Olympic Cavalcade

SEVENTH OLYMPIAD, ANTWERP, BELGIUM, 1920 II5 agreed with me, but when the· Final came on Porhola, with whom I was talking only a few months ago in Helsinki, won at 48ft. 7-§-jn. from Nik– lander, 46ft. 5} in., and H. Li:versedge, U.S.A., 46ft. 5 in., with 'Babe' McDonald 4th at 46ft. 2-! in. The 5th place was taken by Sweden and the 6th place by Estonia, so that U.S.A. ·lQst one of the evtmts which had been their prerogative at all prevfsms Olympiads. The Northern countries representatives were at -last beginning to make their presence felt, not orily in the field events, in which they seemed to hav€ a peculiar genius, but also on the Jrack among the premier winners of gold medals. - _ "' _ There were upsets in what ~ome people had· held to be almost stone– cold c;ertainties, sueh as the I 10 metres High Hurdles. For that event )lie _ United States had in H. E. Barro.n, Feg Murray, Walker Smith and W. Yont, a quartette who, it seemed certain, must go through to the Final. Sweden nad a first-class performer in C. Cli.rlstiernsson and the British Empire held a really strong hand. In the first place there was Earl Tliomson, who had b€en ~ educated, coached- and trained at an American. school and ;!-12-iversity, and could, therefore,~ be claimed fairly as a U.S.A. -product, but who preferred to re.present Canada upon a l)irth qualification. There was H. Wilsori, a very good New Zealander, who-had. s_taye-d on in Englaf!d after the First World War; W. Bughes, of Australia, and H. ~J eppe, the Oxford Blue whG hailed from South Africa and rcin) n- their green and gold, Great Britain _ herself could provide-twq really'.good hurdlers in W. L. Hunter, the Scottish.. High Jump and-Hurdles champion, and G. H. Gray, the Salford Harrier, who had held English A.A.A. ti-tles for both 120 yards and440 yards Hurdles. There was_al~o a useful performer' in E. Dunbar. _ __ T.he semi-finals oL the High Hurdles toe..k place at 4.30 p.m. on 17 August. In the first heat H. E. Barron qualified with Walker Smith and Wilson in 15 :secs., which- equal1ed Forrest_Srnithson's Olympic record made in 1908. In tHe second sell}i-final Earl~ Thomson, _ a big;Joose-limbed lad,_finished ahead o{ Feg Murray and Christietnsson, the Swede, also 'jn I 5secs. 0- -~ _ - . But there was something ,;.,tong about that second heat; Thomson seemed to falter a~d to pretty well sit on the· top of a hurdle, although he struggled through to qualification. In fact a_thigh muscle which had been troubling him for some time had gone. It was only by th€ kindness qf Jack Moakley, the Cornell coach, who was looking after the U.S.A. team and sent his own satellit~ to put on hisfamous ~asket-weave taping, that ThomsQn Was able to compete in the Final at 2.30 p.m. on 1·8 August, which he woh from Barron; Murray, Wilson, Smith and Christiernsson in the new world's and Olympic record time of 14·8 secs. It wilLbe noticed that Christiernss-on,. _ the Swede, and Wilson, -of New Zealand, were al]long the placings. _"' · There were two more Finals that after-n:ocin. The J ong Jump was Won -by William Pettersson, now Williarn Bjornemann, a · prematurely born Swede, who had been a very delicate bo~ until he took up athletics_.