DOMINION HIGH JUMP

Chronicle (Levin), 13 March 1946, Page 2

DOMINION HIGH JUMP

♦ — 15-YEAR-OLD GIRL WINS TITLE A 15-year-old New Plymoutli girl, Mis;s Margarot McNeil, won the New Zealand women 's high junip chainpion-i-iliip at the New Zealand Amateur Athietie Assoeiation 's women 's i-hanqiiou-sliip nieeting at Dunedin on )Saturday. A daughter oi' JMr. and Mrs. A. D. MeNeil, Strandon, she is a pupil of the ,N e w I'lyniouth Girls' High S(drool and a ineniber of the New Plymoutli Amateur Athletic and Cyeling Cluli. In meii 's athletic events tliere are junior, intermediate and senior titles, but there is only oue grade for women. II is tliought that Miss McNeil is the youngest athlete ever to win a New Zealand open amateur tftle. If there had been a similar division among the women as among the men she vvould have been onlv a junior. During the last two years she has been an outstanding performer at the New Plymoutli (fi r Is ' High SchooJ sports, ahd last November she attracted c-onsiderable attention by clearing nearly live feet in the higli jump. This seasou she has competed regularly at the Newt Plymoutli Amateur Athletic and (Jvclintr Club's weeklv meetimrs

and has been eoaehed by two New Zealand Olympio Games re|)resentatives, Messrs S. A. Lay and" S. A. Black. At the West Coast (North islaud) championships she won the high jump and' SO metres hurdles, and as a result of these performances she was selected as one of the ceutre's representatives in these events at the New Zealand championships. At Dunedin she failed in the hurdles event, but won the high jump. She is a sprint runner close to cliampionship standard, but Messrs Lay and Black advised her against conqieting in the sprint championships on- account of her age. They did not desire to overtax her until she is older, but tliey are of the opinion that later on she will add runniug titles to her successes.