ATHLETICS.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 224, 20 September 1924, Page 21

ATHLETICS.

I When entering for a sprint, Harold Abrahams carries with him a measuring string and a little trowel. Of course, these are not articles with which to han- himself 'and bury himself should he lose. All he does is to measure out j a yard in front of his foot-holes. Some I say it is to keep away spooks, but possibly the ritual helps him to obtain his correct balance before springing off the mark. Charlie Paddock, too-_has a pet eccentricity. He always touches wood and crosses his hands two or three times before a big race. When A. E. Porritt, the Rhodes Scholar, left New Zealand, he was regarded as just about the aveTagw class as a sprinter, capable of winning the Dominion championship over 100 yds and 2_oyd_ when the company would be regarded as "classy." At the championship meeting at Wellington,! February, 1923, he finished third to Kirlc-ev" and Carr, who ran almost a | dead heat in 9 4-ssec, a slight wind j favouring them. Coming down on the : boat the same evening were several, Christchurch men, some of whom had! competed at the meeting. Porritt's name was mentioned, and one of them remarked very insistently that Porritt would make a name for himself in England. "Hell be a great runner," he said, "when he settles down and gets into the game properly. Training and coaching wiE improve him out of sight." Those were neit his exact words, but they were the essence of his statement, and how well Porritt has come through is now well known. From being unknown outside the Dominion, j he is now famous. The London "Standard" classes him as one $f the 1 world* three best _s___t_rj> - <•