FOOTRACE STARTING.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume IX, Issue 435, 24 November 1898, Page 8

FOOTRACE STARTING.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —In reference to the above I and many others have been very much disappointed at the way foot-races are started in and around Auckland —I am referring to the professionals. In most instances the position is taken by some one who has not the least idea of how to carry it out, and all the work (in most cases extending over many hours) of handicapping is wasted in trying to make interesting finishes and giving every man an equal chance. But what do we see ? Why men frightened to stand on their marks. A good start is exceptional, and the ped., after weeks of training, is often robbed of his chance, and if he complains he is told that “the starter beat him.” The position taken by one of the starters —standing about half way between the scratch and limit men—is not fair to all competitors, as it gives the men behind him a great advantage, for they can see the starter and the others cannot. In Shef-

field (the home of foot-racing) and in Sydney in the days when £BOO was given away on two grounds, ai.d with from 400 to 500 men starting in each handicap, such a thing as beating the starter or the starter beatin > the ped. was never heard 01, while the position of the starter anywhere but behind the competitors was never seen. Mr R. Coombe’s stood in front at the last Australasian Championship Meeting held in Sydney, in order to give the timekeepers a better chance to see the flash, but then that was in championship events, where all start from scratch, which is -very different to handicaps. Seeing that the Exhibition Committee are catering for the peds, as well as other branches of sport, it is to be hoped that, they will appoint some competent person to the very important position of starter. —Yorns, &c., Gam Busby.