THE LAST WORD

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 381, 15 June 1928, Page 10

THE LAST WORD

A FLOATING track will move out across the Atlantic when the s.s. Roosevelt leaves New Yo.-k on July 11. The American Olympic team will be on board with every facility for practice that modern engineering and ingenuity can invent. An oval track exactly the length of that laid in Madison Square Garden for the biggest meets of the winter will encircle the main deck. Of a special composition of cork and linoleum, it will provide a splendid surface for the runners of the American party. It will measure 160 yards to the lap and be about eight feet wide. Two canvas tanks will be available for the swimmers. One, on deck, will provide facilities for sprinters and distance swimmers. Another, in the hold, will be built so that divers can drop through an open hatch into the bowels of the vessel. There will be rowing machines for the oarsmen. A small gymnasium will be completely outfitted with a ring for the boxers, mats for the wrestlers, masks for the fencers. Special mats will permit shotputting. And there will even be special javelins, with lines attached to them, so that they can be tossed out to sea and then hauled back on board. The vessel will be so equipped that the American team can stay on board and use the Roosevelt for living quarters once Amsterdam is reached. Because of the expected housing jam in Holland, this was planned as a particularly advantageous arrangement.