve himself for the championship meeting, held at Napier yesterday, the results of which should appear in to-day’s “New Zealand Times.’’ Owing to pressure of business I was unable to get up to the meeting. A full account of it will appear in next week’s notes. F. H. Somers was virtual scratch at Gisborne in events up to half a mile, and! shaped very well. It is doubtful if Ale- 1 Lachlan could have done any better, andl there is probably very little between' them; In the quarter Somers (9yds) rani second to A. Morris (41yds). The time! was returned as 48 l-ssecs. Somers (lyd)j

won his heat of the 100 yards in 10 secs and was third in the tina! to Atkins (llycl-o in I) 4.-s*ccs. Atkins non the J. 20 yards hurdles oil scratch, and it was a pretty hard task to a sh Somers, to give him such a start. Somers (syds) won the 221) yards comfortably in 2Rcf-. It i< a pity the Blenheim Hibernian Society removed tijo mile event from their programme. Some of the best contests seen at the Blenheim sports were i.i this event. Theio arc several first-class long distance men travelling this year, ami Ihc.v would doubtless have journeyed to Blenheim after competing here. T. Beat.-on and L. \Vard continue to show good form. At Gisborne on the 14th Beat'ou (lids I ran second to TV. Roderick losyu«i in the half-mile inn in Siniiis. Beatsen won the mile off scratch in -Imin 3i5 2-5 see.-., with Ward (12yd.s) second. RECORDS FOR THE NEW CENTURY TO BEAT. It. is unfortunate that, while wo have the moans of testing the progress of man during the last centur. ,a almost every other field of endeavour, we have practically no records from which to discover how far ihe .dhlcte of IUOI is ahead ofh is fellows of a century ago. If wo may judge, however, from the slight advance made in athletics during the last generation, it would seem that the records or ro-dav will compare very well with those of the year 2001.

The last year of the century lias certainly made very little impression on the tables of athletic records. Among amateurs runners, only one man, ill. W. long, an American athlete, who ran 440 vards in 47 45scc, has established a new record; and among professionals, only Len Hurst has eclipsed his forerunners by covering twenty miles in 1 hr 53min 42-J-sca. It is instructive, and interesting to note that the 200 yards professional record was made l>y G._ Seward as long ago as 1847; and the LTQtyds record of iOsec in idol, when the fathers of some of. the swiftest runners of to-day were scarcely born. W. Lang’s two miles in Ouiiii lljscc run thirty-seven years ago, and J. White’s live miles in 24min ‘lOsee still remain unbeaten after the lapse of more than a generation. The table of walking records has not been disturbed for three years, when W. J. Sturgcss created new times for three, four and live miles. Among amateurs there has been no walker for tliirty years to put T. Griffith’s record of 2hr 47min 52sec for twenty miles into the shade; and the fifty-miles time of A. W. Sinclair has withstood the onslaughts of twenty-one years.

It is twenty-six years since W. Perkins covered a mile, in fair heel-and-too walking, in tho wonderful time of Cmin 23seo, and no man since has been able to rival his feat ; while the ,«amo walker’s record of 2hr 39m hr &7sec for tw'euty miles is still as unshaken as it was in 1377.

Recent years have secu more changes in jumping records than in either running or walking, and some of the feats are certainly astonishing. Iln 1899 A. C- Kraenzlem, in a running jump, cleared a distance of 24ft 4lin,'which, it is interesting to notice, is more than 30in more than any professional has covered ; and last year Ray Kwry raised the standing high jump to 6fb - 4Jin. All the amateur jumping records, it is a little humiliating to observe, are claimed by American athletes.

Bicycling is naturally the most progressive of all forms of athletics, and last year witnessed some marvellous performances. At the Crystal Palace A. A. Chase covered a mil© in the excellent time of liniu 38 3-Jsec, or at the rate of offy miles an hour. VV. Stinson pedalled 25 miles in 37min 19 4-sseo; and a French rider, A. Bauge, eovored 50 miles in Ihr I4min 55 b-ssec, and 10 miles in 2hr 33m in 40 4-ssbc. >

Ab still longer distances Walters achieved tlio magnificent record of nearly 350 miles in 12 hours’ riding; and in “4 miles he rode a distance of 634 miles 744 yards, a ouruey which, in a straight lino, would have taken him from the south of England to some distance beyond the extreme north of Scotland. In July, 1900, A. A. Ohase covered 37 miles 196 yards in an hour, thus travelling for over 37 miles at a greater pace than when making a record for a single mile; but even this feat was completely eclipsed by W. Stinson, who at Brockton, United States, America, last year actually rode 40 miles 327 yards in 60 minutes. ' It is only right to state that most of these wonderful records were made with motor pacing. In skating several now and excellent Davos, P.records stand to the credit of 1900. At Davos, P. Oestlund skated 1000 metres (1003 yards) in Imiu 34sec, and 10,000 metres (6.21 miles) in 17min 50 3-6seo; while a little earlier, at the same place, C. Edgington covered 19 miles 348 yards on skates within the hour.

Perhaps the best skating performance in England is still that of Fish Smart, who twenty years ago skated one mile on a straightaway course, and with a Hying start, in exactly 3min. With the help of the wind, a very vital factor in skating, J. Donoghuo covered a straight mile on the Hudson River, thirteen years ago, in the wonderful time of 2min 12 3-oseo.