Quality Athletics

Fine weather, spoiled only by a light wind, made possible two days of quality athletics. The light wind, never much in excess of 4ft to 5ft per second over that allowable for the setting of records, affected only the sprints. It was for this reason that, although the competition was there and good times were recorded, only three new records were set.

On Saturday a new men's discus record of 164ft 1in was recorded. This was by Canterbury's P. Crawford, last year's champion, who bettered R. Ball's 1960 record by 6ft 11in.

G. Moore, Victoria, equalled the current record of 12ft in the pole vault event. This record, set last year by Woodcock of Otago, is still one foot short of the NZU standard.

Monday saw the women's discus record of nine years' standing bettered by 1ft 1in. B. Walker of Otago with a throw of 128ft 10in exceeded the NZU standard by 10in.

The third new record was B. Walker's second at the meeting. With a throw of 111ft 9in she broke the women's javelin record, set in 1957 by N. Westling, of 109ft 4½in. The NZU standard is 124ft.

In a close finish to the 120yds hurdles final, M. Grover. Victoria, was placed first, ahead of A. Cranshaw, Otago, and R. Rhoades, Auckland. These three all recorded the same time of 15.9sec. This was .7 of a second slower than the present record set in 1955 and equalled in 1958.

Only Victoria women to gain placings at the meeting were Pat Winslade and Rosemary Askin. Pat came second to Auckland's Adrienne Tong in the 440yds event with a time of 60.9sec. The winner's time was 58.5sec. In the 220yds she was again second. Her time in this race was 26.5sec, 3sec behind the winner, L. Watt, of Papatoetoe.

Rosemary Askin, with a time of 11.2sec, came second in the 100yds Open to Lorraine Tong. Auckland, who ran the distance in 11.0sec.

In the women's 4 × 110yds relay, however, Victoria ran out clear winners with a time of 50.3sec. Second was Otago and third, Auckland. Victoria won this event last year with a record time of 49.6sec.

The men won the men's 4 × 110yds relay. In a close finish they beat Massey and Otago.

It was a different story in the 4 × 440yds when Victoria were lucky to come third after Canterbury were disqualified at the final baton change Otago were first with Auckland second.

The results of the Women's Athletic Shield were:

Otago, 48 points, 1st.

Auckland, 30 points, 2nd.

Victoria, 8 points, 3rd.

Canterbury, 4 points, 4th.

Otago and Canterbury both collected 49 points in the Men's Championship Shield. However, with six wins to Otago's five, Canterbury this year took the shield from Otago. Third was Victoria with 30 points, fourth Auckland with 26 points, and fifth Massey with 25 points.