FAILURE AT MASTERTON BUT NO DISGRACE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 36, 1 March 1940, Page 38

FAILURE AT MASTERTON BUT NO DISGRACE

Mile Runners Made Fine First Attempt HE failure of Masterton’s milers to crack the Indiana University team’s three-year-old time for the world four mile relay was not a failure of which they need be ashamed. They could have done better. That they did no worse was sufficient tribute to the development of distance running in New Zealand over the last decade. After the race, critics were still saying Wade should have been in the team, or Dickie. The ignorant were even citing recent times set by these two runners in competitive championship events. Quite apart from the fact that the record attempt was almost purely a private arrangement between the four men concerned and the Masterton Club, and that no outsider had any right whatever to criticise the make-up of the team, anyone who used specific times to make comparisons took a very big risk. No doubt Wade and Dickie are first-class milers, or have the makings of first-class milers. No doubt this, and no doubt that. The plain fact of the matter was that these four men were attempting something entirely new and more than usually enterprising in New Zealand athletics. Fer comparisons there was no basis whatever, Let any critic compare Pullar, Allen, Matthews, and Boot, with any other miler met in open competition; that is reasonable comment. But to make comparisons in connection with a record attempt on a relay time, for which there was no local precedemt, or in which there was not the remotest relationship to competitive racing, was cavilling and pinpricking. No Easy Task For a first attempt, the four runners performed remarkably well. They ran very close to schedules planned beforehand, although one or two of them were supposed to lack fine judgment of pace. Concurrently with the main attempt, the Masterton Club had arranged a secondary attempt for a team which was intended to give the first string something to run after, In practice, this did not work, and almost from the first lap of the first mile the men had to run round an empty track. This is not easy, it should be stated, in case there remains anyone who still believes it possible to run a mile solo as fast as a mile can be run in company with pacemakers. In the competition of a race, a man might easily break 4.10 and fail on an open track to break 4.20. Pullar, running first, can be forgiven for spoiling his reputation as a sound judge of lap times. He was not in perfect form, and made an error of two seconds

in his estimates. This told the tale when Boot came to cover the last mile. Given the most difficult task of all, Pullar made the sort of job of it to be expected from a sportsman of his calibre. Over the last lap, after the strain of racing three laps against times which must have seemed inexorably against him, he stuck out the fourth, determined not to give up making every possible effort until Allen stretched back for the baton, The Laps Where Pullar had tailed to run his first lap in 62 seconds, greatly to his own chagrin, Allen succeeded, and followed with laps of 651/5, 653/5; 66 2/5. Matthews, the three-miler of the quartet, ran quite the best mile of the day. Matthews beat Allen’s first lap time with 613/5, followed with 65 2/5, and covered his last half-mile in two laps of 66 and 65 each, Boot looked worried when he heard the lap-keeper call the minutes as he started away from Matthews. He was worried enough to fly round the first lap in 60 seconds dead. This was a necessary tactic, but it told as he ran lonely over the last three laps. For his second he timed 65, for his third 68, and for his last, 6542. There has been some confusion over the times. Standing very close to Pullar, the starter made his only mis-start of a day of perfect starts. Pullar, probably nervous, went away on the click of the trigger, and had to come back. How the Times were Kept Later, the following official times were received from W. M. Sellars, secretary of the Masterton Amateur Athletic Club: Four watches, each checked to an accuracy of one-fifth of a second in 20 minutes, and checked, and re-checked again, were used to time the aggregate. Through the false start, one was not accepted. The other three registered 17 mins. 184/5 secs., 17.182/5, and 17. 15 4/5. The slowest time had to be accepted, giving the official aggregate for the whole relay as 17.18 4/5, which was 23/5 secs. outside the world record, Two other watches were used to keep the runners informed of their lap times. They had also been carefully checked, They gave an aggregate of 17.17 1/10. The lap times were, in full:

This makes the mile times: Pullar ~ 4.21} Allen 4.192 Matthews = * 4.18 Boot . 4.18} As this is going to press, attempts are being made to arrange another relay to attack the same record. Boot Still in the Running Meanwhile, it is likely that Boots’ announced retirement may not take immediate effect. He had been concerned about his training duties with the military forces, but has now made a satisfactory arrangement,

Pullar 64 65 66 665 Allen 624 65% 652 66% Matthews 613% 65% 66 65 Boot 60 65 68 65}