Olympic Cavalcade

8o OLYMPIC CAVALCADE RowiNG: The Regatta, which lasted three days, was held at Henley~on~ Thames, commencing on 28 July. The weather was glorious for this con~ test of styles, as it proved to be. The rowing was of a very high order, Great Britain winnihg every event-Sculls, Pairs, Fours a,nd Eights. The outstand~ ing events being the Sculls and Eights,_and the outstanding competitor in the former, H. T. Blackstaffe. This man, in his fortieth year, had in opposi~ tion to him A. McCulloch (U.K.), who was a much younger man, and who was at one time during the event about 1200 yards ahead. Despite his years and weight, Blackstaffe caught and beat McCulloch, and won by 1! lengths in 9 min. 26 secs. Our representatives in the Coxswainless Fours were C. R. Cudmore (bow), J. A. Gillan, D. Mackinnon, and J. R. Somers-Smith (stroke), all of Magdalen College B. C., Oxford. The U.K. Four won from the Leander Club, U.I(., after ahard and plucky race, by two lengths in 8 min. 34 secs. The ~eander Club, however, were very lucky in the Eights, winning this event from Belgium by two lengths in 7 min. 52 secs. RuGBY: For the Rugby match between the U.K. and Australia the British selectors, rather foolishly, chose the English County Champions, Cornwall, to represent the U.K. despite the fact that only three of the Cornish XV had ever represented this country and, moreover, the Cornish team had but a little while before been defeated by the Australians, who subsequently won the Olympic match by 32 points to 3· SKATING: This event was for the first time introduced, experimentally, into an Olympic programme and foreshadowed the present Winter Games Section. It was carried out under the auspices of the National Skating Asso~ dation, at the rink at Prince's Skating Club, London, which measured .200 ft. X 52 ft., giving plenty of space for preliminary practice. Foreign competitors, nene the less, commenced practice some time earlier at the newly opened ice rink in Berlin. The events to be contested were Gentlemen's Figure Skating, Ladies' Figure Skating, Pair Skating, Gentlemen's Special Figure Skating, and no country might enter more than three for the individual events or three pairs for the Pair Skating. All details were carried out, so far as possible, in accord~ ance with the_regulations of the International Skating Union. Absentees, through illness, were Max Bohatsch and Fraulein Herz, who were chosen to represent Austria, and Torrome, who, although originally selected to repre~ sent the U.K., chose to represent the Argentine, of which country he was a subject. In these competitions the officials were chosen from the United Kingdom, Sweden, Switzerland, Russia, Germany, Holland, France and Austria. The Gentlemen's Competition in Figure Skating was won by Ulrich Salchow, Sweden, from H. Johansson, Sweden, and P. Thoren, Sweden. The Ladies' Figure Skating by Mrs. Syers from Ftaulein Rendschmidt,