Auckland Athlete Breaks Broad Jump Records At Dominion Championships

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27028, 12 March 1949, Page 8

Auckland Athlete Breaks Broad Jump Records At Dominion Championships

Special to the Daily Times

CHRISTCHURCH, Mar. 11

The outstanding performance of the opening day of the New Zealand Amateur Athletic championships held at Lancaster Park was made by the Auckland athlete, W. B. Hough, who broke all New Zealand records when he covered 24ft 4in in the Broad Jump championship. The previous best jump made in New Zealand was 23ft lOfin registered by the Australian, J. P. Metcalfe, when he toured in 1934. The previous best performance by a New Zealander was 23ft 9Jin made last year by S. R. Dawson (Otago).

The next best performance in this event was made by K. Forsythe (West Coast. North Island) with 22ft lOiJin, with D. Dephoff third with a jump of 22ft 4in. A feature of the meet was the success of the Auckland athletes, who were prominent in most of the championships decided and also qualified for the finals which will be run tomorrow.

In the events that have been cqmpleted, Auckland has gained 16 points to the 12 scored by Wellington, 8 by the West Coast, North Island, 7 by Otago, and 2 by Canterbury in the competition for the Championship Shield. A. R. P. Eustace, with two wins over the Australian, M. Curotta, was expected to play a prominent part in the sprints, but because of shoulder injuries he did not start in the 220 Yards or the 120 Yards Hurdles and he was beaten out ol a place in a field of seven in the first heat of the 100 Yards. On the form shown, the outstanding hurdler was L. R. Smith (Wellington), who won his heat of the 120 Yards in 15.2 sec and the 220 Yards in 24.95ec. In each race he had a very comfortable win and confirmed the good impression he made at Wellington last Saturday when he won the 220 Yards in 24.8 sec and was beaten by inches by the Australian, P. Mullins, in 15.3 sec in the 120 Yards. D. R. Batten (Canterbury) gave three sterling performances to win his heats in the 100 Yards in 9.95ec,, the 220 Yards in 21.8 sec, and the 440 Yards in 50.3 sec. S. McKenzie (West Coast, North Island) ran an excellent race to win the first heat of the 880 Yards in lmin 57 4-ssec. Of the 14 nominated for the Mile Championship the full .field of seven faced the starter in the first heat, which was won by J. D. Sinclair (Otago) in 4min 32.35ec after the first quarter had been run in lmin 9sec and the half mile in 2min 19sec. The Six Mile Championship ended in a hollow win for the West Coast. North Island, distance runner, W. J Wells, who came home in 30min 22 2-ssec with a great sprint after he had lapped some of the other starters.