ATHLETICS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 467, 27 March 1909, Page 12

ATHLETICS.

(Bs Meroubt.);

COMING EVENTS. Tb-day— C.Y.M. and Victoria College combined meeting. \ , Easter Monday—lnter-University eporta. Like the famous Ides of March that cnrao and went and,left Caesar dead, the great championship meeting at Dunedki has run its exciting course. The tiro days preceding the meeting were wet, and, on Friday, the prospects were so bad. that an adjournment until the following Tuesday—Otago's Anniversary Day—was mooted. Happily, on Friday night the wind changed, and though Saturday wns dull and threatening, very little rain fell. From one o'clock onwards the afternoon steadily improved, and brought out. a crowd of about 4000. The. track was, of course, slow, from, its two days' soaking, but the surface was excellent and the "going," though heavy, was fairly satisfactory, what little wind there was proved to be' in favour•' of the runners. The turns and narrowness of the. track' were all against fast times, and undoubtedly saved one New Zealand record—the 220 yards—from being ■ broken. . • The starting of Mr. W. Rudkin gave satisfaction, although he erred on tho sido of keeping his men set too long on their marks. Still, in no case did anyone beat him,'so, perhaps, he was justified m his methods. ; And now, to' 'get to the real - business—the athletes and their performances. Without a doubt ■ the star of the meeting was Woodger. His , long easy stride and graceful .gait took the eye of the. crowd, and tho ease with which ihe disposed of the opposition in his first heat of the 100. yards made him .a popular idol immediately.. In this run he got away splendidly, had the field beaten from tho jump, and •,won with the brake on from M'Whirter (Canterbury) by two yards in ,10 l-ssec. In the second heat Opie,' of Canterbury, could do no better than 10 2-5 sec., all out. Cook, of Canterbury, running into second place, and ngain the Otago contingent were nowhere. On heat form tho final appeared to be all over before starting,; but the actual run off gave • the .Wellington section a very anxious thrill. Woodger, as'he often does, got going very 6lowly at the gunfire, and at fifty yards was lying third to Opie and M'Whirter. At seventy ho had displaced the latter, but ho did not catch Opie until ten yards from the tape. Here, however, he flashed out and got the tape by about 18 inches, again in 10 l-ssec. Had the track been dry, or had he got away as he ,did in.his heat there can.be no doubt he -would have got'"evens," and in so doing would have borne out the Wellington "clocking" that has been recorded with such suspicion throughout his seasons running. ' -.

