AMATEUR ATHLETICS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 768, 17 March 1910, Page 6

AMATEUR ATHLETICS.

WILSON'S WALKING.

Mr. D. Wilson, of Auckland, writes as follows "I have received a clipping from your paper, •in which appear comments on the championship walks held in Auckland, and I wish you to correct the following statement: 'The writer remembers an incident that occurred during the Australasian tour of 1897 that bears upon this. Before the meeting Mr. R. Coombes was watching the men training, and was the walking referee, taking particular interest in Wilson's gait. The expert was not looking at-all pleased with what he saw,' and on being asked his opinion by Mr. Norman Macbeth, the New. Zealand manager, stated that the walker had not an earthly chance of staying on the track if he used, that gait This, of course, was decidedly upsetting to the New Zealand party, but the trouble, was eventually settled by Mr. Coombes, with characteristic good nature, giving Wilson a conree of Erivato lessons that got him into the way e should go. The result was that he won. According to eye witnesses, it would appear now that the Aucklander has forgotten tlio lessons he then learnt at Mr. Coombes's knee/' Mr. S. P. Hawthorne, of Wellington, was our manager, not Mr. N. Macbeth, as you state, furthermore, Mr. Coombes did not give me any private lessons. Mr. CoombesV opinion at that time was the faster I walked the fairer I walked."