Zero Hour for Empire Champions

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 784, 30 July 1954, Page 7

Zero Hour for Empire Champions

FF HIS Friday, July 30, the Governor-General of Canada, Field- Marshal Lord Alexander, will open the fifth British Empire and Commonwealth Games at Vancouver, British Columbia. Because the sun never sets on British soil, he will also in effect initiate a continuous listening-watch throughout the world. Some 820 athletes from 25 countries will be competing, and at various times of the ‘day or night sportsmen in Sydney and Singapore, New Delhi and Durban, London and Montreal, will be tuning in to follow their progress. New Zealand’s Games team numbers 54, with members competing in all nine of the sports covered by the Games. Since New Zealand time is 19 hours ahead. of Vancouver’s, listeners here should know the results~of events very

shortly after they take place-there will be no overnight delays. no latenight listening. The focus of public attention in New Zealand will almost certainly be on the Olympic broad-jump star Yvette Williams and on the promising young miler Murray Halberg (Listener, July 9). Miss Williams remains the most likely winner of the broad-jump at the Games, and may also shine in the discus and shot-put. She has thrown the discus 151ft. 6in. and the shot 43ft. Qin. Halberg, with a 4min. 4.4sec. mile to his credit, should give a good account of himself in what is expected to be | one of the greatest mile races ever. In athletics, too, New Zealand has some other promising entries. In the high-jump, Peter Wells set a New Zealand record this year with 6ft. 6'%in., two and a-quarter inches higher than the mark he attained representing England in the 1950 Olympics. The 16-year-old M. Jefferies, who holds the N Z. Tunior record of 6ft 5in. may run him

close. And in the polevault New Zealand is well represented by M Richards, of Dunedin holder of the New Zealand record of 13ft. 2% in., and by far the best prospect the country has had in this event. Swimming, too, will claim much attention, and here New Zealand is particularly well represented. Lincoln Hurring is a probable winner in the 110 yards backstroke, He has swum 200 yards in 2m. 108s in the U.S. recently. a faster time than = env other Games competitor. Buddy Lucas, in the 440 and 1650 vards_ freestyle, stands. a good chance in those everits though he is faced with strong competition from

Hendricks and Chapman, of Australia Lucas, who (like MHurring) has been training at the University of Iowa, was third in the 1650 event at the 1950 Olympics. and fourth in the 1500 metres "Big Ten" event in the United States this year. Among the women, Marion Roe, who creates new records at almost every start, is a good prospect in the 110 and 440 yards free-style, and Jean Stewart (third at the Olympics) should he bent t heat in the 119 ward G-el ‘

stoke. Both women wi'l.probably have their stronpest competition from Joan ‘Herrison of South Africa. the reigning Olympic c>ampion. : The 1954 Garres will end on Saturdey, August 7. with an address by the Duke of Edinburgh. Both*opening and closing eddresses willbe heard in Empire Gemes 1954 09 Rettosrect {see Fao Pak DRANG ON, gods Seats te? sabe