ATHLETICS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LI, Issue 16719, 2 May 1925, Page 11

ATHLETICS.

The amateur cross-country runners are getting down to training for the winter series of of harrier events, and the local club should get good fields on all the runs. The cross-country events have a very strong appeal for lads who may bo too light for football, and' who vet desire free outlet for their energies, and each year sees more athletes in training for this sport. Public interest, too, is on the increase, and there is a very substantial number of trophies promised to tho organisers of the club for competition.

A. E. Porritt, tlic New Zealand and Cambridge sprinter, had some amusing correspondence with the British Consul at Warsaw" over the statue of a runner, weighing about 301 b. So great was the pleasure of the Polish athletic authorities at the New Zealander’s breaking of the Polish record for 100 metres, at Warsaw, that they insisted on presenting him with a statue of himself wrought in marble. As he could not carry the object through Europe with him on liis tour, Porrit handed it over to the British Consul for safe-keeping. The Consul w r rote that, while quite willing to mind the statue neither he nor His Majesty’s Government could take responsibility, although he had no objection to its decorating his office. And there it stayed!