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Show EXTENSIVE ATHLETIC PLANS FOR SOLDIERS" Competition in All Branches of . Sports Is Sanctioned. Efforts Will Have Active Co-operation of the Various Welfare Organizations Organiza-tions With Authority From General Pershing. An extensive organized effort will be made to develop athletics in the American expeditionary force during the next few months. Through the organized direction of entertainment also it will be aimed to bring out and develop the entertaining talent the-army the-army nffords. The efforts in both these directions will have the active co-operation of the Y. M. C. A., the Knigjits of Columbus, Colum-bus, the Salvation army and the other welfare organizations, with authority from General Pershing. Competitive sports as well as purely-athletic purely-athletic exercises will be arranged in each division and corps. Official championships will be contested under rules to be adopted later in these-sports these-sports : Track and field events, baseball, base-ball, football, basketball, tennis, boxing box-ing and wrestling. Beginning with each company as' the-smaliest the-smaliest unit, there will be elimination contests in the organization all the way up to army corps. The company winners will'-compete in battalion events and battalion winners in regimental regi-mental contests. When the winners in each army corps are decided there will be final contests for the athletic championships cham-pionships of the American expeditionary expedition-ary forces, in which only the winners of divisional championships will be-eligible. be-eligible. All the team events will be conducted conduct-ed so as to make selections of onef athletic team from each of the First, Second and Third armies and two-teams two-teams from the service of supply, including in-cluding the district of Paris. Football teams will be organized to represent army troops, corps troops, division base sections of the service of supply and intermediate sections of the serv- ice of supply in the Paris district and the service of supply in the advanced sections. The boxing contests will .embrace-six .embrace-six classes featherweight, lightweights welterweight, middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight. . The elimination bouts will consist of three rounds each of three' minutes, with finals in the division corps of the army and service of supply tournaments of five rounds each. Boxing and wrestling tournaments must be concluded by March 31. Individual prizes will be awarded members of teams winning the first place in the divisional contests and to the members of the two teams contesting con-testing in the finals of the American expeditionary force championships, the prizes to be emblematic of service in. the American expeditionary force. |