GIVES PROMISE

NZ Truth, Issue 1144, 3 November 1927, Page 12

GIVES PROMISE

Leadbetter Down To

Training

(From "N.Z. Truth's" Christchurch Rep.) Malcolm Leadbetter, New Zealand 100 yds and 220 yds. amateur champion is settling down to solid training, and Canterbury enthusiasts are waiting to see just what that training will bring forth, for the champion gives every promise of going better than ever. CO far this season he has registered 23 3-ssecs. m a furlong m which he had to go to the outer edge of the track to get round his field; Bsec\s. for an easy win over 75yds., ancl 10 l-ssecs. to win a century by inches. The last perfermance was at Ashburton on Saturday last, on a heavy track and with a limit of 10yds. . It was a really great finish over the last 15yds. that gave Leadbetter a win and the glad hand from the crowd. The race provided a finish m which not two yards separated the six finalists. The next time Leadbetter goes to Ashburton he will go by train. On Saturday he was told that "a bus" would take him there. Being a schoolteacher and therefore apt to attribute to words their correct meaning, he had the shock of his life when he found that the "bus" was a motor-lorry loaded with cases of benzine. Perched on the top of those cases, he jolted over the 50 odd miles of road between Christchurch and Ashburton, and it is a wonder that he was able to run a yard when he climbed off his perch 10 minutes before the 100 yds. race. So far he is not running the furlong as a champion should, but over his real distance, 100 yds., he looks liable to break evens again. Canterbury has a good bunch of sprinters coming on, and the most likely of the youngsters is O. F. Steans, whose style has been modelled carefully on that of Jackson Scholz. He has a very strong finish, and the heart of a lion. K. R. Johnston, of Ashburton, has been laid aside with pleurisy, but has started training m Christchurch with an eye to the 220 yds. title. He beat Leadbetter m the Canterbury championship last year, and should yet develop into one of the best New Zealand has seen over the distance. Another promising youngster is J. H. Murphy, but he needs very careful handling, and at present 75yds. is his best distance. He is very light, and does not seem to have the stamina for that last 10yds. which means so much m the hundred. Apart from its sprinting division Canterbury, at present, has not a track team that looks like a Dominion-beater. The representative trials on November 26 might bring out some dark horses, though.