ALFRED SHRUBB'S DISQUALIFICATION.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 277, 18 November 1905, Page 4

ALFRED SHRUBB'S DISQUALIFICATION.

«> SUSPENDED FOR MALPRACTICES LONDON, October 6. A great sensation was created the day before yesterday in athletic circles by the announcement that Alfred Shrubb, the fastest runner in the world, had been .struck out of amateur sport, and compulsorily retired by the Amateur Athletic Association. By that body he has been found guilty of malpractice, and has been permanently suspended. " It is the old question of expenses," .says one writer on athletics. " Runners of great athletic ability, but with limted means, have many temptations placed in their way by men who ought to know better. Cracks of the socially humble class are excused from paying entrance fees, are 'franked' on their travels, and made the guests of wealthy sport promoters and patrons of fashionable hotels. Some of these things are permitted by the athletic parliment, but others are not. There is a clause which distinctly states that ; any competitor who asks for or receives expenses ceases to be an amateur.' At a recent meeting of the A.A.A. it was held that Shrubb had broughthimself within the pale of this prohibition. It may strike the victim as strange that the ruling body gave him permission to go to Australia and New Zealand at New Zealand's expense, yet refused him permision to go to Canada, 'on his own.' Shrubb, who was originally a postman at Horsham, Sussex, has been^ England's foremost runner for years."