GIRL ATHLETES

Hokitika Guardian, 25 March 1931, Page 5

GIRL ATHLETES

SYDNEY CONTROVERSY RENEWED COMPETITORS’ COLLAPSE. SYDNEY, March 12. The collapse m uu competitors in the v2oyus running event at tlie New cion in wales athletic ciuimpionsmp meeting last Saturday has caused a re. newai uj the controversy on the question whether attdetics impose too severe a strain on girls.

it was at me request of .the girls themselves that the 200yds event was included in the programme. Tile Association considered that the distance was too long for girls, and that a race of tuat description was far too strenuous. That view finds support in Saturday’s incidents. Miss Phyllis Galling collapsed when 100yds had been covered, and Miss Heather Kennaby with the tape only a few yards away pulled out and fell over the line exhausted. Doctors who. attended the girls were of the opinion that the furlong races were too trying. Then followed an agitation for the deletion of the event from future programmes, and there are many lor and against this.

xn the opinion of three Sydney women doctors, 220yds is not too great n distance for nny woman to runin a race provided slip, is properly trained and in normal health, Quo of them said that the girls who collapsed on Saturday could not have been properly trained. Of course, exercise beyond the capacity of any individuar athlete, man or woman, might cause athlete’s heart later on. That was the only likely result in later life as far as medical science knew. Dr Marie Hamilton, of the- Board of Health, said that medical research into the effect of strenuous physical exercise on women had not been pursued to any great extent, but she thought that no ill effects were likely if women Were trained properly and the conditions under which they raced were ordinarily favourable. Another member of the Board of Health. I)r Sandford Morgan, said it was almost impossible to state whether ill-effects were ..to be expected from racing because proved theories for and against were almost equal in number. The winner of the race on Saturday, Miks Clarice Kennedy, one. of the most successful .women athletes competing in Australia to-day, said that the whole trouble lay in girls not being properly trained. Any girl prepared in the correct manner lor a 220yds race could see the distance out without suffering any distress. It now remains for the Association to decide whether the furlong event is to he retained. The women Qle bound to clamour for it still*