OLYMPIC GAMES

Will the MARATHON RACE be a death race?

The athletic week of the VIII Olympiad will end this evening. The classic Marathon race, included in the program and which requires from champions the hard effort represented by the 42 kilometers of the course, is the event of the day.

The suffocating heat that we are experiencing draws attention to this competition, the severity of which will be aggravated by a dangerous temperature. The organizers understood this by adjourning at 5 p.m. 30 departure, which was announced for 4 p.m.

Is this provision sufficient? This is the question that arises.

Already yesterday the Olympic cross-country, which the Finns won, with Nurmi in the lead, ahead of the United States and France teams, put several runners in great danger. One of them had to be transported, in poor condition, to Beaujon hospital. Out of forty starters, three quarters gave up asphyxiated by the heat.

What can we not fear with a race four times as long? Excessive temperature is a case of force majeure. Has the Olympic protocol provided for cases of this type?

Accidents that could occur and there is no need to run the Marathon to be exposed to them would not fail to be exploited against the sporting idea itself.

On this point, it would be prudent to take precautions.

MARCEL DELARBRE.