SEX AND ENDURANCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20924, 14 July 1931, Page 7

SEX AND ENDURANCE.

WOMEN'S PART IN SPORT. AUSTRALIAN CONTROVERSY. [from our. own correspondent. ] SYDNEY, July 2. The controversy that has raged in England, according to cable messages, as to which is the hardier sex, has spread to Australia. Australians,, by the way, arc always glad to discuss any. subject that will distract them from the prevailing depression, so it- is not any wonder that they have entered whole-heartedly into this one.

Although some Sydney authorities claim that women can stand up to some endurance tests better than men, experts like Professor Harvey Sutton and the Olympic swimmer, Dr. Keith Kirkland, claim that women lack the explosive energy of the male sex. Professor Sutton referred to long-distance flying, Channel swimming and endurance swimming generally, as well as alpine climbing, as pursuits in which there was, perhaps, equality in endurance powers, but in ventures where sheer energy was required, such as sprinting, jumping, hurdling and speed swimming, men, he thought, had an advantage of about 25 per cent.

Dr. Keith Kirkland said that in endurance swimming he was satisfied that, women were better than men—an advantage that had come to them through carrying more fat and wearing fewer cjtOthes,; so strengthening their powers of resistanto against cold water. But in general,' Dr. Kirkland added, men could stand up to sport, with its hard knocks, better thaji most women.

On the other hand, Miss Rose Stone, vice-president of the City Girls' Amateur Sports Association, said:—"ln sports in which women seriously compete they can stand iqA to all the tests and hard knocks equally a's well as men." Miss Rose Goodman, who is stroke of the New South Wales champion women's rowing four, said: "Girls would collapse if they had to put into sport the same physical strength as men put into their 'games." \ Apparently there is a great, deal to be said for and against, and if ' the public has been anxious to form an opinion it has ' not been greatly helped by the controversy, for each side has been Very busy.