ATHLETICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2505, 26 March 1902, Page 54

ATHLETICS.

NOTES B¥ AMATEUB. Hairy Dunn, the West Coast wrestler, is very much dissatisfied with his treatment at the Oainarn championship gathering, and thinks that if he were given another chance under more favourable conditions he could beat Scctt, who defeated him at Oamaru. He is endeavouring to arrange another meeting with Scott. Failing Scott alone, Dunn says he will wrestle Scott and Thornley to- j gether — one down the other come on. He is almost sure he can beat them, and then .wil 1 prove who has the right to the championship of Xew Zealand. About 20 attended the meeting to consider the advisability of forming a harriers' club in Inveroargill. Mr Paape was voted to the chair After diGcuhsio-i it was resolved that a club be formed, to be called the Imercargill Harriers' Club. The rules of the Dunedin Club were revised and adopted. The officc-bearer-5 elected are. — Captain, A R. Thompson ; deputy, A. Spciico ; secretary j and treasurer, Mr Jno. Thompson ; com- 1 nnttee— A. M'Neil, T. Holmes, 0 .) \\ 1!hon, A. Paape, J Meluffey, and T. Thornton. Th» finst run will take plate on the second Wednesday 111 April. An effort is to be made to havo a Saturday pack. Qfcer 20 members weie enrolled and a great many otheio who were not present intend joining. Aii interesting item had been arranged for the Christchuroh Cycling Club's sports meeting, to be held at Lancaster Park on (iood j Friday L. C MacLachlan, the profecsional running champion of the colony, will compete agai' .f (J Lewis, a well-knowr loi al cyclist, over a 100 yds course, for £25 aside, the athlcto to run on the turf and the cyolist to ride on the 'asphalt. It is expected that lOcet will be broken for the j distance. j The quo-tion of sending Webster to England, in company w ith Smith and Simpson, was brought forward at the last meeting of the Wellington Amateur Athletic Club. The proposal did uot mee 1 with much support, a number of the members expressing the view that the New Plymouth man was hardly experienced enough to take on such a trip with much hope of success. A couple of Australasian athletes were in the Scottish Rugby football team that was defeated by Wales on February 11 — \iz , A. X Fell (Xew Zealand) and A B Timms (Victoria). The formd was injured early in the gamp, and did not shine, but Timms played well. Those who remember the old Uciloiig Collegian will be i«te rented to hear that with his 6ft in height goes 14st weight, and, withal, he is credited "with a remarkable turn of speed " on the football field. In Victoria he was ibebter known as a hurdler and polo jumper W. H. Wel"h, th© Scottish short distance champion, \\a' also in the same tenm. The following particulars of the American iiidooi championship meeting, recently decided may prove liiteiesting to aUilete . It was lecidod at Philadelphia. Many of the competitors have performed with distinction in Kuvlaud, and two of them hole' English championships at the present imp. These were W W. Coo (now of Oxfoid University) and I. X Baxter (Xew York Athletic Club). The former won the 161b Shot Putting and the 561b Weight-throwing (for bright) competitioiit in the Dark lilue colours, with performances of 45fi 4in and '14ft lespecI tively. Baxter. £ngh-h high jump champion, and joint holder of die Pole Vaulting Championship, was unfortunate 111 running up against a world's champion 111 Ray W. Erey (Xew York Athldtic Club), and had to put up with second place in the Standing High, Standing Lccig, and Three Standing Jumps. Erey cleared sft 32in in the firstnamed event, and his other winning performance* measured 10ft ll£in and 32ft 11 in rescectivel-y. J. W. B. Tewk'-bury (third in thp Engldsh Sprint Championship o£ 13QQ] had quite a. snooessiul Uwk M us.

