ATHLETICS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XX, Issue 1112, 3 August 1911, Page 13

ATHLETICS.

NEW ZEALAND' CROSS-COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIP. TRIAL IN AUCKLAND. Interest is daily increasing In athletic circles throughout the Dominion in regard to the New Zealand amateur cross-country championship. The Otago centre have taken the matter up enthusiastically from the start, and already they have the funds in hand to defray the expenses of sending a team north, to represent Otago in the championship. The Wellington centre have also been prevailed upon to enter a team, and as a number of the best harriers in the Empire City are now in training for the occasion, it is confidently anticipated that a first-rate team will be selected to represent Wellington. The longdistance runners of Auckland are keen in their desire to see the northern province worthily represented, and many are making preparations for the event, so that a good team should be available when the selectors come to make their choice. G. N. H.ll, one and three miles’ amateur champion of New Zealand, is in great fettle at present, and is pretty certain to assist his province in the big cross-country event.

The Auckland Amateur Athletic Club held a cross-country trial on the Ellerslie racecourse on Saturday, but the ground was in a very heavy state, owing to the bad weather. Eleven competitors faced the starter, these being G. N. Hill, Reid, A. Ornstein, C. Ornstein, Rogers, McCullum Gray, Hanson, Farrell, Black (Dunedin), and Fry. The course followed was round the main racecourse and over the hill, this route being covered three times. The Ornstein Brothers set out to make the pace, but Hill was always close up, and at the finish he won easily in 27mins. 3 6secs., from C- Ornstein, w’hile A. Ornste n was a good third. The distance covered was roughly estimated at about four miles. Reid, who is one of Auckland’s most prominent longdistance runners, did not complete the course, owing to a fall, which gave him a bad shaking.