HOPE YET

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 571, 25 January 1929, Page 7

HOPE YET

Championship Meet for Runners SLOW AUCKLAND There is hope for Auckland s athletes yet. , , ecl They are not going to be to exist on the stale buns of club events all the time. The Auckland amateur athletic championships are going to he hUd toward Las ter. And then, an ° tb 2 r little athletic event will come off when the entertaining young men from the Unit ersity College spring their Inter faculty sports on to the public. One suspects that there mil be - murmur of surprise, ;I " d . p ® r ,^ p3 w Sn other of pleasurable anticipation, when the Auckland Athletic Centre bungs off the big annual event. There is not anything startlingly modern about the centre. But there ,s one great factor against the sport in Auckland that is not the centresfaul. There is no up-to-date ground in Auck; Hud where carnivals undei the elec trie ligMscan be field Neither wifi there be until sports bodies make strong appeal for suitable facilities. In tho P South, evening sports meetings have been profitably P°P“ lal 0 Municipal bodies have been made to realise that improvements to the facili ties for evening sport mean a help to athletics. These Southern municipal, bodies are far-seeing. They realm that soundly-conducted athletics, running and cycling, can 1 TP t ro^f lHn „l health of a community and its outlook. There is nothing quite as refreshing as litho runners speeding through the tapes btfiieath monster arc lights. LACK OF AMBITION Last week The Sun pointed out to the public tlic lack of ambition shown liv the athletic control in Auckland. If the centre has ambition, it has not given practical proof of it so tar this There must be hosts of young Aucklanders eager to get into the running Whi-re is the inducement. m present athletes have to make their own snort from club events. One indication of the enthusiasm which is striving for expression was when the Lynn dale Amateur Athletic Club was formed at the beginning of the season. One or two enterprising moves by the centre, and the interest of the public must be attracted. Novelties always draw crowds. Ambitious athletic Carnivals, so rare in the North, would. The old-fashioned notion of letting a sport look after itself simply does not carry any weight in these days of brisk competition. Wellington. Canterbury. Otago and the youthful llan-ganui-Taranaki centres are the h'v forces of New Zealand athletics. The Auckland Centre should be taken en masse to one of the electric light carnivals in Wellington, should see the enthusiasm of thousands of people and of the athletes. The centre would creep back North, sullenly full of respect for the Southerners. In the meantime. Auckland’s running stars of the present day seem likely to become old men while they are waiting, not altogether Micawber-like, for something to turn up. It is logical to think that, were tn. Auckland Centre to stage attractive programmes, Hie standard of running and cycling would improve.