wco the 150 yds Sprint, the 220 yds High Hurdles in 30 2-ssec, the 300 yds Low Hurdles in 30 3-ssec, and the Hop, Step, and and Jump vvith 41ft 85m. besides running second to J. S. Westney in. the 75yds Run in Bsec A Grant (third in English One mile Championship, 1900) carried off two eveii'ts — -the 1000 yds in 2min 27sec and the Two Miles in 9min 50sec. T Orton (brother to G. H. Orton, an ex-=teeplechase champion of England) ran up to Grant in the former, and also vi on the 600 yds Race in lmici 2Q;ec. An event strange to British athlete 5 111 a pole -vault for distance was also decided at the meeting, the winner (W. Baird, of Pennsylvania) clearing 27ft Bin. Though little has been heard of late of the famous English distance runner F. E Bacon there has been a reason for it. Bacon, who shines in a branch of athletes that the great Ruclyard Kipling appears to have unaccountably overlooked whei' he was slashing around so illogieally, has beefi doing service a* a soldier at the front, and only recently returned from .South Africa. He was braying at Alloa, in Scotland, where, on a cold day (February 1) and an ,'ciferior track, he made an attack on the Scottish ten-miles record, and created new figures from seven miles up. las time for the full 10 miles being 52min 51 2-ssec. Bacon should be past his prime as a runner, but has evitkotiy some considerable pace left. In view of the possibility of the New Zealander W. F Simpson- going Home, it may be worth mentioning that Bacon has also the following Scottish records to his credit: — One mile. 4min 18 l-ssec ; tv\ o miles, 9min 27 l-5.-ec ; three miles, 14min 27 3-ssec. Simpson'? be«t to date for the same distances are 4mm 29--ec, 9min 42 l-ssec, and 14min 49sec. One doijs not like to be captious (says "Harrier," in the Australasian, referring to the world's record of 15 l-ssec for the 120y<ls hurdles, recently put up in Auckland by George Smith), but really it is hard to credit the performance. I believe the mighty Kraenzlein was once credited with similar figures, but his English record stands at 15 3-sspc. Now Kraenzlein simply made hacks of all his opponents every time he raced. Has Smith done a« much? In Brisbane he could only beat Lindsay by inches, and, though be fell in the final, 1 c was no way superior tc Gardner, v. 1.0 yon. In Auckland last December he certainly beat Gardner by four or five yards, but the latter !^ot a bad "tart, and more tl-sm held his ovn from the first hurdle *o tin la't The rare meeting* between Smith and Austialian hurdlers do not point tc more than four yards' advantage in favour of mo Auvk lander, which only makes him equal to about 16sec, or the merest shade better, for on thi.-, side Gardner is classed as> a sound 16 2-ssec. On the flat Smith is m ciamEion, as world's champions go, and could aye no hope with either S. Rowley, G. A* Moir, or W. Shea, yet Rowley found Kraenzlein too fast for him. Smith has shown a remarkable dash to his first hurdle (15yds), and from the last hurdle to the tape (15yds), but his jumping has never been exceptional, and on this latest showing, unless there has been very sudden and remarkable improvement, we are to believe that Smith can in that 30yds gain a whole second on runners like Gardner or Lindsay. If Smith goes Home, and is clocked at any of the big meetings to do anything like 15 l-ssee, or 15 2-ssee, I shall be very agreeably surpnsed, and admit that my deductions are wrong. • That he will do well is certain. He is just the stamp of sturdy athlete whom change of climate is not likely to affect, and unless Kraenzlein turns out again (he is said to have retired, and to be settling 111 London as a dentist), Smith should account for most of the men likely to oppoi-e him. Of these the best ait Trafford and Gamier With regard to Simpson. I rannot feel so confident. Apart from the fact of the great strength of England in good distance 1 miners, he is of very different build from Smith, and much more likely to be affected by climatic influences. That he is a gieat runner, however, 16 beyond question, and. fit and well, he will never be disgidced when he loies and he will sometimes win, cvpn in the best company In the course of an interesting article, winch is only too short, in the cuirent number of the Empire Review, of the early days of athletic sports at Oxford and Cambridge, thp writer makes two statements which between them tciul to disseminate error (says the Field) a^ to the powers of athletes of the sixties and >f all time. The first statement is to the effect that the late J. G. Chambers "could walk 75yds in about 10 seconds." Thera is, of course, much virtue 111 that qualifying word "about," but we may assume that it 1 meant to imply that the difference would be a fraction of a second only. Calculated on the basis of "about 10 seconds," ane discovers by a bimpler piece of arithmetic that the deceased athlete would be walking at the rate of "about" 15 miles an hour, or one mile in four minutes. We do not think that the fastest waTkei ever seen would care to undertake to walk as fast as that even for so short a distance as 75yds, and since the day of J. G. Chambers there have been some very speedy men, who could have given him a start at any distance. The second statement is that at Cambridge in 1863-4 "runners were encouraged to develop length of <-tnde, except