ATHLETIC RECORD

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 92, 15 October 1932, Page 15

ATHLETIC RECORD

FUND OF INFORMATION

MR, TRACY'S COMPILATION

No more comprehensive annual report has ever been issued by the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association than that released to-day, covering the activities of the association's fprty-fifth year. Aside from a well-compiled and , interesting summary of events, the report contains this time an unusually fine feature in the form of record performances, lists of championship winnew from the early days to the present time, and other data, which make the . P^ieatHm ■ a fund of information, ? valuable to all followers- of amateur athletics.

The compilation, of the records and ■performances and the other statistical material, involving in some instances a considerable amount of research, is the work of Mr. L. A. Tracy/hoii. secretary of the association.

•. Included in the compilation are the following:—Keaults of the last . New . Zealand track and field championships . ■ and the New Zealand cross-country -• championship; performances passed durc ing the year as establishing new or . equalling existing records and porform- ' anees recognised as being equal to or better thaii the existing best performance, by a New Zealander in New Zealand; rulings, interpretations, and alterf ations of rules; complete lists of the - New Zealand records and New Zea- • lahders' best performances in the various events; the names of past win- < ners of New Zealand championships, . which: occupy some twenty pages; the winners of the Queensland .Jubilee Commemoration Shield and the New Zealand championship shield from the inception of the competitions; winners of . the past season's centre championships, which are set out in a way easy to follow; points" scored by Australian States and New Zealand at all Aus--1 *^ si ail cnampionhip gatherings from 1893 to 1927, when they were discontinued; _ a complete, list of winners o'£ Australian championships;' and • a valuable list of world's records/complete . to 29th July. : \ v A foreword is contributed by Mr. J. Sy. Heenan, a former member of the •■council of; the N.Z.A.A.A., who for , many years has been one of the best informed of athletic enthusiasts in the , Dominion. Mr. Heenan makes it clear that, Mr. Tracy was faced with many : . difficulties in carrying out a work ■which,-he says, should;have been under- ' ™ en years Tfle material Mr. r Tracy had collated gave much valuable , information, which, but for his patient , researches, might never have' eniero-ed . from the obscurity of the past. Mr. Heenan draws attention to the . fact that the record proves that the all-round standard of both track and field performances in New Zealand lias r been steadily improving in the past • thirty years, with every now and then a. sudden leap forward in some particular event by an outtanding individual (m some cases several of them), whose example in most cases had itself led to a permanent raising of the general standard.