Olympic Cavalcade

II8 - OLYMPIC CAVALCADE ahead of Scholz, U.S.A., Ali Khan, France, and Murchison, U.S.A. That final was far from satisfactory. When the m~n were all set for the start, the clerk of the course cautioned Paddock not to put his hands over the starting line just as the men were about to start. Murchison, Edward and .Ali Khan, all accustomed-to conventional !llethods of starting, expected ·the order to stand up and were either arising or right ba·ck on their heels when the starter fired his pistol, and although Scholz led Edward by two feet at the half distance, Kirksey and Paddock closed on them, for Paddock to beat Kirksey by a foot. The trouble, however, was that Edward's hamstring had already been strained;. and when he came out for the Final of the 2oo metres, four ·days later, his leg was heavily banaaged, and for the first fe:w yards out of his holes he positiv~ly faltered. Then he settled down to his running, and succeeded in beating Murchison for 3rd place, a very gallant performance by a man who was obviously in great pain. _ Mention has-just been made of Hill's 1-500 metre victory. His oth12r win was_ at 8oo metres, but there again I think he shared the glory with Earl Eby, -Bevil Rl,l.dd··ancLEdgar Mountain. Rudd was at _that time perhaps the most outstanding of the great middle-distapc~ men produced by Oxford Univer– sity, but he-was -~outh African born, and so lre elected to run in tlle green and golCl col<;m} s of South Africa. I doubt if they have ever had a better man to bear the ~pringbok ba_dge. They·were·a!J grea( runne:r,:s that compete~d jn the 8oo metres Final on 17 August. Hpl r_an.a :._c6nsistent race throughouno win from Eby: in I _ min. 53·4 secs., with Rudd 3rd and-young Edgar M_ountain, who was-really per~aps a thought t0o;¥otJ.ng for such a big straifl as Olympic competition, 4th. In that race, moreo~e"F, Rudd struck a bad patdi 1n the track and -so severely wrenched his ankle that there seemed some d_ouot as to whether he would be able to starfin the Final of the 400 metres, which was run-late on the-afternoon of 20 August, especially as he had been beaten in the first s~mi-final heat by N. Engdahl, ef Sweden, in the fast time of 49·4 secs., while Butler, of Cambridge, Rudd's great ~ival for so many years, liad succumbed to F. J. Shea; U.S.A.~ in 5o secs. in the second heat. _ Rudd, however, whom the American coaches considered the greatest short middle-distance runner th~y haa ever seen, ignored the injury: fie had incurred in the 8oo metres ~inal and once· again defeated his ·.old -inter– varsity oppo.i1ent; Guy ·Butler, in 49.6 secs; Engdahl was 3rd, Shea 4th, Ainsworth-~avis, C.U.A.C., a·most surprising runner, 5th, whHe the ·other South African hope, H. Dafel, was 6th. All the Finalists had had to. defeat the best from F ranee, Scandinavia and the great British Dominions to reach that final. • Percy Hodge~ ofGreat Britain, added more laurels to those already r:eaped by Hill when he ran away with the 3ooo"metres Steeplechase. Then came another duel between Nurmi and Guillemot. This time, in the IO,ooo metres flat;however, the Phantom Fiim was not to be caught napping. From the outset he stayed back and let-the-Frenchman make the pace and this