Athletics

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume X, Issue 482, 19 October 1899, Page 7

Athletics

[By

Vigilant.

THE ATHLETIC TEAM FOR AUSTRALIA

The New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association has selected four representatives for inclusion in the team to represent New Zealand at the Australasian Amateur Athletic Championship Meeting, to be held at Brisbane next month, and no fault can be found with any of them. George Smith has undoubtedly established his right to the title he holds. He has no superior as a sprinter in New Zealand, and it will be interesting to know the result of his meeting with Stanley Rowley, the New South Wales crack, and the pick of Australian sprinters. Smith has been putting in a lot of work during the past three months, and may be expected to worthily uphold the honour of New Zealand at the big athletic Carnival. Te Paa is the best of our pole jumpers. W. H. Madill will be a tough nut to crack in the weight putting and hammer throwing contests. Three of the men selected —Smith; Te Paa, and Madill—are Aucklanders. The association has not selected any man to represent us in the Half, One Mile, and Three Mile Championships. I fail to understand why no men have been chosen. St. Hill, the Hawke’s Bay half-miler, could not go, but the association has not far to go for a capable substitute. S. Pentecost (Canterbury) won the One M ile and Three Mile Championships at Wanganui in 1898, and has several times left half a mile behind in 2min ssec; he has once cut out the distance in 2min 2sec. At Dunedin, in February last, he again won the Mile. At Wanganui he took 4min 38sec, while at Dunedin he improved 2sec. In both races he had to make his own pace, and I certainly think he should be chosen. Bell, of Auckland, has some capital performances to his credit, and either he or P. Maltbies, of Timaru, should be selected for the Three Mile. Two distance men should be sent, and Pentecost and Maltbies are the two I consider have the best claims for representative honours.. . It is a thousand pities that Browlee cannot get leave of absence; and though I am glad to know Goodwin, of Wellington, has been selected as the walking man, I cannot but regret that Me Affer was not given an opportunity to represent the colony.

D. Wilson, champion three mile walker of Australasia, informs me that he would have made the trip to Brisbane to compete at the championship meeting, but as his wif e was seriously ill he could not get away. He says he will compete at the spring meeting of the A.A.A. and C.C. next month, and hopes that he will be treated a little better by the Auckland judges than he has hitherto been. F. H. Creamer is also training for this meeting and the meeting of these two champions will, no doubt, prove a great attraction to the Nc vember carnival.

All . entries for the. Cycling Club’s carnival to be held on Saturday week closed on Saturday, October 14. The New Zealand team leave for Australia about the 23rd October to compete at the Australasian Championship Meeting. ...- All entries for events at the Australasian Championship Meeting, to be held on November 9 and IT, must be in the hands of the secretary at Brisbane not later than Saturday, October 21. Malthus, the South Canterbury distance runner, recently, accomplished a really good performance by winning the steeplechase at the Amateur cross country meeting. His trainer states .that he can run three miles on the flat in 15min 20sec. On this form he should win the three miles,.championship in Australia.

George Hawks, when competing at the Toowong Harriers’ Sports, used a shot which, when weighed, was found to be six ounces short, in consequence of which his record of 40ft. 7in put up on St. Patrick’s Day will still stand. It is stated that R. Brownlee will be unable to accompany the athletic team to Australia. At the meeting of the Board of Control of the Amateur Athletic Union of Australia it will be decided whether an Australasian team shall visit England and France in 1900. The New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association has not treated S. Pentecost at all fairly over the selection of the New Zealand team. Pentecost (writes our Canterbury correspondent) has held the One Mile Championship for two years, and has beaten all the best men in the colony over that distance. He has also some capital performances over half a mile to his credit; and those who saw him cut down Kean in the Three Mile Championship at Wanganui in February, 1898, will remember it for many years to come. Pentecost has won his races after making his own pace, and his mile performance —4min 36sec —at the last Championship Meeting should entitle him to a place in the New Zealand Teim. Pentecost was asked to do a trial at. three days’ notice, and emphatically declined. The association will come in for some hard knocks if the Canterbury man is not in the team.

P. Maltbies, the South Canterbury runner, who won the Three Mile Championship, has developed into a really fine distance performer. He won the crosscountry handicap at the Pioneer Meeting in great style, and is the best man South Canterbury has produced since Pat Morrison was at the top of the. tree. If the Athletic Association leave Pentecost out of the New Zealand team, he will go on training ; and in the event of the team competing at the Auckland Amateur Athletic Club’s sports on their return to New Zealand, Pentecost will journey North and endeavour to lower the colours of the reps. Failing this, he will train for the next Championships, and then will give up running for cycle racing. There is a movement on foot in Christchurch to start an athletic association in opposition to the present ruling. The people interested in the new concern are officers in the League of New Zealand Wheelmen, and their idea is to cater for two classes—cash and amateur —of athletics, the same- as in cycling. That sleepy, go-as-you-please body, called the N.Z.A.A.A., will wake up some day to find that a smart, compact, and splendidly organised body of men have the government of athletics as well as cycling in their own hands. • A young runner, named W. E. Watts, has shown a fair turn of speed at Christ-

church athletic gatherings. Watts is quite a youngster, but his friends expect to see him perform well in half-mile races this season. His best time for that distance is 2min ssec. The Pioneer Amateur Bicycle and Athletic Club will send a team to compete at the Auckland A. A. and CC. Spring Carnival. It is proposed to include some runners in the team. The League’s offspring—the Canterbury Athletic and Cycling Club —came out badly over its sports meeting. This club has been “ boomed ’ in some Christchurch papers ; but despite this, and the fact that the club has an advertised membership of over two hundred, the attendance at the sports did not number more more than two hundred and fifty. Amateur and professional running and cycling events were well mixed up, but the public of Christchurch won’t turn out to see athletic sports.