OLYMPIC STARTER

Hokitika Guardian, 21 September 1932, Page 8

OLYMPIC STARTER

MR LESLIE FIRED FIRST AND LAST SHOT. ASTONISHING SPEED. bV s ”WELLINGTON, September 19. ■ Having been one 'of the two official .'Staffers at the Olympic Games at Los Angefk, Mr T. W. Leslie, of Wellingreturned from America by the Monowai, yesterday will always have -the I 'satisfaction of knowing that .ffib firecb u 6oth the first'shot and the last sIM ? 'at probably thfe r greatest ' Olympic Glmds that, 1 hhve ever been : ~ , , T.--1 K'30116 iVI-'' held, f ' ~r \ t.i' The. first in tlie wpru the heats of the long hurdles event, • dpd Mr Leslie started the four heat.ope after - the other. The last event on the) programme was tlie relay, race, consisting of four laps each of 40( metres, which Mr Leslie started also The American team covered the dis tanpe in 3min. Bsec., which brought the average lap time to the astonish-; ing figure of 47sec. - Mr Leslie had the honour of starting the great half-mile event, tin. most remarkable of all, An which two full secpnds were clipped off the record. All the women’s events, all of the do cathlon events, and a number of other, event were allotted to him a® well and he was appointed number on starter at-the Empire-U.S.A. contest! at San Francisco.

“It/ 1 was; ; ab wonderful trip al through,”;; said i Mr Leslie to -“The Do minion” yesterday;, 1 ' “We struck mo; beautiful Weather,- -with everyoday tb same and’-nothing but sunshine,/ sun shine, ‘sunshine. At the stadium ther was a most gorgeous track—the fast est track’the world has ever seen. I ■was so fast that when the men wer • doing the 120 hurdles they could have taken-two strides instead of three,'hr cause they were knocking all the hur dies over—they were getting too clos > to; them. Conditions were perfect an there was no wind at-all. ; ‘ * 1-v A‘Wedl never get a world-beater,” said ‘Mr Leslie, “until, we get. pu down 1 like ‘the’ 1 American ones, and .until WQ. get ; coaches; Our .) runners oye; here i>ut'their legs put and ‘pull.’ Over, there they '‘drive,'’ Their boys are up right: ; Their legsCgo -out in front am, I they; ‘drive.’ The ground in the stadi'urn is between 25 and 30 feet belou the level of the ;i road> and •‘the 1 track fori the Ga’ni&sH consisted 'of • severe; (feet of Cinders Ahd clay-built up solid ‘The surface wak--foiled, and scrubbed tand in every ’ day that I went to thy ; stadium before; : the /games the track 'had beep ' ploughed Up and was lying ‘/under sortie inches of water. Next day it/'fybuld be rolled out and made perfectly leveh The 1 result after a month of that treatment was the best track in 'the world.”" ls ' “•?. V •

• When Elliot, 'jSh'd AtickUnd sprinter, hdd got more into thfe 1 way of running on cinder trackfl 'he had done the at least: four yards better than he had (ever done it before, Mr, Leslie said. He had reached the sime-final in both 'the 100 metres' And 200 metres, anr would have done better with enougi time to get experienced on the track and used to the climate. Savidan. ‘Ne/w. Zealand’s : distance runner, had come fourth in the ’ 5000 metres and the 10,000 metres, in both of which .events he, had been the first British runner to'finish.