THE BRITISH EMPIRE GAMES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22258, 10 May 1934, Page 15

THE BRITISH EMPIRE GAMES

TO TUB EDITOB. Sir, —It is with great interest that I have followed, through the papers, the nomination and selection of the New Zealand team for England. Naturally we are most concerned in Otago in seeing that any of our own men, who are up to standard, are included in the team. After following closely the results of the various swimming and athletic performances which have been put up during the past season, comparing them with the winning times at the last Empire Games, and reviewing the newspaper correspondence relating to the subject. I have come to the following two conclusions: —(1) That W. J. Jarvis has as good a chance as anyone else in New Zealand or the British Empire of winning the 100 Yards Swimming Championship: and (2) that next to W. J. Jarvis, W. A. Pullar, the New Zealand 440 Hurdles champion, is the one with most claim on the support of Otago for inclusion in the team. Jarvis’recently broke the New Zealand and Australian 50 yards records—the former by over a second, the latter by a fifth of a second, this in the slow Dunedin water. His best time for 100 yards is 56 1-5 seconds (in Dunedin water), while that of Crump, the Auckland nominee, is 54 4-5 seconds, in Auckland, in salt water, which is recognised by all swimming and rowing experts as one to two seconds faster in 100 yards than fresh water. How much faster salt water is than fresh is, ot course, a controversial point. The real test of who is the better man is, however, direct competition. • Crump and Jarvis have met only twice over 100 yards tins past season. The first was in the heat of the 100 Yards New Zealand Championship (in cold, fresh water), which Jarvis won in 57 2-5 seconds. Crump being second in 57 4-5 seconds. The second occasion was in the final of this same race, Crump winning in 58 seconds, with Jarvis a close third. Now, I woiild like readers to look at the photograph of the start or this x-ace in Wednesday’s issue of the Otago Daily Times. It shows clearly by how much Jarvis got left at the start—it must have been by fully a second... It these two boys had got away together my unbiassed opinion is that Jarvis would have won. , It is obvious, however, that there is nothing much between the two swimmers either way, and as their times are.much better than the winning time of last Empire Games, and, to the best of my knowledge, better than any put up in the Empire this season, it behoves the Otago public, now that Crump is definitely m the team, to see that Jarvis’s inclusion is approved by the controlling body and that financial support is forthcoming it an appeal is made. . W. A- Pullar, I understand, has just turned 20, yet in his first season of hurdling ha goes up to Wellington and wins the New Zealand Championship, defeating the then champion and record holder,-Anderson, of Canterbury, by eight yards, and, although track and conditions were not of the best, equalling the existing New Zealand record of 56 2-5 seconds. Now, if he can reach this high standard in his first season of hurdling it is obvious that he will go on improving considerably yet, and as all the known 440 yards hurdlers of high-class in the Empire—Lord Burghley and Golding, to mention two —have now retired, and as this event in the last Games was won in 54 4-5 seconds, it is quite reasonable to expect that, with the extra practice and better conditions, Pullar would easily get down to this time, and. thus have a good chance of winning—quite as good a chance, working on the same line of argument, as Broadway, of Canterbury, -who is' being sent for the 880 Yards, and whose best time is, I believe, Imin 55sec against the last Empire Games’ time of Imm 52 2-ssec. Incidentally A. Wilson, the Canadian, who was second in Olympic Games, 1932, in Imin 50sec, will be opposing Broadway this year. Thus, it will be seen that Pullars claims, are very strong, and his chances of winning brignt. Mention has been made of sending E. C. Brown, of Otago, to compete in the Marathon, and while I agree that Brown is a very fine road runner and would like to see him given a chance against the Empire’s best, 1 think it is the first duty of Otago, if it is financing any athlete, to send Pullar, as Pullar- was the first Otago athlete nominated by the New Zealand Athletic Council, while .Brown’s name was not approved by the New Zealand Athletic Council for nomination. Under these circumstances I would suggest to the governing bodies of swimming and athletics in Otago that they immediately take steps to raise the necessary money, by newspaper subscription and a street collection, as I am sure the Dunedin public would be pleased to separate themselves from a few “ bawbees ” to have two such high-class youngsters as W. J. Jarvis and W. A. C. Pullar representing them at the Empire Games. — I am, etc.. Enthusiast.