ATHLETICS.

Evening Star, Issue 12868, 18 July 1906, Page 3

ATHLETICS.

Out London corresoondenifc writes : Australian and other athletes returning from the Athenian games have some quaint stories to teU of their experiences. TheGreek Sports Committee allowed a daily accommodation allowance of a drachma (6s 8d). Those accepting this were obliged to be housed at the CJornmifctee's discretion—or go elsewhere at tihedr own expense. And the rooms so provided contained seldom less than four beds, were frequently little better than cellars, and a&ounded in inhabitants decidedly athletic and very conrpeunonable! Mr Nigel Barker, who was one of the failures at Athens, blames the Greek climate for the poor show made by many of the "cracks'' appearing in th« Olympian games. He himself landed at Piraeus on March 1 weighing 10.12,' and lost 121b in the three weeks intervening between that day and the races. Mr Barker doesn't think the general quality of the racing reached a very high level—in faot,_ he is convinced that not one of the foreign representatives showed his true form at Athens. Perhaps, however, it would be best to let Mr Barker speak for himself. He says : _" Manr of the arrangements were simply shocking. It wouldn't be fair to say that it was all bad, but most things were muddled. The Greeks had no system, no method, and very little idea of rules. It was distanctlv a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth. The programme was vilely arranged. Races of widely varying distances came on ton of one another in a way which made it imoossible for a man finishing in one to immediately go out for anottjer. I myself found it so out of the ooestion that although I was entered for a number of events I only competed in two —the 100 and the 400. Heats were not 'drawn for'; the men were' selected'—at random! The programme was never adibered to, times changed at the last moment, for no perceivable and competitors not even warned of the change, so that a man calmly dressing for hk next heat came out only to find that it had aireaidy been run off in his afasence ' " The Stadium is the worst track I have ever raced on. The cinders are loose, unevenly laid down, and give no foothold. All the turns are sharo, and quite imsuited for sprinters. Still. I think we should have done very much better if we had been allowed to practise on the dium track, and so got accustomed to its peculiarities. But we were banished to a. small gymnasium, wnich was hopelessly impossible to run in at all! I don't thank any of us will ever forget the Greek ' starter.' He was unique. With his pistol outstretched above hi 6 head, amd his eyes fixed on the clouds, he would call out 'Ademi 5 ('Get ready'), and the word and the report were simultaneous. Till we got used to this many of us at first never got off the mark at all. But that never mattered. To the Greek mind a fair start was an unimportant detail V