AMONG THE ATHLETES

Taranaki Daily News, 31 January 1930, Page 4

AMONG THE ATHLETES

AUSTRALIA’S BIC YEAR

THE LERMOND—GOLDING TOUR

A CHANCE FOR TARANAKI.

(By

“Watcher.”)

This year should go down to posterity ti as one of the most successful and nots able record breaking years in the athletic 1 history of Australia. 4 * Performances - above an average that has been seldom f seen before by athletes of Australia r have been displayed so often lately that one is led to think that the whole of the > athletic world has taken new life and 3 decided 'to shatter the record perform- - ances of bygone athletes. I For the last three weeks now one star i has been shining in the athletic firma- ■ ment as a comet. That star is Carlton. 1 Like the comet of the sky he too has 5 been leaving behind, the other stars in : his terrific bursts of speed over the 100 > yards race. For three weeks he has been • making even time, look slow, until last ! Saturday he showed that Australia can 1 turn out a world champion sprinter in doing, the century in world’s record time 1 of 9 3-ssee. Not since Charlie Paddock knocked the athletic world off its balance by breaking the record which still stands has another sprinter been seen who is so consistent as Carlton. On present form he could beat anyone in the world over KhOyds. Those who were fortunate enough to sec him run at the Australian and New Zealand championships at Wellington will remember him then as showing exceptional promise by running the 100yds in evens against a wind that only Wellington can produce. He is a powerful runner and 1 very young, being very big boned and well furnished. If any runner was built to break records Carlton is. Not only Carlton but several others have got the record breaking fever, notably Golding, who shattered the 440yds record by returning figures that make him one of the best of the present day athletes over that distance. Whyte, of Victoria, too, broke his State record in the mile, soundly trouncing Dr. Otto Peltzcr in 4min 21 sec. Whyte should now go on and break Rose s record of 4min 13 2-ssoc. He is equal to it. GOOD PERFORMANCE BY BARNES. Even in Christchurch Barnes has come to light on the track with a mile in 4min.2ssec, which is first class in New Zealand. He should be hard at the championships if he can retain his form. Rose has yet done nothing to show that he has any. form. Personally 1 should like to see him at" the evening meetings of tho New Plymouth Amateur Athletic ; Club each week to see how he is faring. Of course, he has to come from Inglewood and when one is farming there are one thousand and one things to be done so that it is a very lucky man who can leave his farm work for sport. Randolph can be depended upon to get into form for March, however. With Leo Lermond and Golding coming over from Australia soon, athletes will need all their form. The head centre has offered the Wanganui-Taranaki centre a meeting with a small guarantee to stage these athletes. This will be a boon to the club which secures them, as they are world renowned now and there is not another to equal Lermond at the present time. Born at Nehant (Mass.) U.S.A., in 1966, Lermond attended the local high school, completing his studies at the Maine University. At both these places • he took no interest in athletics, but about three years ago Nurmi stirred his dormant spirit with his great running. He decided to take on athletics. That year, 1926, he ran in a few races, and in one, two miles, which he ran in 9mm 23scc. he' was noticed by America’s foremost coach, Jack Ryder. Ryder sensed that Lermond had the "goods” and decided to coach him seriously. Soon after Ryder took him in hand he lost a two’miles American junior championship run in 9min 16sec on an i indoor track of 12 laps to the mile. The following year he won this race, defeating the runner who beat him previously in exactly the same time. Fol- < lowing this win he was promoted to sen- i ior ranks where he ran in the national three miles championship, winning in ’ 14min 17sec. In the July of the same i year he won his spurs, by winning the 5000 metres Olympic test race in 14min 45scc. It was his life’s ambition to represent his country at the Olympic Games, but he had such formidable op- . position in Ritola, Nurmi and Wide that J he finished fourth. This in his second - season of running. After the Games j Lermond won several national races, and in the America-British Empire relay covered his mile in 4min 20see. Back ■ in America he won the American ua- ( tional mile in 4min 20scc in very bad J weather, and on the following day won - the half mile in Imin 53sec. Then came the transformation that i has made him the best of to-day’s ‘ athletes from 1500 metres to 5000 J metres. From a mediocre distance runner he turned out over night to be the greatest miler America has produced. Last June he ran a mile in the sensational time of 4min I3see, which is only , one-fifth outside Norman Tabor’s mile ’ of some 14 years back. In August he toured Europe with a team, winning many races and defeating the Olympic 1 champion, Harry Larva, in the sensational time of Bmin SGsec over 3000 ( metres, and Olympic-champion Loukola over a mile in in 4min 18scc, and in sev- J oral races he returned times equal to the , greatest of runners. Peltzcr ranks him .' as master of Nurmi and says he should f be able to break Nurmi’s mile record j of 4min 10 2-ssec.

