ATHLETICS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16782, 11 July 1922, Page 3

ATHLETICS.

NOTES ON EVENTS. <Hr “ HAJjF-MIL>RR.”) The annual social: of the Canterbury Amateur Athletic Club will be held ou Thursday, July 20. The Harrier Club held a run over the Canterbury College Steeplechase course on Cashmere Hills ou Saturday. Only six runners turned out. Crimp, the club captain, was also an absentee. Th Aground was fairly dry, but the gjoThc run next week may be held out , at Upper Rice--art-on, but it lias not been ; definitely decided. It was mentioned in last week's notes that the Canterbury oenire was diffident ahou.t sending a team to , Dunedin tor the New Zealand Cross Country Oh a m pi-on ship to he held there on Wednesday s August 23. There is a 1 suggestion, however, that the Harrier , Club endeavour to raise the ueoessjiry mcney and send a team. It is to be hoped that this matter will he taken in hand straight away. Canterbury has some promising cross-country runners, notably J. H. Na.lder and G. Morrison, and it would he a pity if these two. at any rate, could not be sent south to represent Canterbury. The Centre is in a peculiar position in having to consider carefully the distribution of its funds. In view of the New Zealand track and field championships in Dune- ( din next season, it won be perhaps a* well if the centre conserved its funds until the biggoK and more important event. George Davidson, New Zealand champion sprinter, who is a resident of Auckland, is playing League football at present, after an absence from the game for over two season?. The Wellington Cross Country Championship w ill be held at Masterton on August 5. AVhen will the date for Canterbury Championship be fixed? Nobuyuki Yoshioka, who made a name for himself by winning the fivemile race of the Far Eastern Olympic Games at Hongkew Park last May, is to an attempt to run from Nagasaki to Tokyo, a. distance of 1000 miles. Yoshioka intends to run Qie whole distance alone. He expects to complete the distance in a. month, running thirty miles a day. and stopping over at various places along the road. The run will he made and continued in spite of adverse weather conditions. There are four ways of finishing a race, and up to the time of entering High School 1 had not suspected that there was more than one. writes Charles Paddock in the San Francisco “ Chronicle.” The first wacs the natural way, simply running through, and this had been my only method. ’ But Al Karra.il in the southern California championships, in a, last desperate effort to reach the tape, jumped high in the air, and gained extraordinarily by that method. Since then that “ jump finish ” or flying finish, as it is some- , times called, has become my specialty. Another finish form which came to my attention was the “ shrug ”

Arthur Duffey, the. first man to officially run in 9 3-5 seconds, used that kind of a finish the day he ran in his world-record time. Tt. is only a slight deviation from the regular stride, and aids the runner in that the shoulder is thrown well forward with the arm as the runner comes into the tape. The gain is a matter of six inches or more. f o” the difference between the chest straight to the tape or the shoulder leaning into the finish string. This help in the finish can be easily recognised by assuming first a position where the chest is against the string, and then second, by turning until the shoulder pushes the string inches out. The other finish is an.old. old way of approaching the tape, and was successfully employed by Bernie AYefei s in the latter part of the eighteen hundreds, when he was breaking records right and left. It is known as the lunge finish . The New York Athletic club boys use it to this day, and AVbfers still coaches that style. Murchison used it in the national championships two .years ago. and with great effect against Jack Shultz, who reallv was nearer the tauc than he, in the final yard. Murchison throws one hand back and the other forward, hitting the string with his side. Greater momentum is gained by the lunge than the shrug, for the reason that in the former finish the motion of the arms diatihctlv aids the momentum, and places the hbdy on a falling angle. Some runners, however, use the lunge with both arms hack, which throws the chest far forward, but has a tendency to cut down the stride. The jump finish does not cut down the stride, and yet allows the runner to have his cho v G. well forward.