THE OLYMPIAN GAMES.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LI, Issue 9140, 12 July 1906, Page 6

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES.

A BADLY-MANAGED MEETING.

CHAOS IN THE STADIUM

From all accounts it would appear that the management o£ the Tecent games at Athens was of a very loose nature, and before any civilised country sends a team to Greece again, a great many things, must • happen. The track was absolutely unnt, both in formation and shape— it was in j attenuated ellipse, with a soft chalk underlay beneath a thin coat of ashes. Not always the fastest runneT, but the cleverest at corners, ox the most unscrupulous, would win. The modern Greek is scarce"lv a sportsman as the world generally understands the term. He tries hard to playthe role, may be, and is full of the best intentions but with the exception of the Princes of the Royal house, who have seen what sport Teally is in other countries, he knows very little about it, and is perfectly at sea concerning details and technicaiities. Officials, judges, jurymen, timekeepers, lap scorers, megaphone operators/ bellringers, tapeholders, measurers, tefexees, clerks of the course, bottle holders, recorders, and point accumulators, formed an army imposible to count, and they were the only people who had a good view of the contests. Whenever anything was going on, the s«tted multitude made frantic appeals, in most of the known langu ages, to the officials to either sit ot lie down ; especially did these people appear in the road, -because they did little but chatter, and walk about, and gesticulate, - and shout incoherent nothings through the track. The judging was done on the free-and-easy principle.- Whenever a judge wanted a drink, or a nap, or something to eat. lit would liand over his goosing card to the nearest bystander. With a "just jot a few points down till I come back, old chap." he would stroll away, and would be next seen judging something else in another portion of the arena, figuring on some other thirsty soul's card. Some people got more fun out of watching the "judsing" than the racing. One correspondent writes : It must be

enid, to the credit of the Americans, that their judges Tefused to go on roving commissions. They stuck to the events in

which theiT men were taking part, and,

chnrniftd the Princes ever so nicely, with the result that whenever any question affecting their interests arose — and in this

athletically ignorant polyglot tribunal they were cropping up every minute — the Americans were on the spot, and, with tarue Yankee persistance, never failed to get their way. The curious spectacle "was afforded of Mr Halpin, the American athletic manager, judging and measuring the long jump, and deciding between his own man, Prinstein, and O'Connor, the Irishman, as to what was a foul and what was a fair jump. O'Connor avers that fee won. Meanwhile the eyes of the two English judges were glued to a horizontal bar at the other end of the aTena.