Sideline Sid Sports correspondent & historian www.sunlive.co.nz

Sideline Sid is occasionally referred to by family and friends as a master of useless information. Being a keen amateur historian and a having enquiring mind, combine, to produce a character that loves nothing more than uncovering obscure pieces of sporting history.

A piece of little-known sporting information came to Sideline Sid's attention recently, via a National RSA newsletter, about a New Zealand soldier who was referred to as a human machine gun. Jesse Alfred Wallingford was a career soldier, who enlisted in the British Army as a boy soldier at just 14 years of age.

Wallingford became a marksman and was promoted to instructing soldiers in the art of shooting. In 1911, the British sharpshooter resigned from the British Army, to immigrate to the other side of the world, to join the New Zealand Army. He served in World War 1, winning a Military Cross for his actions at Gallipoli on the 25th and 26th April 1915 'showing conspicuous bravery in directing the infantry battalion through un-reconnoitred scrub and consolidating positions gained under fire".

However it was his sporting talents in shooting events that captured this writer's attention. Jesse Wallingford competed for Great Britain, at the 1908 Summer Olympic Games, winning a bronze medal in the men's free pistol 50 yards team event. Wallingford competed in many British Empire shooting competitions, becoming the rifle shooting champion on six occasions and twice winning the pistol shooting championship.

Wallingford also won an unusual shooting event in 1908, known as the 'Mad Minute' shooting contest, he hit the bull's-eye 36 times from 300 metres away, in sixty seconds, earning the title of the human machine gun. The acclaimed sport shooter lived a long life, before passing away in Auckland in 1944 aged 72.

The various disciplines of shooting are a sport that flies under the radar in New Zealand, however a little research revealed that shooting was one of the inaugural sports held at the first modern Olympiad in Greece in 1896. Two competitions took place, with the staging of the rapid fire pistol and the military revolver competition.

The 1896 Olympics attracted some 245 men who competed in athletics, cycling, fencing, gymnastics, swimming, tennis, weight lifting and wrestling. Sailing and rowing events were scheduled but were cancelled due to inclement water conditions.

Further research revealed that 43 separate events were contested, with a couple of them being one-handed weight lifting and the one hundred metre swimming race for members of the Greek navy, attracting only limited participation.

The World Athletic Championships are currently taking place at Dohar in Qatar, which are a super stratosphere away, from the inaugural modern Olympics in 1896. However what inspired the IAAF to take their pinnacle event to a country, where the temperature reaches over 100 degrees fahrenheit during the day, at this time of year.

The authorities have ended up in a bizarre situation where events such as the marathon and the 20k and 50k walking races are starting at 1.30am to combat the heat and humidity, devoid of spectators.

It would appear that money and political considerations outweigh what is best for the athletes?