LIKE PHOENIX THEY AROSE

NZ Truth, Issue 1211, 14 February 1929, Page 14

LIKE PHOENIX THEY AROSE

Athletics . Stage A Come-back In Canterbury •

(From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Christchurch Representative). The average standard of performance at the Canterbury provincial athletic championships, was a marked improvement on that shov/n twelve months ago. . -

A WAVE of enthusiasm has swept over the province this year, and

the sport is staging a definite come-back.

The final of the hundred was a thriller. Murphy began like a flyingmachine and had a clear advantage at 75yds.

He stopped over the .final pinch, where Rus. Cdrclery. who was favorite, came through at a great clip, but he failed to overhaul the Marist man by inches. A slight breeze helped Murphy to clock 10 1/5 sec. Murphy ran his best race of the season, but he again found it as much as he could do to struggle m with an inch or two m his favor.

Cordery made no race of the furlong, leading all the way to win easily m 22 3/5. N. J. Suckling ran a fine" race m the quarter, which was regarded as a good thing for Arthur Tideman, but the latter could only get second, failing to answer Suckling's 100 yards sprint at the business end. Suckling also won the half m the afternoon m the same convincing manner from Smith (Technical) m 2min. 3 2/5 sec. In both the quarter and . the half Suckling finished on strongly, and as he is improving all the time he will do even better times, for he was not really pushed to win his two provincial titles. E. B. Taylor (Varsity) improved on his running of last year and won the mile easily from McDonald (Waimate) and Morrison (Varsity), and the three miles by half a lap, .but the times m both events were slow and not up to national standards. The quarter hurdles drew its biggest field since the war, and was won well by A. E. Laing m a tick under sixty-one seconds. The cycling events were notable for the failure of Frank Grose to win a title. Many people, though, have overlooked the fact that. the champion has been training on grass specially to deL fend his titles at Wellington.