OLYMPIC TEAMS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16706, 25 July 1928, Page 7

OLYMPIC TEAMS

DUTCH ARRANGEMENTS AUSTRALIANS “FED UP” COMPETITORS HANDICAPPED. (Elec. Tob Copyright— Uniled Press Assn. (Australian and N.Z. Press Association. (Received July 25, 11 a.m.) AMSTERDAM, July 24. The Australian athletes are going to the Lloyds Hotel, where the British and New Zealand Olympic representatives are arriving on Friday. The remainder of the Australians, with the exception of Pearce, will also be taken to Lloyds the day before their respective events. Mr. Duff explains that he has given the Velserbeek Hotel a fair trial, but it is too loud, and the rough journeys daily are extremely had for the competitors. He is greatly handicapped by the extent to which the team was committed before its arrival in England, and is naturally finding difficulty in cancelling unsatisfactory contracts with regard to quarters and transport, especially as he was not consulted in making them. Indeed, this unfortunate error of judgment in the selection of quarters robbed the Australians of all the advantages of early arrival, in view of the fact that the Canadians and Mexicans are within a stone’s throw of the •Stadium, and others within easy distance.

The claim that suitable quarters could not be found in Amsterdam seemed indefensible. It was not overmuch to say that the. whole team was thoroughly fed up with the unsatisfactory arrangement,. Though the (four fit athletes would henceforward be better off than a lot of the other competitors, they would not be greatly improved as a result of the, Velserbeek experiment, which resulted in wasted time and late and irregular meals. This was hard on highly-strung athletes, and ought to have been ended days ago.