Has Broken “Evens” For 100 Yards Dash

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 61, 3 June 1927, Page 6

Has Broken “Evens” For 100 Yards Dash

ELLIOTT’S RAPID RISE CAN HE BEAT WILLIAMS? Last Saturday at the Henderson Domain, A. J. Elliott, crack Auckland sprinter, added another victory to his already rapidly mounting list by reeling off 75 yards under adverse track conditions in a neat eight seconds. Few athletes have had a more meteoric career. Elliott is only 21 years of age, and prior to last season was an unknown performer.

It was on Labour Day last year that Elliott first took the track in open company. Few could have guessed that within four months he would be representing Auckland as it dual sprint champion against all-comers. There is perhaps a little irony in the fact that it was Lance Williams, the then Auckland 100 yards and 220 yards champion, who persuaded Elliott to join up with the Auckland A.A. and C.C., of which Lance is the treasurer. Within a month or two, of that, Elliott had loomed up as Williams’s most serious rival for the sprint title of Auckland. Elliott defeated Williams in the Auckland championships, but in the New Zealand championships held later Williams came in ahead of him. Therefor the better of these two men has not yet been found. But while Williams is an experienced sprinter and a clever man at the start Elliott has a lot to learn. His fastest time for the 100 is 9 9-lOs, and with a time like this up his sleeve and experience which is yet to be obtained, Elliott has chances of sailing away from Auckland for Holland to help New Zealand in the sprints at the Olympic Games at Amsterdam next year.