With such an athlete competing at New Plymouth the local club would get such a fillip that it would be secure for

years to come. Besides what an education for the athletes of the province. It is too good to let pass without a great fight for the meeting. The local runners are gradually getting into form, and they need to. Hawera has landed a good man in Cambie, of Auckland, in the sprints. He will make Black move. The Hawera men are getting down to it now and for the last night meeting had great entries—Something like they used to be. I see that Walker is back among the amateurs. 1 should like to know how he was reinstated from the professionals as he was running pro. last year and the head centre has a rule that no one who has been amateur and has turned professional can be reinstated as an amateur. Of course I may have misconstrued the meaning of the rule, but I would like to know how runners can be reinstated so quickly when there is one in New Plymouth who has tried to obtain reinstatement so that lie can help the amateurs and yet he has been turned down. Further he has not run for three years. Great entries have been received for the Caledonian sports to-morrow. With runners from all over the province competing spectators will get an idea how the local runners fare against outside competition. Evidently some "honorary member” has misunderstood the meaning of “honorary member” as far as the issue of passes are concerned. The honorary’ member tickets are only for sports conducted by the amateur club and not for those conducted by outside bodies. Certainly t-he local club is controlling the amateur races, but the whole is under the able-bodied Caledonian Society and only its members can expect free tickets. If all the honorary members of the different clubs competing received passes then how could the Caledonian society bo expected to pay -its way ? Besides, no competitors should be admitted free unless they actually run in a certain number of races. This applies to all these country sports meetings. The society provides splendid trophies for the runners and it is up to the runners to reciprocate with their best ability and help make the meeting a success. If they do not, then the Caledonian Society could not be blamed if they left the amateurs out of the programme and just catered for the professionals, as is generally done at Caledonian meetings. The Taranaki clubs are’ well off in having such a live body as the Caledonians to cater for them.

Tho young Waitara club still continues its merry way on the professional side. There are some fine runners there who can bold their own with the best, especially R. Watson, who showed that he is on the way to top forrii by his wins last Tuesday. .Tate and Tuffery, who has just started training, showed up in the 609 yards, and should be hard before long. Dowsett is the makings of a good sprinter when fit, and l by his win in t-he 150 yards gave a fair idea of his ability.

Next year there will be in all probability a professional running club incorporated with the League Cycle dub. This should give all those who are inclined towards the cash ranks a chance to make a little extra each week above their wages. There have been several fine professionals turned out in New Plymouth in bygone days and even today there are a number who would make good runners if they liked to train again. There is Wilson, who used to hold his own with any sprinters in his day, but has not run for three years now; Morgan, who. was the makings of a good middle distance man, but gave the game up; the Slight brothers, of Okoke, who also were first-raters a few years back and who could still make the best of them move. Besides there are Stainton, Burgess, Hill, Forsyth and Tuffery, who would be a good foundation for a new club. Cash running is coming back again and it only needs a little stimulus in the towns to make it the same as it used to be in the days gone by. In Australia the cash athlete has prizes up to £509 first to run for and £49 up to £l6O is a common prize for first.