HAMMER THROWING TITLE

Southland Times, Issue 25618, 10 March 1945, Page 7

HAMMER THROWING TITLE

J. G. LECKIE’S SUCCESS By winning the Otago Hammer Throwing Championship at Dunedin last Saturday with a performance of 140 ft Ilin, J. G. Leckie, of the Invercargill Club, gave support to the contention that hammer throwers retain their form longer than those engaging in most other branches of athletics, comments The Otago Daily Times. It is 20 years since Leckie, representing Otago University, won his first big event, the New Zealand University Hammer Throwing Championship, with a throw of 124 ft sin. Three years later he established a New Zealand University re-

cord, but it was actually eight inches below his winning throw on Saturday. In the interim, Leckie has been the winner of the New Zealand title, and at one period he had to his credit the best New Zealander’s performance, 151 ft 6in, accomplished at Milton in 1930. He was captain of the New Zealand team at the British Empire Games in Sydney in 1938, and was third in the hammer throwing. Nowadays, he is teaching at Colac Bay in Southland, and his performance on Saturday was all the more meritorious because he had had no competition and, indeed, few opportunities for training. ;