when spurting " Here we have a confusion of ideas. Lr-ngth of stride come» from pace. No benefit, but rather the leverse, accrues from taking a longer stride than ordained by nature, for in that case the strides become slower in their icpotmon. It would be correct to call the running stride a bound, just as is the stride of a hor=e's gallop, and the more force there is in the bound the farther the athlete will be carried from one foot to the other. Men with long legs sometimes appear to be striding farther than other hhortei men who, by reason of their superior nun-culm vigour, are really co\ermg more ground at each stnde. When a man spurts he throws an extra amount of vigour into his efforts, and this, in the case of a running man, would tend to lengthen his stride whilst the spurt lasted. To tell a runnei that he must shorten his stride and quicken his step in order to go faster its the surest way to prevent his accomplishing the desired object The fewer btiides he tan take with comfort to himself tLo bitter. IXTEE-'VARSITY ATHLETICS. Followers of athleticr are looking forward with great interest to the inter-v arsity meeting, t> be held it Clmstchurch on Easter Monday. The, foui colleges have had their teams in active training fot some time now, and, if th- reports as to the training form of various competitors from these centres can be .it all relied on, some good performances may be looked for. Given a good track and a fair day, I quite expect that the standards (which have been fixed on the same basis as those for town clubs) will b f beaten or equalled in nearly half tlia events. But perhaps, as is too 1 *tt*» )&& SiaSkJS}mU^aJ^3SSiSStJ!£. §S&_

that these reputations are mythical — that Sc-and-So's orack had a twisted knee, or the "gun" 110 m the south couldn't run on grass; and with such possibilities as these I regard the team the Otago University is sending Irom Dunedin as having at least a " say " m the winning of the banner. In the sprints xhe most formidable man I hear cf is Moves, who will run for Canterbury College. He is credited with 10 3-ssec in the 100 yds and 22 3-ssec in the 220 yds, and at the St. Patrick. sports in Christchurch he cut out the quarter-mile from syds in 51 4-sseo. In the sprint events at the Pioneer Ciub's meeting on the previous Saturday, however, he was unable to secure a place in any of the events 111 which he started, and which were done in only mediocre time, so I am far from thinking he is to have it all his own way. In A. S. Henderson Victoria College has n man v. ho has competed more than 01.cc at New Zealand championship meetings, where he ran with great promise. His strong pomts are the half-mile and the 120 yds hurdles. At the Wellington meeting lately he v. on the halfmiJe handicap, annexed the J4 r ,yds hurdles with the greatest ease, romped home in the Victoria College 220 yds in 25sec, and secured second place in the mile. Sim, of Canterbury College, is credited with being able to do 53sec in the quarter-mile. Another man from the same college — A. P. Cox — won the Pioneer Club's quarter last week in the same time, and with Moyes (if he starts) they should form a most iformidable trio. Canterbury look to Robertson to secure for them the mile championship. This man is a well-known cross-country runner. About the Auckland competitor I know little or nothing. I know they pre sending a team numerically strong, and, judging from the stamp of athletes that the northern city has produced, I must meanwhile regard them as dark horses. From Otago University there will be a total of at least 16 — 10 for athletics and the remainder for tennis and tie-bating. As Otago can hope for little success in regard to tennis, Bioad and "White not being available, their main chance lies in athletics. In the splints they have three very promising n:en in Fricdlander, Ulrich, and O'Kane I'lrich lias been doing consistent work out at Carisbiook, and I expect to ses him well to the front in the lOOyds and 220 yds. O'Kane comes with a great reputation from St. Patrick's College He has run the 100 yds in 10 2-6 sec, and can always be relied on to get well under the llaec. In the 120 yds hurdles he should give Henderson a great go for second place to J. B. Nichol. J. B Nichol's performances are too well known to need any comment. He should have no difficulty in the hurdles, and bis height should stand him in good stead in the weight. P. H. Buck, who won the long jump championship two years ago, has qtute recovered from the injury to his knee, and it will be a surprise if he is beaten in tlm event. Hotop has come down from Queenstown, and will run at Christc^iui-ch 111 batter form than he has ever iuu before. This being so. he should easily get within the standards in both the quarter and half-mile. Davie is training hard on the Timaru track, and I have it from one who knows that the man >vho beat 3 him ir> the) half-mile -will closely approach the 2min. Baron, the Otngo miler, is in the pink of condition. He will be a very hard man to shake off at the finish. Adams and Thompson, both of the 'Varsity football team, are showing gdod-form in the sprints and jumps respectively. On summarising, I come to the conclusion that Otago will be exceptionally Strong in tbe long jump, hurdles, and the'iunmng events, while in the weight thej". are an unknown quantity.