EMPIRE GAMES SUCCESS

Southland Times, Issue 23438, 19 February 1938, Page 15

EMPIRE GAMES SUCCESS

N.Z. ATHLETES SHOW UP OVER DISTANCES

If the Empire Games did nothing else they showed that New Zealand can produce middle distance and distance runners equal to the best in the world. The performances of Boot and Matthews more than atoned for the comparative failure of the sprinters and field events men and provided a convincing answer to those who held that no New Zealand runner could attain greatness unless he was trained overseas. While coaches can be imported there will be no need to export our best athletes to England and America and then sit back to bask in their reected glory. If the standard of amateur athletics in the Dominion is to be raised, it is to be raised only by giving the outstanding men the best coaching possible so that they in turn can pass on the knowledge they have gained to their fellow competitors. The services of Al Fitch, the American coach, should also be made available to all the main athletic centres in New Zealand, but that is, perhaps, too much to expect.

Highlights of the Games were the magnificent wins of C. H. Matthews in the three mile and six mile events and the record-breaking efforts of V. P. Boot and T. 0. Allen in the half-mue. Matthews’s win in the three miles was due as much to his splendid race tactics as to his speed and endurance. After clipping the first mile in 4min 38sec, the New Zealander was given marked attention by the Englishman, P. D. Ward, and from the fifth lap had to carry out that most difficult of race tactics—holding the lead and controlling the pace. Two miles were put behind in 9min 20 4-ssec, and Matthews, as usual, was as full of running as when he left the mark. Ward was tiring at this stage and although he made a desperate challenge at the entrance to the straight, could make little impression on Matthews. The New Zealander won in 13min 59 3-ssec, breaking the Games record of 14min 27 2-ssec, his own Dominion record of 14min 7sec, and finishing only nine seconds outside the world record established by Lauri Lehtinen, of Finland, in 1932. If Boot could acquire the same knowledge of race tactics as Matthews he would become a world champion His undoubted ability he showed by his outstanding performances in heat and final of the half-mile. His faulty knowledge of race tactics he showed in the mile. When he was content to be beaten into second place in his heat of the mile there would be many who thought that he would stand a good chance of winning the final. His spectacular final sprint, which brought him from last to first, captured the imagination of those New Zealanders listening in to the broadcast description of the heats of the mile and they thought probably that he could repeat this performance in the final. Boot must have

thought so himself. If he did, he badly underestimated the sprinting powers of J. W. Alford (Wales) and Gerald Backhouse, the Australian. He was last 200 yards from the tape and made his run then to finish six yards behind Alford (the winner) in 4min 11 3-ssec. Had he run with Backhouse and Alford, or at least kept within striking distance of them, Boot might possibly have won. Since his schooldays Boot has always shown promise of developing into a really great miler and always his lack of judgment has kept him short of greatness. He has everything else—

speed, stamina, relaxation and great sprinting powers—but until someone can bring him to realize that there is more to mile running than a strong finish he will continue to disappoint his followers. It is not generally know that Boot

began his athletic career as a sprinter. When he first went to the Timaru Boys’ High School he started sprinting but was induced by an aspirant for the senior athletic championship to run in the mile and keep another championship contender out of a place. Boot ran well in that mile and thereafter decided to take up mile running. Then an injury which prevented him playing football led to him taking up harrier racing. And from being a crosscountry man he graduated by degrees to the fine middle distance runner he is today. WINS AS HARRIER As a harrier, Boot started in 14 races and won 11 of them. In 1932 he won the South Canterbury junior harrier championship and the same year won the Timaru Harrier Club’s senior championship and was runner-up for the South Canterbury senior championship. It was not till 1933 that Boot began to concentrate seriously on middle distance running. This concentration soon bore fruit. At his school championships he broke J. E. Lovelock’s mile record, which stood in the vicinity of 4min 42sec and, in so doing, set up a new Empire Public School record of 4min 26 4-ssec. The former record, a shade under 4min 30sec, was held by Matthews. At the same meeting he established new figures for the half mile, putting up the fast time of 2min Osec. On leaving school Boot, went to Lincoln College, Christchurch, where, in his first year, he won the college athletic championship and broke records in the quarter mile and one mile. In 1935 he followed up this performance by making fresh records for the quarter, the half, the mile and the 440 yards hurdles. He also held the Canterbury College mile, title. Boot is above medium height, solidly, though not heavily, built and has a splendid action. He has a strong sprint and relies on it to win many of his races. LAY’S GOOD PERFORMANCE Lay showed that his javelin throwing has lost little of its sting with the passage of years by taking second place in this event. With a throw of 204 ft 1-jin to his credit, he was beaten by less than two feet by J. Courtright (Canada), and his Games record of 207 ft Igin still stands. Lay’s effort was the more meritorious because he has had little competition this season. Jack Metcalfe was third with a throw of 182 ft OJin, the best of his career. On the last day of the meeting, Metcalfe won the hop, step and jump with a good effort of 50ft lOin.

All in all, the Dominion athletic team acquitted itself well, helping New Zealand to play a more prominent part in the track and field section of the Games than ever it has before. Proof of this is shown in the fact that New Zealand athletes were to the fore in no fewer than 12 events.