ATHLETICS.

NZ Truth, Issue 132, 28 December 1907, Page 3

ATHLETICS.

• ■ -■ •'■■ : '„ +■■ '. ■' . ; , '(By "Centre'") Favored >ith beautiful weather the Wellington Centre held ; its first meeting of thtp season .'. on Saturday last. The meeting was looked forward to with considerable interest as it 'was anticipated 'that it ,, would, let some .light m oh the fitness, of the ,Wellington, contingent for- the championships. ..•••. '. s - ... v - r" .•■ To a certain^ extent this hope was not realised, as several of Wellington's best , runners, notably Goodb'ehere, j. .'Wiljkon and. Fisher, were, iox various reasons, not competing. Wil•ton has retired . fof.. th'W season; what Qootibehere intends doing is not known, and ' Fdsher '. severely sprained his ankle a week back. On the other hand, '.at least one good runner ,whq before hacl not been .reckoned m ..the first-class raised him self, by his form .last Saturday, into the front rank of< our furlong antl quar ter-miiers . .I . refer to •A\ \ Cunningliam, ,of the Port ISTicholsori CJub. ' After running third .m the hundred he won his; heat "of the 220yds, with ridiculous ease; but m the final he .fell through another, runner, cutting across m ijront |, pf - liim.. ■ Later on m the afternoon JKe won the quarter from the l(hyd : mark. Thar biggest winnet amongst the sprinters was. L. C. F-aiha, who, after running second m the Maiden, won the 100-yds and 220-yds . handicaps. Fami is a .very fair sprinter, but it was' his big handicaps, &j-yds and 15-yds ; respedtively, tkat enabled him to win. The time, 9 4-ssec T for the final of the 100-yds, was a bit top strong.' Henderson', the 100-yds New Zealand champion, ra,n well m his heat

of the hundred, just missing second place by a few inches. Half-way up the straight m his heat of the 220---yds he appeared to have the field ' well beaten, but he collapsed suddenly, and is evidently not yet wound up to concert - pitch. He should be m the pink of condition by championship time. The principal features .of the half and mile were the splendid .'efforts of Burge, and the failure of W. Gosling and Patrick to run -up •to their reputation. , Giving away starts up to 50yds, Burge was beaten by inches m the half-mile. The time,,. 2minssec, was slow, but this cannot be taken as a': criterion of Burge's merits,, as the; pace was muddled m the first lap. ,.■'■■ Gosling ran very badly. Though; he is such a heady runner m a race; he has no idea of how 'to. train, pro- \ perly, and there can be no doubt that he wa's stale last Saturday, i Patrick had no condition;, but ■■■ at the best he can Jiiave- little hope of beating Burge. '- ' Burgo had the mile won at the half distance, and he paddled home a very easy gunner m the good time, ■—for the Basin Reserve— of 4min 44 2-ssec. I; hardly fancy that Burge can beat Burke at the half, and mile, though it; is hard to say what he really can do, as he is such a determined runner, and one who can muster: up a terrific dash at the finish, no, matter how f^st'the pace may have., 1 been throughput; -/After seeing Burge' perform last week I cannot see that Trembath, good and all as he un-J doubtedly isj can have much chance of defeating hira. ,F. Wilton delighted his friends by l making .- no. . race of the three miles handicap. Before the field had gone , a mile it was ifeyident that, bar accidents, no one 'else had a chance with him. He- covered the full distance m 16min 22sec, but with anyone to pjish him along over the last ;mile and .three-quarters 1 :<! -he l " would have gone very neaV to breaking 16 minutes, time that has "only 'been beaten onee xr on the Basin Reserve, ■when Simpson, m 1904, -carved , t out..i :the three miles championship' iri r • 15min 27 3-ssec. . '• -The field" evqnts, with the v exception of the broad jump, were poorly contested, the' hammer being, aband- ■ onod as only- one entry was received. L. McKay won, . the snot with . the good put of 36ft " 6in. -For, one who knows so little of the finer points of the game McKay performs ex-' ceedingly .well m .this event.. "Jocky" Dawson won the broad jump with a, leap of ; l9ft 11 m. McKay's best effort was an inch less.; The champion seems to have lost ibis form and will need to improve ;or Dawson-rrwhose second time' out it was— will ib.cat" him again. I look upon Dawson : a very promising jumper, who/ -with practice, should go very near r to 21ft. The pole vault was remarkable for a particularly fine effort on the part of McKay. Though he had not had a pole m his hands for more than nine months, "lie" cleared the bar at 10ft,, and just failed when it was raised- to 10ft 6in. He was using one. of the bajtnboo poles imported by the Council. He; was greatly pleased with the bamboo, and considers it gives much more assistance than ; the old ash poles, and he has' made arrangements with the Centre to have constant practice with it right up to the day of the championships. Air eyes were on Kerr wheix) he strolled/down to start m the mile walk. He did hot appear to be m condition, indeed 'he confessed as much to me, but he walked well, and m a style to which no, exception could be tjilcen. His body was: carried bolt tiprig-ht, and his front knee was straight when his heel touched the ground. It will tax Mr Ooomes's ingenuity to the utmost to ■ find fault with his walking now. The big. starts he had to give 'away spoilt his chance m the mile and he could only finish third m Bmin 36sec. His time was 6min 46 2-ssec In the three miles,, giving away starts up to 500, yds, he^caught his field at 2 miles and a • quarter, and going on with ••'rid one to bring him alpng ■, completed the I full distance m ; 22min 20sec, a splendid performance. He received- a tremendous ovation from the crowd as he walked back to the dressing-room. • The efforts of two or three of the competitors ; m the sprint events did riot satisfy the Centre's local officer who y.; will refer the matter to ■ liis colleagues at. the r next meeting.