The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • 28

picf Aj rn a a J-C' mm lJ Munich what a 1 menoiay place says RON CARTER destroyed by allied bombs during the War Today though it still has that old pre-war look Friendly happy prosperous a city of beer and bosoms That's the way a West German described his home city of Munich to me a few days after my arrival I've since found out how right he was Those nine words sum up perfectly Munich the capital of Bavaria and the host city of the Olympics Ask any Munchener about his beer and he'll tell you it's liquid food There are seven breweries operating here to make sure no-one goes Because beer is rated as a staple food neither the breweries nor the drinkers pay tax on it Before the Olympics Munich was best known for its Oktoberfest which makes it a beer paradise for 16 days each year Beer lovers the world over flock to Munich to sip a few steins This festival starts after the Olympic Games on September 23 and if It is anything like last year more than one million gallons of Munich for two years and no-one seems to take much notice any more except the visitors Munich with a population of 14 million is the smallest city to hold the Olympic Games since the end of World War Prices are high however and it is easy to understand why they say Munich is the most expensive city in West Germany The cost of flats is enormous The 6000 high-rise flats now being used by the Olympic athletes will sell for at least 960000 after the games Most of them are nothing to write home about either a very ordinary type five-room apartment Yes prices are high Rents are 500 per cent higher now than 10 years ago Almost 45 per cent of Munich was blasted and Australian water polo team members Robert Menzies and David Wood receive a typically friendly Munich welcome from Marian Munnik-Huizea beer will be drunk by the Munch eners ana their visitors At the height of the festival 750 stalls will serve beer at one fair ground alone There are big heads on the beer out this mean you are being cheated Lines are marked on the litre and half-litre glasses about an inch and a half from the top and as a rule beer is right up to this line Of course most famous beer drinking spot is the Hof-brauhaus which can accommodate almost 5000 drinkers Drinking begins at 9 in the morning huge halls are filled with smoke and the long tables packed with happy people While the brewery companies are making money hand over fist the bra manufacturers must be going broke Bras have been out in 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 LONDON HELSINKI WEBSTER The Muncheners rebuilt their town al most stone by stone They restored their famous old buildings rebuilt the statues and fountains in every plaza This is why Munich was the last or the Ger man cities to recover from war damage It's a thriving busy place its night life is Rlentiful and it is the ub of several giant industries Munich is the home of Siemens the electrical equipment manufacturers the headquarters for BMW cars and motor cycles and for the AGFA photographic company Munich is the place most Germans would like to live The post war population was 480000 today it has climbed to 14 million and is grow ing by something like 40000 a year DEPOT 1551 TOKYO From JIM that the organising committee invited him here to Munich for the Games Foremost among his wishes will be the hope that he can see Ethiopia continue their dominance of marathon running Bikila won in I960 ana 1964 and Mamo Wolde in 1968 This year again they have a marathon team that expects to perform wonderfully well The runners themselves think they can take the first three laces but coach Roba not quite as optimistic and hopes merely for the winner Wolde though now in his 40th year is again their prime hope He has altered little since our last meeting In Mexico City a craggy little man who nine hunched over with more of a shuffle than a distinct gait Wolde is in good form having run three marathons this year with a best time of in Munich it felt like today yet it was August 20 1965 when national coach Neg-ussie Roba and I sat down yesterday morning to talk about marathon running The explanation is simple the Ethiopian calendar is seven years behind the Western calendar If only in reality they could turn the clock back those seven years because then A be be Bikila would be a whole man once again and not a tragic figure confined to a wheelchair Bikila the only person to win two Olympic marathons became a paraplegic in March 1969 after a car smash Despite treatment at the renowned Stoke Mandeville Hospital and unwavering personal courage it is unlikely that Bikila his spine still paralysed will ever leave his wheelchair Bikila made such a wonderful impression while he was running and Is still so well-loved April this year at their high-altitude capital of Addis Ababa Wolde's opinion is that if he win again there will be an unknown winner possibly somebody from Japan or England But apart from Wolde Ethiopia has three other strong chances in last East African champion Yitneberk Belete 25 their new national champion Lengisa Be-dane 26 and another experienced Olympic runner in Demissie Wolde 35 who Is not related Belete has done a marathon in 2:14:52 this year beating Mamo Wolde but at present is concerned with a leg injury and there Is some slight doubt about him even starting The four have trained hard as a team for this marathon and look better prepared for it than they did in Mexico City when they did so For four months before coming here all the distance runners in the team who lived near Addis Ababa trained hard together For the past two months they all came together as a group and had a month at a training camp at Deb-rezeit and another month at Asmara both high-altitude places So much so for the International Olympic Committee's rule that no team can train together for more than 60 days before coming to the Games But then Ethiopa is deeply conscious of maintaining her marathon reputation Initially it was triumphs that fired the nation with enthusiasm for marathon running on top of the fact that the people themselves have a natural love for running Roba used himself as an example I was a boy I lived two miles from school and would run there in the morning back home for lunch 1 then back to school and I home again later" He became an Olympic sprinter how far their distance men lived from school is hard to imagine But now the nation is so keen on doing well in international competition that sport was made compulsory in I schools three years ago with emphasis on distance running They are producing many good young athletes now and Roba forecasts that 50 per cent of their team at the 1976 Montreal Olympics will be products of compulsory school sport Bikila smiles broadly when he sees what he i began Official Suppliers to Australian Olympic Teams Since 1948 and proud of it MELBOURNE SPORTS First for Sport OLYMPIC ATHLETES CHOSE issSwSsssiS FOR THIS OLYMPIAD LEADERS IN THE FIELD OF SPORTS SOK Chosen by top 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