Personalities In Sport

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 357, 18 May 1928, Page 10

Personalities In Sport

J. W. McHolm

John W. McHolm, Champion Ha turner Thrower of New 2Zealand and Australia

Mention the sport of hammer-throw-ing in any part of New Zealand, and somebody will start to talk about J. W. McHolm, the athlete who never grows old. The last of the Australassion amateur athletic championships has been held, and the relative merits of the- men who made history at those meetings can be discussed. McHolm is the outstanding figure in the clashes between the Dominion and the Australian States. In the five times he has represented New Zealand he has won the title three times, and secured second place twice. He has had the honour, unique in athletics, of representing his country from 1911 until 1927, and he is still going strong. It is practically impossible to find out how many titles McHolm has won altogether. He himself has not the slightest idea. He recently arrived at an estimate of his performances in New Zealand and Australasian championships, and the result shows that he is the greatest title-winner in the Southern Hemisphere, but he has no record at all of his provincial titles. “One or two in Wellington, and one or two in Canterbury,” he says, searching his memory, the only record of a wonderful career. On occasions, in the season just past, for instance, he has not competed for provincial crowns, believing that his withdrawal will encourage the younger competitors, and make for keener competition. And this is the man whose first win in competition was with a throw of 79 feet. McHolm first took interest in hammer-throwing when he was a police constable in Dunedin. That was about 1905, and Jack Wallace, then champion of New Zealand, showed him

how to whirl the 161 b hammer, and predicted that he should perform well. “Mac” went to work seriously, and hi* first success was in a handicap. i n which he received 15 feet. The handicap. added to his actual throw, produced a performance of 94 feet. if this is not enough to encourage all the young hammer-throwers in the country, nothing is, for the winner of that handicap has since broken the Australasian record several times. When he started the record was feet, and Wallace threw 128 feet to win his title. McHolm did not win a New Zealand championship until he had broken the Australasian record three times, and had thrown the hammer as far as 143 feet. In 1911 he was beaten by Alex. Bissett, getting second place in the New Zealand championship. Bissett threw 11S feet. In 1912 McHofcu won his first New Zealand championship. and in that year he threw the hammer 135 feet S inches in competition, and this was i asesd as an \ U v_ tralasian record. He was well set on the path to fame now, but for two or three years during his earlv efforts he had been ready at any time to lay aside Ins hammer with the conviction that he would never succeed. He did succeed to the extent that he has forgotten some of the years in which ht has won Dominion titles. But when a man has been placed either firsor second in something like a score of title contests of national or international standing, when his place in athletics has taken him all over New Zealand, three times to Australia, an.i once round the world, and when (he pursuit of “pots” in any shape or form has no appeal for him whatever it is not surprising that he has forgotten some feats which with lesser eharapions would be treasured memories. However, this brief summary of his winnings can bo given. He has won the hammer-throwing championship of New Zealand eight times, and has won the discus once, at Dunedin, in 1924. He has been second m the hammer-throw twice, second in the discus-throw twice, and second in shotputting twice. In 1911, when the Australasian championships were held at Wellington, he was second in the hammer-throw. At Melbourne in nl4 he won the Australasian hammer championship for the first time witn a throw of 13S feet. He won it again at Sydney in 1920 with a throw of 130 feet 9 inches, and retained the title at Hobart in 1922 with a throw of about 131 feet. The Australasian championships were not held in New Zealand after 1911 until last year, when the last meeting of the series was held at Wellington. Here McHolm was second with a throw of 141 feet. When Randolph Rose went to England McHolm went with him as companion and manager, and he took part in the English amateur championships of 2 926—a gathering which attracts competitors from all the European countries, and is regarded as virtually a world’s championship meeting. In this great company the big New Zealander gained second place in the hammerthrowing championship with a throw of 138 feet. By two inches McHolm won the hammer-throwing championship from J. G. Leckie, of Otago, in the season just passed, his performance being 138 feet 2 inches, and nobody was more pleased than he was that the contest was so close. Like all other champions, McHolm preaches the gospel of consistent training. Practice in spite of repeated failures was the secret of his success. He did not start throwing the hammer until he was 30 years of age. Now, at the age of 50, he is still New Zealand champion, and likely to be very hard to beat for the title next season. He attributes his improvement in later years, and his ability at throwing the hammer successfully still, to the application of the knowledge he has gained in over 20 years of careful study of the game. Hammer-throwing, he claims, is the mosts scientific of all sports. The best distance he has ever achieved is 156 feet. He can still get out as far as 152 feet. McHolm is always ready to assist his opponents, and it is quite a usual thing after a championship meeting to see him out on the ground with the others in his event, showing them their errors. He will coach anybody who cares to seek his assistance, and his views on athletics generally are always well worth listening to. New Zealand has every reason to be proud of him.