AMATEUR ATHLETICS

NZ Truth, Issue 998, 10 January 1925, Page 11

AMATEUR ATHLETICS

Notes And Comments

(By "Starter.")

The next Wellington sports gathering will be held at Petone on January 17. It is a Dewar Shield meeting and entries "will, be accepted up to the 10th inst.

M. Farrell, the crack Canterbury high jumper, did sft lOin at Timaru on New Year's Day.

H. Preston, of the Brooklyn Club, is a probable N.Z. champion, both :n the long and high jumps.

That energetic Gisborne Amateur Athletic Club have enlisted the services of D. Paris, C. Jenkins and A. Priestley, of Wellington, for their meeting on January 17. These Avellknov.n and classy amateurs have agreed to take on the trip. Now, what a chance for Napier, Wanganui and Hawera Clubs to catch these men on their way home.

Dave Paris (after winning), was disqualified for boring m the 220 yards final at Petone. He could have gone round the field and then won by a street.

The cycle races at Petone were gifts for Blakeway. He should have been on the scratch marks. Phil Thomson won the high jump event — a long overdue win. Miss Sybil Swinburne won the tvyo ladies races Jrom the scratch mark— real good performances.

The Paraparaumu meeting on New Year's Day Avas patronised by a fair number of Wellington competitors, and a good percentage of the trophies came the.ir way.

Ha.ry Wilkins' turn came at last wlie . he flew away with the 220 yards handicap. His sister won the ladies' race from the 4-yard mark.

C. Campbell ran poorly m his two races. In the $80' yards event he was leading before the completion of the first lay and by this action he was run to a standstill long before the finish.

E. Walker (a junior) Avas the, most outstanding, sprinter on the day. He belongs to the Manawatu Club and should be heard of m future years.

Dunbar, of the Victoria University Club, was m fine folrm and captured a couple of trophies.

Mr. M. McFadgen, of the N.Z. Council A.A.A., won the chain-stepping event after much forethought. '

The Parapai'aumu officials are rather disappointed at the Wellington Centre granting a permit for the Petone Club to hold a meeting on the same day.

Paddock and Murchison evidentfy want New Zealand to bear the brunt of their expenses on their pleasure trip round the world. The New Zea-. land Council have made them a fair offer and should not on any consideration budge one step further. My own contention, that an Australian team should have been invited m the first place is now -making itself felt by a!I this delay.

The South Africans are still waiting for something definite from our Council as. to the invitation they received. In fact,, many of the writers of athletic notes are picking-' prospective teams.

The N.Z. Championships for 1925 are set down .for February 13 and 14 at Auckland.

What a team Wellington will have again! Rose, Dufresne, Munro, Priestly, Mclntosh, Tracy, Kyle, Paris, Jenkins, Harvey (2), Dunbar, Preston, Campbell, Melrose and Wilton are all showing championship form.

•W. Harvey, according to reports, threw the hammer 142 ft at Masterton. on New Year's Day. This 'distance' is beyond our present N.Z. champion, McHolm, of Canterbury- '

R. W. Lander (son of Inspector Lander of the police force) has been transferred to Dunedin. Lander is. the present N.Z. ,120 yards hurdles champion, and will. prove an acquisition to our" friends m the south.

When will the N.Z. Council A.A.A. give its decision re the inclusion or otherwise of a 100 yards ladies' N.Z. Championship event m the programme for February 14? The ladies' clubs are patiently waiting for something definite. The Council's habit of putting off till to-rftorrow, what should be done to-day is getting rather wearisome. E. Dunbar and C. Campbell will be competing at Wanganui -on the 22nd inst. ■ . ' • L. A. Tracy is at present training at Napier. The Paddock — Murchison tour is now off. . - *'■.-. "Starter" was out : at a small profess-, sional meeting at Otewa on New Year's Day. The events were ostensibly run under Northern Union rules, but the officials proved to':, be gifted disciples of the late Marquis of Rafferty, and ran the meeting accordingly. The hundred yards was really an obstacle race and "Starter" is not yet sure whether the Maori winner of it was m the r.a.cr< from the start or whether he sprang out of one of the numerous rabbit holes m the last fifty. Some of the King Country athletes seem to train on a lotion of "home brew" applied internally and externally, and the results are diverting if not efficacious.

At the recent Olympiad at Paris the timetakers' returns ,m track events were m fifths of .a- second,;.- tenths having been eliminated, although the International A. A. Federation has decided to express records m tenths'. That well-known English athletic authority, Mr. Chas. Otway, .comments on this m the "London Sporting Life," and the following excerpts should prove interesting: —

"The French Olympic Committee decided against tenths, after consideration of a report froni an expert committee -which it had -appointed. The report, a voluminous affair, appeared m the French sporting ' papers at the time, and a precis was afterwards submitted to the International Federation.

"Now the question is again raised, having regard to recent cycling and motoring records on the new French Brooklands. The cycling records have

been expressed only m fifths; the motoring m hundredths. "The French experts contend that no watches registering tenths of a second have been constructed which will pass for first-class certificates m any European observatory. A statement of fact which may be verified or otherwise, and I must admit that m the majority of instances where tenths are returned m the absence of a hundredth watch it would be found that the instrument the timetaker is holding is only constructed to register fifths, and consequently the stoppage of the spider hand between the fifths does not accurately indicate the time. "It was the same with the sixteenth watch, and that is one reason why the 'Sporting Life' has never recognised Donaldson's alleged 29 61-64 th for 300 yards. A watch can only return accurately what it is constructed to return. But the hundredth watch is constructed to return hundredths of a second. .

"Kew Observatory will not give an A certificate to such a watch because it does not run the required time without re-winding; it will, however, give a certain modified certificate of accuracy which will at any rate serve the purpose of assuring . that the return of the next slowest tenth is accurate. That is the practice on which English A.A:A. championship returns are based.

"The return of tenths was initiated last year, and the immediate result was a fresh record of 9 7-10 sec for 100 yards by Brie Liddell, the hundredth watches showing inside the seven-tenths. . This year the return for the 100 was 9 9-10 and the 220 21 7-10, and again the hundredth watches showed inside. '•.

"In the longer races the A.A.A. is on sound ground m sticking to the fifths, for the margin which it represents is sufficiently minute for record purposes."