Athletics

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume X, Issue 472, 10 August 1899, Page 5

Athletics

[By

Vigilant.]

D. Wilson, the amateur champion three mile walker of Australasia, has already started training, and will compete at the coming Spring meeting of the Auckland Amateur Athletic and Cycle Club in November. He had decided to retire from the track, but being informed that Bell, the professional heel-and-toe exponent, was going to be re-instated he decided to start training in view of meeting Bell, who challenged him some time ago, when Wilson would not break his amateur status.

W. E. Lutyens, the ex Cambridge miler, won the Half-mile Challenge Cup at the L.A.C. Meeting, on June 24, in Imin 57 2-ssec. He won the same event last year in 1-5 better time. W. Slade, who was the English amateur mile champion from i 873 to 1877, has returned from Canada to London, after a lengthy residence in the snowy land.

C. H. Jupp is a London Athletic Club man who is looked upon as a very excellent runner. For two years in succession he has won the 100yds Challenge Cup of the L.A 0. It is thought that he can get inside evens. The L.A.C. has a very promising hurdler in C. W. Turner, who is said to be able to do the 120yds in 16sec dead. At the June meeting he won the Challenge Cup in 16 3-ssec. G. W. Orton (says the Manchester Athletic News of June 19), the famous little Canadian who won our Steeplechase Championship at Stamford Bridge last July, will defend his title at Wolverhampton on July 1. Orton crossed the Atlantic on board the State of Nebraska, of the Allan line, which left America on June 9, and is expected to run at some athletic meeting on June 24. Orton will very likely run at the London Athletic Club or the Manchester A.C. Meeting on that date, and. if he satisfies himself may turn out in the One Mile Championship, for which he is also entered, in addition to the Steeplechase. Orton, who is accompanied by his wife, intends staying in England some time, and expects to run during July, after which he will go on to Paris. He has been in steady training for some time, and was running fairly well just on the eve of his departure for England, so that he may be expected to make a good showing on this side of the Atlantic. The selectors of the N.S.V . team for the Australasian championships are, as is customary with all selectors, “ on the

drill” over tho composition of the team. I (“ Prodigal,” of the Sydney Referee} don’t mean by this that the “ suggestion” from the council is causing them any anxiety, hut, as usual, a fresh trouble arises directly one is smoothed over. It has transpired that there is a doubt as to whether J. W- Laidlaw will be able to make the trip to Brisbane, while it is realised that special permission for leave of absence will have to be obtained in the case of the members of “the force,” whose holidays have been taken —English, for instance. At the time of writing it is no certainty that Laidlaw and English (of the selecteds) and Roseingrave and O’Reilly (possibles) can get away. It is a certainty that if M. M. Roseingrave shows that he has retained his form, and that his “knee” is fairly sound, he will be added to the list of “ selecteds.” O’Reilly, the Bathurst policeman, is also a “ probable” I should say, owing to his ability with the shot. So far the only man I know of practically certain of being able to make the trip is Rowley. By the way, mention of the name of Rowley calls to mind the fact that one of the men for whom “ a test with the champion” was claimed by his friends —at least, I am so informed — competed at the Watringah Harriers’ sports. All sorts of rumors of what a “ dark horse” could do with that speedy sprinter, Spiller, had reached me, and I had been informed —whether rightly or wrongly I cannot say—that it was partly on account of this particular ped. that the selectors were “ recommended ” to subject Rowley to a test before finally selecting the Australasian champion. The ped. in question is R. Hoolahan, and some color was given to the rumor through the Warringah handicapper placing him on the mark with Spiller, As Spiller fairly lost him, and, in turn, requires some syds in 100yds from Rowley, it would appear yet another illustration of a private reputation being wrecked in a public trial. In the council I believe the Warringah delegate very strongly advocated that Rowley should not be selected without a test, and in this he found support from a Paramatta delegate. It was generally supposed that the Warringah’s thought they had a champion in Hoolahan, whilst the Paramattas are supposed to be pinning their, faith to the old-time English sprinter, A. E. Roberts, who I thought had long since retired.