WOMEN ATHLETES

Evening Star, Issue 19050, 19 September 1925, Page 21

WOMEN ATHLETES

INTERNATIONAL CONTEST AT STAMFORD BRIDGE. We live in a progressive age, and I think the modern sports girl is bringing back a thrill of romance into a very work-a-day world (writes a correspondent of the London ‘Observer’). And the great crowd at Stamford Bridge seemed to think so, too, yesterday afternoon, when the very flower of the sweet young womanhood, headed by the R.A.F. Band, marched past Lord Docies. Our British girls were splendid, and the young, htho-limbed, sunbronzed Amazons from Czecho-Slovakia looked very fit, but about the Canadians there was something of the wonderful mystery of a young nation that has but recently come to birth.

At the head'of the Canadian team marched Molly Trinell, their captain, the Red Ensign surcharged with the Arms of Canada draped about her strong young shoulders. _ A sweetly beautiful girl this, but with an air of serious gravity, which not only marked her own* sense of the responsibility that was bors, but winch, to me, seemed also to epitomise the steadfast purpose of the strong young nation she and her sisters had been called upon to represent.

The great athletic struggle for points and placings followed. On the track, over the hurdles, and in the jumps Great Britain proved supremo. In the throwing events the Czccho-Slovakians were equally unbeatable, and yet one felt that one feat of all stood out above the rest. That was the remarkable javelin throwing with the right band of the sixteen-year-old M'Gill University student, Clara Ballard. She threw the spear, held in the middle properly and with surprising grace. She was beaten on the aggregate of both hands, but with her right she reached nearly 95ft, a throw many an English athlete would be proud of. Then there was Joan Godson, another Canadian, who was placed third iu both the shot put and discus throw.

The real thrills of the afternoon came, however, when two new world’s records were set np by two British girls —Vera Palmer winning the 250 metres in 35 4-ssec, and Edith Trickey the 880yds in 2min 24scc.

The result was an emphatic victory for the homo team, who, securing the lead with the decision of the first event, steadily drew away from the two overseas contingents and amassed a total of 56 points. The Canadian girls for a long time hold second place, hut the Czecho-Rlovakians, by dint of their prowess in field events, eventually became runners-up with a total of 26 joints, Canada being a close third with