Athletics of To-Day 1929

The Distances-2 to 1 o Miles IOI hour before it was to be run by trotting a steady two miles. Later the same evening he turned out for his second race and appeared munching a large apple. The American track " fans" sat back flabbergasted, and the coaches prayed under their breath that no young Am ricans would mulate such madness-but urmi won ju t th ame. His str ngth and his Bi ft. stride corned all opposition. To att mpt to argue how he would have fared against such m n as W. G. eorge or Alfred Shrubb at their best is as profitless a trying to solve the problem of what would happen if an irresistible force should meet an immovable object. No one of them lived in the same athletic age, and that is all th re is to it. "Chesty" Joie Ray has been a big disappointment to FIG. 7. America at two Olympiads, but the fact of the matt r is that he could not get acclimati ed in Europe, add d to which his best distance was un– doubtedly two miles, and there is no 3,000 metres individual race in the Olympic programme. In 1924 he el et d to go for the 1,500 metres, and in 1928 it was the Marathon Race that attracted him, but at neither distance could h mak good. That such an athl te should turn to the Marathon i amazing, for he has h ld the Ameri an half mile title one , the mile ight tim , th tw mil s (indoor ) twice, and th five mil s one . Th U. .A. mil r cord of 4 mins. 12 s cs. still stand jointly in urmi's nam and hi , but th r is an amu ing tale to t 11 f the day he br k hrubb's two n1il s' r cord of 9 mins. 9~ s c ., which had tood in e I 04 and was till the official r cord until Wid r n i cs. fast r in 1926, b cause ay' rac was run on an indoor board tr ck, and, th refore, n v r w nt on to the b ok . Four lap from home on that occa i n ay was ov r two seconds behind hrubb's tim according to hi schedule. t that p int Eddi May , his trainer, who us d to hold the watch at all Joie's races, tore up