Sport: Petkiewicz Barred

''Suspicious." The executive committee of the Amateur Athletic Union sitting in conclave in the Woolworth Building, Manhattan, dwelt on the word. They were talking about Stanislaw Petkiewicz, Polish runner, beater of Paavo Nurmi, who had asked for permission to run in U. S. meets (TIME, Dec. 30). Had some promoter asked Petkiewicz to come over? Was he really interested simply in finding how law —his chosen subject—is taught in U. S. schools? Who were his friends? These questions, to the executive committee presided over by a serious man named Avery Brundage, seemed far more important than whether Petkiewicz could cover ground farther and faster than some other European runners whom they had invited for this season's indoor races. They decided that the adjective they had chosen applied to "the circumstances surrounding his visit and his actions since arriving." Without further explanation, they barred him from U. S. amateur events.