ATHLETIC NOTES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19800, 27 May 1926, Page 4

ATHLETIC NOTES.

By Amateur.

FIXTURES. June 12.— Edmond Cup Steeplechase at June's!!—Port Chalmers-Dunedin Road Tniv^”—Combined Harrier Run. At eu=t 14 17 19 and 21.-Austrahan and g New Zeaknd Track and Field Championships, at Brisbane. THE NINTH OLYMPIAD. The Netherlands Olympic Committee recently completed the provisional procramme for the Olympic Games, to be held in Amsterdam in 1928 and this proirnmme will be considered at the next meeting of the International Olympic Committee. The opening ceremony wil m all probability take place on June 30, and the first contest on the following day. The first week is to be devoted to football and hockey, and the athletic sports will begin on July 9. The date for the closing of the games has been provisionally faxed for July 24.

CHARLES HOFF AGAIN. f Charles Hoff exceeded the vyorld s indoor pole vault record for the tenth time in the post office clerks games at xNew York, when he cleared the bar at 13ft Him After establishing his new pole vault mark, Hoff watched De Hart Hubhard, a former Michigan negro athlete, shatter the world’s indoor J ,road jump record with a leap of *4ft 7^in.

INTERNATIONAL MATCH. On July 10 next, at Stamford Bridge, London, Oxford and Cambridge will encage in a 12-event match against Princeton ami Cornell. The Oxford-Cambridge team was picked directly after the last inter-university match at the Queens Club, West Kensington, last March, and included will be. found a number of overseas cracks. xhey arc:—A. E. lorritt (New Zealand and Oxford), D. M. Johnson (Canada and Oxford), G. C. Weightman Smith (Natal and Cambridge), W. A. Rosebrough (U.S.A. and Oxford),) R. L. Hyatt (U.S.A. and Oxford), C. T. Van Geyzel (Ceylon and Cambridge), and b. H. Thompson U.S.A. and Oxford). Actually, before going to Oxford, Thompson was at Princeton University. Other members of the team include Lord Burghlev, C. F. N. Harrison , J. W J. Rinkel, R'. S. Starr, T. C. Fooks, and V. B .V. Powell.

INTERNATIONAL CROSS-COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIP. This year’s international resulted in a triumph for the French runners, and interesting particulars, lately come to hand, are appended:— , , , There is no real explanation available why England failed to win the international cross-country championship except that as a team they did not run up to the form they are known to possess, and that the French side went into the fray with remarkable enthusiasm and determination. . , , One -may be excused surprise at the tact that the winner’s time —a little over 44 minutes —shows that the length of the course was loss than that usually traversed, for only once has the international team won in shorter time, that occasion being the third race —in 1905 —when Albert Aldridge won over the Baldoyle racecourse, Dublin, in 40niin 20sec. But the fact that the race was over eight miles is not an excuse for defeat, because everybody knew that was the distance. , The course was not heavy except tor one part, which *was difficult to negotiate because it was over ankle deep in a slushy sort of clay, but it was as disadvantageous to the French as to all the other teams. To those who had seen the national championship, with its fast start, this race seemed to be even faster, such a pace did the Frenchmen set. The English team, wisely enough, did not take what appeared to be a tempting bait, but the Scottish runners went with the French, and England appeared to be lagging well behind. As a matter of fact, the Frenchmen astonished everybody by their maintenance of pace, and that is why they won. They were faster at the job. As for Ernest Harper, he has at long last done what many have always believed he < uld do—break up the best runner in the world if he would only set his mind to the job. Here was a race in which the French had. without question, set out to win individually and as a team, rtnd they made a giant effort: but Guillemot ran to suit Harper for perhaps two miles and a-half, and then, forcing himself, the Englishman pressed forward, dropped Guillemot, and proceeded to gain for himself the title of international champion. His advantage at the end was about 220yds, and the amoving thing was not so much that Harper won, but that Guillemot should have come back to second place, for after Harper began to drop him he fell back to something like eighth place, and must have done some amazing running in the later stages of the race.