Athletics of To-Day 1929

rr6 Athletics of To-day patriots knew no bounds. The time he took to cover 24 miles r,soo yards on the rough and dusty roads of Greece was 2 hours 55 mins. 20 secs., and when he trotted into the stadium the whole great concourse rose to him as one man. Women tore off their jewellery and flung it at his feet, a little urchin pr ssed forward with an offer to clean his shoes thereafter for nothing, and a hotel proprietor presented him with an order for 365 free meals. But for the int rvention of the Greek princes Loues might well have shared the fate of his great predecessor. But when the press of wildly enthusiastic spectators became too great the Crown Prince and Prince George of Gr ece picked him up and carried him away in their own arms. As the late Sir Theodore Cook remarked at the time" It had its comic side; but it was full of a deep r interest as well." The next Marathon Races were won as follows : rgoo, Paris (25 miles), Teato, France 2 hours 59 mins. 1904, St. Louis, U..A. (24 miles, r,soo yard ), T. ]. Hicks, U.S .A., 3 hours 28 mins. 53 secs. rgo6, Athens (26 miles, 385 yards), W. J. h rring, anada, 2 hours 51 mins. 23i secs. Then came the most sensational Marathon Race from Wind– sor astl to heph rd's Bush, London, in connection with the fourth Olympiad, and the 2,000 years' old trag dy of heidip– pides was very nearly rep ated. rior to the am s th I ing of Italy hims lf had xpressed to the Italian Olympic om– mittee his confidence in the prospects of i tri orando, a slightly built Italian waiter, born at arpi, Mod na, some twenty-three y ars earlier. orando had nev r b en b aten over distanc s in his own country and h d fini h d fir t in a Marathon ace at Paris in 1905. He was, howev r, dis– qualified on account of ome informality in hi ntry, a curious coincid nee in view of what was to f llow. Th -i nglish press prophets of that period pr dieted that ritish runn r would fill the first twelve places; but, in point of fact, the nly on who did anything like a prop r preparati n was ~ r d ord, of Bradford, who finished fifteenth.