SOUTH AFRICAN ATHLETES

Evening Star, Issue 18808, 5 December 1924, Page 5

SOUTH AFRICAN ATHLETES

THEIR RETURN' FROM FRANCE. The Springbok team, on their return from the Eighth Olympiad, were officially welcomed home at a banquet at Johannesburg on October 4. The Johannesburg ■Sunday Times’ says that an essentially sportsmen’s gathering assembled at the Carlton Hotel at the complimentary dinner to the South African Olympic Games team. Lieutenant-colonel H. Nourse (chairman of the Olympic Council) prodded, and the attendance included His Excellency the Governor-ceneral (the Earl of Athlone), the Administrator (Professor J. H. Hofmeyr), Mr H. H. Sulin (the manager of the Olympic team), and the members of the team. Colonel Nourse, proposing the health of the GovernorGeneral, said it was the first opportunity they, as sportsmen, had of extending a welcome to H.R.H. Princess Alice. They were very proud of having a member of the Royal Family as the Governor-General. “I thank you on behalf of my wife and myself for the very kind you have honored us,” said His Excellency in reply. "It is hardly necessary for me to tell you that it affords me very great pleasure of haying the opportunity of taking dinner, with a gathering of South African sportsmen.” Many complimentary remarks were made about Colonel Nourse, the GovernorGeneral’s quota being :

“It is to a great extent due to Colonel Nourso’s untiring efforts that South Afri.'a has for the past sixteen years been represented at the Olympic Games. He is looked upon by the whole of .South Africa as the mainstay of amateur athletic sport and I feel we owe him a deep debt <f gratitude for his invaluable help, without which, I believe, it is generally recognised there would be no Olympic Council in South Africa. 1 congratulate Colonel Nourse and the competitors, not only upon the achievement of the team, but also upon the sportsmanlike way they have represented South Africa.” (Applause.) , , . Mr Sulin. who returned thanks, was subsequently presented with a silver tea and coffee service as a tribute to the excellent way he had handled the team. " Mr Sulin referred to the reports in the Press in regard to unsporting incidents on the part of foreign countries at the Games. He thought that many of these had l«en exaggerated. “Let me tell you of an incident that came to my notice, he said. “It was during the hamme • throwing, and the British competitor was disqualified with a ‘no throw.’ The Bnlish competitor, Noakes, although he knew that he was right, raised no objection, bat an American who saw the incident told the judge he was wrong. On this decision depended whether the Englishman was to go into the final or not, and its subsequent reversal on the American a evidence means that the competitor from that country was put out of it in lavor of the Englishman." (Applauae.j