NOTED GIRL ATHLETE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 November 1940, Page 8

NOTED GIRL ATHLETE

DECIMA NORMAN RETIRES. INTEREST IN SPORT WANING. Miss Decima Norman, winner of the Empire Games 100 yards, 220 yards, and broad jump, and a member of the successful relay team, has announced her retirement from athletics. “My reasons for retiring are many but chiefly because I feel that the interest has waned sadly in athletics since the Empire Games,” she said at Sydney. “I cannot feel that the New South Wales Association is progressing. “Tracks for club events are so bad in Sydney that a girl running for her club all the season is handicapped when it comes to championship events. “It would be all right to train for the championships only, but to me club life is a very necessary part of the enjoyment in athletics. I will train on Tuesday nights with South Sydney to help the younger members of the club, but I will do no more competitive running. “One thing I have a desire to go on with is the hurdles, but the tracks deter me.” Although she was a champion at school, Miss Norman did not become prominent until 18 months before the Empire Games. In 1936 she helped to form the Western Australian Women’s Athletic Association. During the Australian championships, in December, 1937, as, a guide for Empire Games selection, her spectacular efforts put Western Australia in second place to Victoria for the Mulcahy Shield.