“Wonder Boy”

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 193, 4 November 1927, Page 10

“Wonder Boy”

SYDNEY SCHOOLBOY RUNS HUNDRED YARDS IN ‘ EVEN TIME” AT G.P.S. SPORTS

YOUTHFUL PRODIGIES IN SPORT

All Sydney is talking about its wonder boy athlete, Jimmy Carlton. In the annual sports of the Great Public Schools, Carlton streaked through 100 yards in even time, and followed this with an electrifying 220 yards in 21 4*ssec. Whether this super-schoolboy will go on and develop into a champion in open company remains to be seen. As a rule, they don't. Most of them are exceptional cases of boys who reach physical maturity early, and are at their best several years before the average athlete reaches the limit of his powers. WALKER AND TREMBATH Reggie Walker, the great South African, was a notable exception. Twenty years ago, at the age of 37, he was ♦ rack sprinter of Natal, with 10 seconds for a hundred to his credit. The South African Olympic authorities reckoned he was too young for the Olympic Games in the following year, and did not send him. But Walker's supporters in the Transvaal clubbed together and got him away. He won the 100 metres brilliantly, and for years after he was one of the greatest runners of his time. Bi 1 Trembath, the New Zealander, was the Australasian half-mile champion at the age of 17. Bill, too, went on. and, entering the professional ranks, became a real champion. At one time he held the world’s quarter-mile title, and his brilliant running at the Auckland Exhibition, just before the war, is still remembered. BETTS AND HUSSEY Other embryo champions have met been so fortunate. A few years ago, another South African :\hoolboy, I*.. B. Betts, startled the athletic world by running a 9 4-5 hundred in the clear upland air of Johannesburg. Next year, he went to the Olympic Games, but did not do anything out of the way. At 18. he was at his best, and did not ! further improve. An American high school boy, Hussey, was credited with 9 4-a in tiie United States about the same time. This \o\ing prodigy also went to Paris in 1924. but mainly for experience in the American relay team. He has run well since, but has not given any indication that he is another Paddock. NEW ZEALAND SCHOOL RECORD Carlton's run in Sydney clipped 3-10 of a second off the old G.P.S. record. It is faster time than any recognised secondary school record in New Zealand. From memory, the best time the writer knows of is the Southland Boys’ High School record of 10 l-ssee. It was done by two boys in the one year, and one of them. R. C. Morgan, subsequently tied with L. Tracy, of Wellington, for the New Zealand 220 yards championship in Wanganui a year or two ago. Morgan is at present resident in Hamilton, but he has not done much running since he broke down in a race against Scholz last year. Nelson College. I believe, has a record of 10 seconds for the hundred, but it was established in the days when the college was more of a university than a high school, and by a runner who was older than the average secondary schoolboy. Christ’s College, «’hristchurch, has a record of 10} seconds. established away back in the ‘seventies. Carlton, the Sydney schoolboy, is 18 years of age. and a crack Rugby footballer. It may be that we will see him rt Wellington at the Australasian championships next December.