AMATEUR ATHLETICS IN UNITED STATES

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 99, 18 July 1927, Page 10

AMATEUR ATHLETICS IN UNITED STATES

BRITISH CHAMPION’S IMPRESSIONS Discussing his recent visit to America as captain of a Varsity athletic team, Lord Burghley, the famous English hurdler, gives some interesting impressions of amateur athletics in the United States. “The relay races are wonderful,” he said. “There are over 3,000 competitors, and they get through over 00 races in the two days. I w*as again greatly impressed with all I saw, and am still of the opinion that it is a splendid thing for Englishmen and English teams to compete in America whenever possible, as it does much to cement good relations between the two countries. “I was greatly impressed by the perseverance of the Americans in the face of terrible w T eather conditions. The rain simply poured down, and we had to run the hurdles on grass. These conditions quite upset all chances of creating any records. The day before we left we did lmin 29-10 sec, but could not get near that time in the open competition. “They have some most wonderful sprinters in the States, and men like Scholtz, Russell, and Lock are all capable of doing 9 7-10 sec for the 100 and 21sec for the 220. Despite the conditions, the finals of both relay races over these distances were wonderful, although, of course, the tira«® were slower.”