Athletes Numerous There.

Waipukurau Press, Issue 9, 26 January 1906, Page 3

Athletes Numerous There.

—o—- — are scarce in Persia, according to an explorer, who reports that there are no theatres there. The Persians, however, delight in athletic sports, and their athletes are men of superb physique. Their methods of training for feats of strength would, nevertheless, hardly commend itself to British trainers. Before giving their displays in public, Persian athletes lie in bed for several days to store up their strength. Queer as the custom is however, there is no question that the Persian Sandows and and Samsons show enormous strength and endurance. In the arenas in which they perform they will go through their exercises in the way of swinging heavy clubs to the accompaniment of music for two hours at a time. In fact, there is a club-swinging competition, the athlete who holds out the longest winning the prize. In wrestling, too, they perform extraordinary feats, cases having been known of Persian champions who have wrestled with and overcome more than twenty powerful antagonists during a single athletic display. Such performances are as popular in Persia as are bull- - fights in Spain.