Sensational' as was his 100 yards run, Wo'odger eclipsed it in his 220 yards performance. He struck . a. soft-heat of only two starters, and he simply paced the distance out . .with Cook (Canterbury) in 25 l-ssec.- The second heat fell to Opie. with a good run of 23 2-ssec., Smaill (Otago) just beating Anderson (the 1903-4 champion) ; on the tape for secondplace, through the latter's carelessness; In -the draw for the final, Opie got- inside running, Smaill being No. 2, Woodger 3, and Cook .-(outBide) i. ' Profiting/by ,his'loo yards' .experience, Woodger made'no mistake about his start this time, and got out of his hole liko' an arrow from the bow. Before ho had gone 10 yards fhe was sufficiently clear of the bunch to take . the inside running, and from thence on tho race_ was a mere procession. Sweeping into the 1 Etraight with a beautiful stride, and with the crowd fairly rising at him, he drew away, and ran out an easy winner by a good 6even yards in 22 4-5. This is only l-ssec. outside Webster's New Zealand record,, put up. on the Carisbrook ground in 1002-3 on cinders, and, considering the sodden track and the two awkward corners, it must count as a better performance even than the redoubtable "Pat's." Woodger's rnn astonished his own team and fairly electrified the spectators, among whom was tho veteran "Lockie" M'Lanchlan, who save ' it as his opinion that it was the finest 220 yards he had ever seen in New Zealand-and ■ IrLauchlan has seen some. i The quarter-mile proved another gpod thing for Wellington. The middle-distance men of the local contingent were considered the team's r £>l suit, and so the event proved. Nino started, Wilton and Williams having the inside going, with Harding wide out.on No. 8 position. At the gun, Jlnnro (Otago) jumped away with the two Wellington colts in close Attendance, Harding being-unfortunate in getting into a bad position in the bunch. .At the back stretch-Munro . dropped,-back, and w,ui e \A I , Ci ?s t ! rb !£ y ' to °k up the lead, but could not hold to the pace, and, after a spasmodic effort, faded away, and Williams and , Wilton took oharge.. Meanwhile, Hardin" had extricated himself from the block,,had come •OT fast on the 'and displaced Williams, ■who, having done his . duty well in carrying Wilton along, dropped back a bit, and was passed by Opxe (Canterbury). This order was ? ne i I T d t k 6 . turn int ° straight -Wilton, Harding, Opie, and Williams. Wilton was going easily and. strongly, with a bit to spare with Harding in hot pursuit, and w n- ng V and great was the jnbilation in ca ™P-. About 30 yards from home, Williams put in a good run, and re--5l P 'r the , threo Wellington men them tTw th F ee separating each of hv Wili W° sp!en ?! d race ' beautifully run 'Thl f-h?' -1 was I f b 'y assisted by Williams, •throw a re ?? llle ,T a . llc , was another event that X? aiouse «»to a state of excitement, , which may seem rather a sweeping statement to make about a long-distance walking event, ! Li p crowd, but whioh nevertheless is tt,,> - r ° m i "J 1 '? 6 ' became apparent Wi, o /n ssn ? i ay between the 1 Stubberfiold brothers (Canterbury) and Fitzgerald. The made tho paco a hot one . for the first half-mile, evidently with the idea T?-1 g hls , brother,- away from tho local S?hl,i J tz S m . ] l(I > : however, knew his business, settled down behind the champion like his shadow, and there ho stuck. The twain passed the young Cantabnan in tho third lap,' and thence onward the race resolved itself into a duel between them. Fitzgerald's tactics were ,Knowing that ho had the pace of fatubberneld ma sprint, he continued his shadow-act all through, every now and then • harassing the Canterbury man by a feint to ;pass him. This was the stato of affairs right up to the entrance to the straight, when Stubberfield tried hard to shake off his "old man ■of the sea" by suddenly ringing in a determined spurt. For a moment the ruse sueceeded, but; Fitzgerald came strongly in., response, and the two came for the tape with every sail set, and drawing. Twenty yards from homo they were on level terms, but Stubberfield found another extra bit, and Fitzgerald seemed unable to pasS him. A dead-heat seemed imminent, but, in the last five yards, Fitzgerald crowded on a bit more pace, and won a great race by six inches.' His time, 22min. 58sec., beat standard by two seconds, .which puts the hall-mark of merit on Fitzgerald's capacity lis a walker. The pole jump fell to L. M'Kay, as antici'pated, owing to the slippery take off, and also to tho fact that the champion was having an off-day, his performance does not do liim"justice. Although, on this occasion, good enough to win a championship his vault of 9ft. Bin. is a poof one for M'Kay. In practice in Dunedin \ he had been getting 10ft. and over without difficulty, but he could not reproduce this on the day. However, he won, which is the great thing, and is to be congratulated on retaining his title. Evenson did his usual use/ul 9ft. 3in. with tho pole, and justified his entry by securing third place for his team. The foregoing events have been dealt within detail as being Wellington's five championship wins, and now a few remarks on tho men and happenings that jlost the centro tho shield. They were up against odds in point of numbers alone. -While there wero only nine Wellington representatives defending their centre's titlo to the shield, Canterbury had twenty-two engaged in her raid upon it. Of fifteen championships, decided on the afternoon, Canterbury's brigade of twenty-two captured seven as against tho v five that fell to Wellington. Another win went by the board in Fitzgerald's disqualification in the mile walk. Of the nino sent down Sharp was the only ono who failed to score, the points going:—Woodger, 12; Wilton, M'Kay, Fitzgerald, Harding, and Evenson, six each,'and Williams and Burge ono each. ■ Woodier and Fitzgerald got standards in the three championships credited to them. To return to the running. After Woodgor, the most striking performer of tho day was Dickson, the Canterbury three-miler, and he falls very little behind the sprinter, though, of course, the very nature of his feat was ngainst its being tho popular turn which tho sprint events were.' Dickson's timo for his three miles was 14min. 47sec., only Bsec. outside W. F. Simpson's New Zealand record time, run on the Auckland Domain. In consideration of the stato of the track, and the fact- that Dickeon was out on his own from the third lap onwards, this is a great run indeed. In last Saturday's race the strong Canterbury contingent engaged "teamed" to tako Dickson along, with the result that thev soon drew their man away from the .field. Steele, the mile winner, went out from the jump, and, taking, turn

about, the Canterbury men out out the first mile in 4min. 50seo. Dickson had the lead thon, with M'Knight, Otago, second, and Sharp labouring heavily 200 yards away. Tho leader gradually increased his advantago from M'Knight. Sharp had collapsed from a sovoro stitch in tho seventh lap, which was hard luck both for himself and his centre, biit, at the same time, it must be admitted that oyou at his best ho could never havo won. Dickson was never troubled. Ho ran along liko a train, and at' tho finish looked a3 though another mile or so would' have been no troublo at all.

. Another star performer in action was, ,of course, tho much-advortised and discussed Guy Haskins, late of Pennsylvania. Haskins won the half mile, but, in so doing, was rather lucky, and was second in the mile. Ho was, I understand, short of work; in fact tho writer was informed that he has only had three ii-uns on tho track since Christmas, though ho has done plenty of Marathon work on the roads. Ho has a beautiful, easy action, with a long, sweeping strido, and, though he could not get within distance of the timo previously credited to him, ho gave glimpses of form that go to show what Tie would bo capable of if thoroughly in condition. . In the half milo Harding threw away, an excellent chance through niisjudgraent, owing to mistaking the position of tho finish. As tho track was laid out insid«-a 'MO yards cycle track, the half mile worked out to two laps and about 40 yards, but Harding thought that tho tapo would bo at the starting point, and the additional 40 yards proved his undoing. Coming into tho back 1 straight Harding opened out beautifully, and took the load from Moore, and Haskins followed him through. Coming into tho straight be led by five yards, but was evidently failing,- and, when challenged by the Canterbury man, he could not respond, and was beatoa by three yards. It was a great race, and had not Harding made his run so soon the raco homo would have provided a great finish. .