ATHLETIC TOUR

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 31, 5 August 1936, Page 20

ATHLETIC TOUR

JAPANESE TEAM

N.Z.A.fcA. TO NEGOTIATE

. A recommendation that steps should be takento secure a joint tour of New South Wales and New Zealand in 1937 by a team of; Japanese athletes on the lines set out in the report of a subcommittee -was adopted at a meeting of the council of the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association last night. ,It was decided also to enter immediately into negotiations with the Now South Wales authorities on the question of the tour. - . - -

The sub-committee, which comprised Messrs. H. I. Austad,' H. McCormick, and F. M. Reid, reported that it felt it was very desirable that a tour of New Zealand by overseas athletes should take place in 1937, first, because it was the association's jubilee,year, and second, because it was a free year before the British Empire Games at Sydney in 1938, and such a tour, would enable New Zealand athletes to try themselves out against the athletes of another country. GUIDE FROM OLYMPIC GAMES. . Mr. Austad said that the association must be guided by the results at the Olympic Games,' now being held in Berlin. , These results would show whether the Japanese athletes were up to standard for the events the association desired them to compete in in New Zealand. If there was a good half-miler, contests between him,- V. P. Boot, and other New Zealand athletes would be a big attraction. The most successful tour by an overseas team the association had had was that by the Americans, Jackson Scholz and Lloyd Hahn, and the reason was that New Zealand had a first-class athlete, R. A. Rose, to put up against Hahn. ,Mr. McCormick said that the New South Wales jumper, J. P. Metcalfe, would be sounding out the Japanese at Berlin and he thought that much would,' depend on what Metcalfe had to sayl -