CINDER TRACKS AND ROSE’S FAILURE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17906, 23 July 1926, Page 11

CINDER TRACKS AND ROSE’S FAILURE.

THAT the controlling bodies of amat eu r athletics in Australia and New Zealand were greatly behind the times in not providing proper cinder tracks for those who take part in the sport, was the opinion expressed by Wilfred S. Kent Hughes (a former Cambridge University champion, and Australian Olympic representative) in referring to the defeat of R. A. Rose (the New Zealand distance running champion) in the British championships (says a Melbourne paper). “ I am glad to see that ‘ The Sporting Globe ’ has expressed such a decided view on the matter of cinder tracks.” remarked Wilfred Hughes. “ As the time is ripe for something like serious attention being given to laying down proper tracks. We spend large sums of in sending teams overseas to compete in Olympic Games and other international contests, but we fail to do bur men justice by not enabling them to train under modern conditions. In a large measure grass tracks are out of date when it comes to comparing times. Practically all the world’s records have been put up on cinder tracks, which are ideal for running.” The former Cambridge champion athlete remarked that the failure of Rose in England -was largely due to the fact that he had been accustomed to running on the soft—and very often slow —grass tracks, with the result that, when he came to try himself out on cinders, he was totally at sea. He stressed the fact that nowhere in Australia was there a cinder track to compare with those in England, America, or on the Continent. If we wished to keep abreast of the times we should place every facility in the way of our athletes to assist them to become proficient. He estimated the cost of constructing an up-to-date cinder track at about £I2OO, the cost of which, he claimed, would more than repay any athletic body.