DIET AND ATHLETICS

Hokitika Guardian, 23 December 1931, Page 6

DIET AND ATHLETICS

FOOD AT OLYMPIC GAMES. ADVICE FROM RUNNER. “If New Zealand sends a team to the Olympic Games at L°s Angeles they should take their own cooks and their own food with them,” said Mr W. (Bill) Hunt, a well-known Australian athlete and holder of the half-mile record for the Commonwealth, who arrived in Auckland by the Ventura on liis way to Sydney. It is said that an army “marches on its stomach,” and it is just as true that for an athlete to give t of his best he should have the food and the cooking to which he had t been accustomed. The importance of the culinary subject, which is often lightly disregarded where athletes are concerned, is stressed by Mr Hunt. In America, lie said, no team, whether it was-of toptballei’s or of other athletes, ;,woulu travel without its own water, its own food and its own cooks. “I think that anv tqam sgnt.from here or from anywhere else ought to follow this example,” he said. ;

Mr Hunt travelled all over America on business, and lie was interested, on going to, Los Angeles, to. see. the- stadium where the Olympic Games are to be held. “The track is perfect,” he said, “and no expense has been spared. It is a. cinder track —and. by the way, because it is of cinder, it would be a good thing for anyone used to running on grass to go over a couple of months early, so as to get used to the track.” , The athletic world of America was as keen as mustard on the games. All those athletes who had any chance were going to California to train and rest. Simpson, the runner who was here a, little while ago, was there. “The Americans think that they will “clean up” everything this year,” said Mr Hunt.

ft was tin? football that kept up the interest in athletics in America. There would ho a gate of anything between 60,000 and 120,000 at a popular match, and from three to four dollars would be charged a head. Thus the athletic world was not short of money. Mr Hunt has retired from athletics. With him if has become a matter of business first. He was in New Zealand in 1928 with the New South Wales team. At one meeting in Sydney, the Dunn Shield meeting for inter-dub supremacy, Mr Hunt won all the .sprint events, and; the middle distance as well. The 100 yards he did in 10 1-5 sec. His half-mile record, is lmin 55 2-ssec.