Athletics of To-Day 1929

The Marathon Race 119 ordinary gameness. A medical examination showed that the Italian's heart had been displaced more than half-an-inch, and for two-and-a-half hours he lay at death's door, but the next morning he looked as fit as ever. An extraordinary picture of Dorando finishing his plucky effort is No. 3, Plate IS, but how little he suffered in the way of after effects may be judged from No. s, Plate IS, which shows him as his present, fat, well-seeming self at forty-four years of age. During the next few years an epidemic of Marathon and tt near Marathon" races swept over the world from Madison Square Gardens in New York to the banks of the Nile. Three important races were held in New York. In two of them Dorando beat Hayes and in the third was conquered by Longboat. Afterwards all three of them were beaten by St. Yves, a stoutly-built, short, and slightly bandy-1 gged French runner, with the heart of a lion, who, like Dorando, was a waiter by occupation. They in their turn all met Alfred Shrubb and w re beaten by him up to twenty mil s, although Longboat beat him over the Marathon run, Shrubb becoming sick and collapsing in the twenty-third mile after leading by a mile most of the way. Shrubb and the u experts" say that he was running beyond his distance when he attempted Marathon races, but Harry Andrews, who had much to do with the making of Shrubb, holds that the great little man would have been a marvel at the long journey if he had turned his attention to it earlier in life. The Olympic Marathon Race at Stockholm in I9I2 was a triumph for South Africa and America, for although the Dominion placed K. K. McArthur, a big, up-standing runner, first, and little C. W. Gitsham, second, the Unit d States, out of twelve men who started, placed ten in the first ighteen, G. Strobino, a hitherto unheard of runner from Pet rson, New Jersey, being third, and A. Sockalexis, a Greco-Am rican, coming fourth. On this occasion McArthur was nearly robbed of his victory by an enthusiastic, but foolish, sp ctator, who threw over his shoulders a h avy wreath of ev rgreens as he ent r d the stadium; and the day after the race