Olympic Cavalcade

139 the flash of the starter's pistol to' the very finish of the race, although Fitch and Butler gave him a stern fight after Imbach had tripped over a lane rope and fallen to the track, and for the third time in ~twenty-four hour§ the world's record went by the board when Liddell won the Final in 47'6 secs. Fitch was 2nd and another U.S.A. runner, J. Coard Taylor, looked like taking 3rd place, when, like Imbach, he took a tumble over a lane rope and crawled over the finish line on his~ hands and knees to place 5th to Butler, Great Britain, and D. M. Johnson, Canada, who finished with a great rush. ~· The following Clay, Saturday, 12 July, found a couple of Americans cleaning up nicely in the Decathlon, which was won by Harold M. Osbprn, the High Jumper, with the worJGl's ~record score of 77,107'75 points from E. Norton, with A. Klumberg,"" of Estonia, v'd, A. Hunsart, of Finland, 4th and L. H. Yrjola, of Finland, 9th. - ~ It is, I think, well worth recording, for the sake of refuting~the statement~ that Americans are world-beaters because~ to esta,blish their records they s·pecialize in one particular event, that Osborn, who already helcl the Olympic record in the High Jump, returned the following performances: · roo metres, II'2 secs. Long Jumr, 2i ft. 8! in. Shot Put, n ft. 6 in. - High Jump, 6ft. 5 in. '400 metres, 53'2 secs. uo metres Hurdles, 16 secs. Discus,~ I I 3 ft. 7 in. Pole Vault, I I ft. 5 i in, - -- ' Javelin, 153 ft. 2! in. · I 500 metr~ 4 mins. 50 secs. On-that day, also, a very gre~t all-round ~port~man achieved a World's record for the Hop, Step and Jump on behalf of Australia..This man.w<}s .the famous A.~ W. (Nick) Winter. Nor· am I ever~ likely to forget the spectacle or the detail of his contest with. the huge Argentinian, -L. ~Bruneto; whose feet hit the track at each jumring stride like· the slamming of two ·boards, and the compact little Finn, V. T_uulos, who had won the event at 47ft. 7-in. at Antwerp. All five of the place'e!_ competitqrs be_at the previous Olympic record, and after Bruneto had .done so at 50 ft. 7-! in. he reached what looked like 53 or 54ft. bu! fell over backwards. Tuulos then cleared 49ft. 3f in. – and his fellow Finn, V. ~J. Rainio, only a quarter of an inch less, while Winter, :Vith a final astounding leap of 50ft. IIt in.; bea-t by ·that odd quarter of an mch the world record set up at New York in !91 r by the· Irish-American athlete, Dan Ahearne. · ~ ~ . The~thrill, the triumph, and it might have been the tragedy, of the day was m the ro,qoo metres Cross-country race. There were thirty.,nine starters and once again Nurmi a~d Ritola met, and this time in alarmingly hot weather to which all but fifteen of the runners were to succumb. Even some of those staggered blindly into the Stadium and CO!J1menced running the wrong way of the course. Others fell exhausted within sight of the winning post. · Paav_o Nurmi, looking as fresh as paint and breathing as smoothly as ifjust startmg on one ~f li~s famous training runs through the ·cool Finnish forests,