A Wonderful Athlete

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 565, 18 January 1929, Page 6

A Wonderful Athlete

CAREER OF W. TREMBATH

Man Who Would Not Grow Old

WHO is the greatest track athlete New Zealand ever produced? Here is a question for the old-timers to argue about. There have been many really great athletes in the Dominion. Soup shone brilliantly above their fellows for a while and then faded out of sight. Some simply gave an indication of their greatness and dropped out of the game before they had had time to develop. Some lacked opportunities to give of their best. Quite a number of names flash through the mind. There is J. h. Hempton, the first New Zealander to place 9 4-ssec for the 100yds on the record-book, Hector Burk, the great Otago miler. who beat the wonderful Englishman, Alfred Shrubb, the late L. C. McLachlan. a remarkable runner over every distance from 100yds to the half-mile, and D. McLennan, whose exploits are fresh in the minds of the present generation, and who probably is the greatest sprinter New* Zealand has ever produced. It is a subject about which there can be much discussion, but probably when the question has been thoroughly thrashed out the decision will fall to W. Trembath, of Gore, who, like “Lachie” McLachlan, ran over distances from 100yds to a half-mile, won the 440vds professional championship of the world, and was a winner of championships for nearly 20 years.

The remarkably long period over which Trembath’s track career is spread alone gives him greatness, but it is not his only claim, for he has times and also victories over men of proved firstclass calibre. Trembath was a wonderful runner, with style, speed, stamina and determination, in fact every attribute of a real champion. His best times were:—looyds, 10 1-5 sec; 22( yds, 22sec; 440yds, 49 l-sscc; half-mde. Imin '5 4-ssec. Trembath started his athletic career as a cyclist, and won one or two races, but a bad spill spoiled his ambition in this sport, and he took on running in 1905, joining up with the Gore Harrier Club. One of his early successes was the recording of the fastest time of 29min 25sec for a five miles cross-country run. and in the 1906-07 track season he put up a remarkable performance" at a meeting at Tapanui, winning the 100yds, and running into second place in the mile. During that season he won _ a half-mile on the Dunedin Caledonian Ground off scratch in 2min, a quarterxnile off scratch in 51sec, and the Otago 100yds championship in 10 2-ssec. Champions Beaten. Trembath first competed in the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Championships in the 1907-08 season, winning the quarter-mile in 53 3-ssec and the half-mile in 2min 2 l-ssec. These performances earned him selection in the New Zealand team to contest the Australasian Championships at Hobart, and at that meeting he created a sensation by beating Nigel Barker, one of the greatest all-rounders Australia has ever produced in the halfmile. Trembath won comfortably in 2min 0 l-ssec. After his return from Australia Trembath turned professional, and in one of his early runs for cash he was credited with the amazing time of lmin 45sec for a half-mile. The track was afterwards found to be short, of course. In his first year as a cash runner Trembath beat McLachlan off the mark in a quarter-mile, the time being 52sec, and that same day, on the Dunedin Caledonian ground, he won a furlong in 22sec, running into a heavy wind. At his first New Zealand professional championship meeting, at Greymouth, in 1910, he won the 220yds in 23sec, the quarter-mile in 55 l-ssec, and the half-mile in lmin 58 l-ssec, beating in the longest distance Alex. Campbell, one of the best half-mile and mile runners the country has known. At the same meeting he won a quarter-mile handicap from scratch in 51 2-ssec, and a halfmile handicap from scratch in lmin 55 4-ssec. Going Strong in 1211. Trembath was still going strong at the New Zealand Championships in 1911, which were held at Timaru. and he won the quarter-mile and half-mile championships again, and also put lip a great run in a handicap quarter to heat L. C. McLachlan down the straight and win in 50 3-ssec. McLachlan was j' ~t “pipped” for second place by a j man who started off 42yds. C. E. Hoi way, the only American professional pedestrian to visit New Zealand, was competing at this meeting, and won the 220yds title race. Trembath saw in action then the man against whom he was later to race for a world title, and he saw a wonderful runner. Holwav was a picturesque figure, about 6ft in height, and running at the remarkable weight of round about 13st 101 b.

Trembath. Hoi way and McLachlan travelled from Timaru to Geraldine, where Trembath was credited with Imin 53 4-ssec for the half-mile, the track being later found to be short by 7*yds. From Geraldine they travelled ©n to Dunedin, and despite a journey of a night and the best part of a day Trembath turned out at the Caledonian Ground on the afternoon of their arrival and won a half-mile in lmin 58 1- without being bustled! This time still stands as a record for the Caledonian Ground, although there is in Dunedin at present a son of **Lachie” McLachlan who is likely to break it. Later on in the same season Trembath won a half-mile from scratch at Invercargill in lmin 58 l-ssec, and at Dunedin he won a quarter-mile in 50 2- That was on the day on which he met Holway in a match race over 300yds, the American winning in 31 3-5 sec. Greatest Year of Career. This year, 1911, was the greatest in ‘‘Billy” Trembath’s career. He went Xn Australia, and in June, at Rockhampton, Queensland, heat that wonderful Australian, A. B. Postlc. for the 440yds professional championship of the world, in 50 l-ssec. Postle undoubtedly was one of the greatest runners the world has known and he had won the title of world’s best short distance runners, his races being over 75vds, 200yds, 300yds and 440yds. Trembath beat the South African. Norman Conway, over a half-mile, and, in August, jt Sydney, he lost his 440yds title to Holway. The New Zealander, who had gone stale, returned theh to the Dominion. In 1914 Trembath won a half-mile handicap at Auckland in lmin 55 4-ssec. and lie dead-heated with T. J. O’Callaghan in the New Zealand 220yds championship in 22 2-ssec. and won once more the 440yds and 880yds championships. his time for the latter event being lmin 59 l-ssec. Come-back After War. Then came the war, from which Trembath returned in 1919. Two years later he made the most remarkable come-back in the history of athletics in the Dominion, and probably of the world. By .solid road work and a severe preparation on the track he reduced his weight from 13st 121 b to list 121 b. He was ready in 1922 to demonstrate that he vras still the finest all-round professional runner in the country. He won several handicap races over ious distances, and at the New Zealand professional championships, held nt Lancaster Park, Christchurch, in 1922, he won the quarter-mile title in 53 l-ssec and the half-mile in 2min 1 4-ssec. He was second to the Ail Black. Jack Steel, in the 220yds championship. Trembath did not compete in tlje next New Zealand championship meeting, which was held in Taranaki, but he was prominent at the St. Patrick’* sports in Christchurch in 1924. where he won the half-mile handicap by syd* in 2min 2 2-ssec.

During his trip he went also to Grey- | mouth, for the final meeting of a really remarkable career, which he closed, it the age of 35. by winning the quartermile and half-mile championships of New Zealand. Athletic enthusiasts are indebted to Mr E. Isaacs, of Dunedin, for his compilation of a list of Trembath’s performances, for they make a record that is little short of marvellous, and which is well worthy of preservation as an incentive to runners of the present day. ‘ SPRINTER.