ARNST INTERVIEWED.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1506, 31 July 1912, Page 5

ARNST INTERVIEWED.

"I DON'T, LIKE MY CHANCES TOO WELL." PLANS FOR THE FUTURE. Arnst was interviewed by the London correspondent of the Sydney' "Daily Telegraph' shortly before tho last mail left 011 June 21. In the course of conversation _ho stated:— "No, I'm not in condition yet, but I'm a<= far forward as I expected'to bo. There aro still six weeks before the race comes off. I was weighed after my first row ou the Thames, and I weighed 15st. 101b.-I've got down to list, now, but I want to get down to 13st. slb. for the race. That was my weight when I rowed Barry on the Zambesi. -

}:es, I ve seen Barry row since I've been over. He trains at Barnes, and sometimes rows up this far. I don't think there is to much difference in our styles of rowing as people say. He rows with jus legs apart, and swings his arms close in to his body. It's a bit difficult to describe. _ They say that most Australians row with a short swing; I row with a little more swing than tho Australians usually do." "Will I win? I don't like my chance too well. Theclimate doesn't lb: me up for rowing. No, there is nothing wrong with me that I know of, but the climate makes a man sluggish. But I'll do mv bsst to win—and it will bo o pretty big best. But if he's too good " "Ifs a rotten course. Several times the water hes been too rough for mo to get .into my boat. And then thcro is the wash from the walls. (In many places the banks are walled for considerable distances.) When a steam boat goes past tho wash strikes the walls and conies back to you. I'd much sooner row on the Parramatta. But there it is; Barry wouldn't come. . The difficulty was for iiim to get backing-to row in Australia. "Barry would sooner row on the Thames. Hes used to it, and they say he is a good stayer on this course. I saw him the othor day-just paddling about. He is well forward with his form, and is rowing very well. The 6tart will to by mutual consent, frcm stake boats about 40 yards belo.v, will bring us clear of tho wash from tho piles. "Where do I expect the real tussle in tho race to como in? From the time I put the scull,s into water, until tho winning post is reached. No, I haven't had to row that way to win other races, but it s just as well to expect it every time. "I take two rows on tho river' each day —morning and afternoon. That's about 2i miles a day. Before breakfast I go out for a run, and in the evening I get on my bike. Yes; I'm training pretty hard. But yesterday (Monday, June 17) I took a day off, and went to the pigeon shoot ing match at Notting -Hill. I won the open handicap out of 91 entries. Tho prize was ,£IOO cash and a .C2O cup. I had a drink after that—though I am training." ''What am I going to do after I've iron tills riice? Lock flere, I haven't ..won it yet; it's got to bo rowed. There is a long way to go yet—2o miles, a day, six days a week, and six weeks to the race. Anything, may happen in that time. And I don't know who is going to win. I'll leave that to the day of the race. But I'm going back to Sydney after the race is over, if thafs what you mean. I think of picking np a few good agencies here, and setting up in business in Sydney. But there is one tiling I'd really like to win first, and that is the world's pigeon shooting championship at Monte Carlo." THE ZAMBESI RACE. 1 WON BY SEVEN LENGTHS. In its description of the Zambesi race of 1910, the "Daily Mail" said:— The Englishman got off splendidly and held an advantage for the first twenty yards, but Arnst rapidly overhauled him and, forcing the pace, led by a length r.t therein! of'half a mile. Arnst continued to increase his lead through rough water and a hot head wind, and covered tho first mile in 6min. 25sec. Both men appeared to 1b quite comfortable, and were •striking at tho Tate of twenty-six to the minute. Tho,New Zenlander gradually rr»pt fi.rthcr away and was threo length:- to tho good a quarter of a mile from home, when Barry suddenly dropped his head and was apparently beaten. He, however, brightened up instantly, and put on a magnificent spurt. At this time ho was receiving Arnst's wash, and forty yards from tho finish ho stopped rowing,'leaving Arnst to win amid great enthusiasm by seven lengths. I •. THE DOWNFALL OF A CHAMPION. NOT IN HIS PRIME. [By SyiviusJ ' - Tho Titan of Tai Tapu has fallen! Tho mighty Arnst, who was thought to be invinciblo in a sculling shell, has had to lower his colours to tho English champion Barry, the tall lean oarsman whom ho defeated with practical ease on the Zambesi a couple of years ago. .When Arnst returned from winning that race, rowed in the heart of Africn, within sound of the thunder of the Victoria Falls, it was stated that he was a sick man, and Arnst himself said/ it was one of tho hardest races ho had over rowed. Tho expression is a detail, because it was a habit for him to say the same tiling after every raco—a sort of magnanimous concession to tho defeated. Ho said it after the Webb raco, and consoled I'earoe with the same words of comfort. It will bo recalled that Barry strongly desired a match on the Thames after tho Zambesi event, and thoujjh obstacles were raised, the second meeting of the men was inevitable. Each was admitted to bo a firstclass oarsman, and even after Arnst won in Africa it was never decided then that ho was tho better man, for tho climatic conditions were foreign to both, and, to quote a familiar phrase, "What is ono man's food is another's poison." After Zambesi, Arnst returned to Australia and New Zealand, and succeeded very easily in nutting on flesh. It was "athlete's llesh" in Arnst's and (hough it nlay bo perfectly healthy, there is a doubt associated with its almost artificial growth. Then tho ex-rhnmpion fell foul of some roughs in Manly one night, and was knocked down with a paling. As he lay in bed. slowly recovering from a very nasty knock, he became enamoured of tho soft.'oyt's and lender hands that guarded and helped liirn. In a point-he married his nnr.-p. Then, more bulky than ever, he went Homo lo row Barry for the championship of the world. A picture of him going tor his firM. row on the Thames gave "an excellent, iinpie.-ion of the layers •of "flcnH" which furrowed the track <if physical fitness. He looked anything but

