ATHLETICS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21542, 14 January 1932, Page 4

ATHLETICS

By Amateur,

COMING EVENTS February 27. —Otago Championships. March 11 and 12. —New Zealand Championships at Auckland. March 28. —Waikouaiti Club’s meeting. AN EXTENSIVE PROGRAMME The Otago Centre of the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association will be resuming its evening sports meetings probably next week. A meeting of the Sports Committee will be held this afternoon, when a comprehensive programme will be arranged for the remainder of the season. During the remaining two weeks of January and throughout February athletes will be particularly well catered for. The Waikouaiti Club will hold its annual meeting on Easter Monday (March 28), and other clubs which will hold their annual fixtures are Milton and Palmerston. i _ ‘ The outstanding meeting outside of Dunedin should be the Invercargill Club’s fixture, the Southland Sub-centre Championships. At this fixture competition should be very keen, provided that a good number of athletes travel from Dunedin, as has been the practice in the past two years. An innovation would be a 440 Yards Invitation Scratch Race. With Pickering (Wellington 440 Yards champion) now in Invercargill, Price, Gardiner, Pledger, Corbett competing a fine race would be assured. This meeting will probably be held during February, prior to the Otago Championships, and will prove a good try out for prospective championship aspirants. LOVELOCK’S PERFORMANCE The annual interuniversity relay meeting, held at the Oxford ground on November 25, was a great success (says our London correspondent, writing on December 3). Cambridge won the match by four races to Oxford’s three. Honours, however, were easy, as the Oxford middledistance runners excelled themselves by lowering records for the meeting in each of the events they won. In the Four Miles (four at one mile) the Oxford men were: C. D. O’Gowan (Rugby and Hertford), J. C. Mahoney, J. E. Lovelock (Otago University and Exeter), and J. F. Comes. The Cambridge men were: E. W. Denison (Cheltenham and Sidney Sussex), F. T. Horan, K. 0. Black (Bootham and King’s), and J. E. Robins (Lancing and Christ’s). Reserve: H; J. M. Hesketh (Haileybury and Magdalene), Mr Guy M. Butler (Morning Post) describes the 4 x 1 as perhaps the most interesting event. E. W. Dennison, the Cambridge three-miler, took the lead and kept it, though C. D. O’Gowan made a great effort to reduce the deficit to three yards at the finish of the stage. K. 0. Black (Cambridge) had a ding-dong battle with J. C. Mahoney, who proved the better man, handing over to J. E. Love- e lock a lead of 10 yards over J. E. Robins. This deficit Robins made up in the first 600 yards, and then, instead of hanging on, he went into the lead. This was a mistake, of which Lovelock took full advantage, coming up very strongly at the finish to give Comes a lead of 20 yards over Horan—a hopeless proposition with the Oxford Blue in such wonderful form. It speaks volumes for Horan’s courage that he caught and held Comes right up to the last furlong. It was a grand duel between the two presidents, and both put up fine performances, for Comes was inside 4min 20sec, and Horan only a couple of seconds outside it, The Oxford’s team’s time was 17min 49 9-10 sec, lowering by nearly ssec the fine record made last year by Cambridge, whose team on Saturday was also incidentally a fraction ipside it. ■ . ' Lovelock is regarded as being much above the average. The Times comments: “Lovelock did his own stage in the time, amazing for a Freshman, of 4rain 24sec. . .. . Comes got away with a 15 yards lead, but the story is not told so easily as that suggests. F. T. Horan caughtmp —and Cornea was not slacking, for he did the half-mile in 2min 6sec—but with a quarter-mile to go Comes clearly had. the more in reserve, and drew away to win a memorable race. It was fitting that, the rival presidents should be the central figures of the day. This is the third year in succession that the record for the Four Miles has been broken. On Saturday it was broken by ssec. Comes e time was 4min 19Asec. Hia half-mile earlier in the afternoon must have been done iff about Imin 57sec, so the combination is even better than his double victory in the trials. He also has the satisfaction of knowing that when he goes down he will leave behind him a great middle-distance runner in Lovelock. Cambridge has now won nine matches to Oxford’s three, and 45 races to Oxfords 27.

PROFIT FROM CHAMPIONSHIPS The profits made by the English Amateur Athletic Association of £I6OO odd on the championships last year and £530 on the Anglo-Italian match, must impress all as being extremely useful, especially in view of the commitments of the governing body for the next few years in regard to international sport. If the -non. treasurer can have his way, the profit on the match with Italy will be set aside for the return match in 1933 with that nation. Compare the niggardly policy.of England (says the Manchester Sporting Chronicle) with that of France, where the Government have not only agreed to help to finance the preparations of the Frenchmen for the Olympic Games, but also proposed to vote a credit of £240,000 to the French National Sports Development Scheme. In England it is thought better to discourage sport by taxation than to encourage it by State aid. NOTES The two Stephenson brothers, J. B. and F. H., who registered some fine performances while at Wellington College, are being taken in hand by the college physical instructor, Mr P. G. Thomson. •F, H. Stephenson is the New Zealand Junior 100 Yards champion, and is considered by many of his supporters to be the fastest man in New Zealand at present over 100 yards. • . , J. W. Savidan is in light training now (states an Auckland paper), and is concentrating on the three miles, at which he may attempt to break Eose’s Australian and New Zealand record of 14mm 29 2-ssec. There should be a great race over this distance at the New Zealand championships as each province ca a produce men who are practically all on a par.

Gordon Bayne, Wellington and:,New Zealand mile champion, is training systematically this season, and it is confidently expected that he will get down to 4min 18eec before the season is over. Excepting D. Evans there is no one in New Zealand at present who is likely to trouble Bayng over this distance. - v A fine tribute to British amateurism is made by Henri Desgrange, editor of the Auto, the leading French sports newspaper. “ British athletes can take the Olympic Games oath without a tremor,” he says, “ while many others on the Continent are committing perjury.” He soundly rates the practice of hidden professionalism in almost all French games. He believes that part of the blame is due to the indifference to sport of'the French aristocracy, which could have an enormous influence on popular games, yet discourages them. He names, certain Continental runners who have made athletic history in recent years, and says quite frankly that they are not amateurs.