a champion, but with great industry and purposo ho started in to pull himself down, and ns it was nico soft fat ho reduced it ounce by ouiico until lio crept behind the 14-siono mark. What oil effort it was to get down to rowing weight only A rust call tell, hut something between tho lines of the cables soemed to imply that it was affecting his vitality— an clement not too prominent in Arnst's make-iii)— ns well as Ills weight. Still it was imagined that ho had ail inexhaustiblo supply of horse-power in thoso oakti'co legs and arms, and his doggedness in athletics was well-known, and that it was thought would pull him ahead at the finish. It didn't. "Arnst stopped rowing at Brewery, dead beat!" runs the cable. Fateful words. And Harry won b,y a hundred yards. All honour to the Englishman. Ho has fairly beaten tho most powerful oarsman New Zealand has ever produced, but he did not heat him in his prime. That a careful analysis of tho events in Arnst's life during tho past ye;»r will surely convoy. MR. GEORGE SEIFERT'S OPINION.

GAVE BARRY A BIG CHANCE. Mr. George Seifert, of Palmerston North, who took "Billy" Fogwoll to England to row Ernest Barry last year, is ngain in Sydney (said tho Sydney "Sun" of July 2). He discusses with some eagerness Arnst's chance against Barry, and actually gives the Englishman a good chance. Chatting about tho forthcoming race ho said: "From what I have seen of Barry he has a good show of beating the champion. Barry is a very different man on tho Thames to what he was on tho Zambesi. He knows the course thoroughly well, and proved himself a better waterman than Fogwell when they met. The conditions aro entirely different on tho Thames to what they aro elsewhere, owing to tho swift tide creating a nasty jobblo oil' tho concrete walls which line tho courso on each side of tho river. Barry is a much faster nihil than people givo him credit for, as his raco with Fogwell shows. Fogwell had a lead of three lengths at tho mile, but Barry was ahead at the milo and a half. After covering that distanco they met Tough water, and Barry went away quito easily. "I give Barry a big chance against Arnst, and believe he can beat any man that Arnst has beaten. I do not expect Arnst to improve, as ho has neglected his work by staying out of his boat for long periods, but I think Barry will bo a better and faster man than ho was on the Zambesi. The Englishman, as I saw him on the Thames, was a finer sculler than I expected to see. Of course, if Arnst is right up to form, and as rood as he was for liis first race with Webb on the Wanganui, I believe he will have a fairly easy win, but will he be? I don't think so. I expect to seo Arnst lead by three or four lengths at the mile, and Barry then to pull him back and pass him at about threo and a quarter miles."