Olympic Cavalcade

I60 OLYMPIC CAVALCADE The Modern Pentathlon, instituted at Stockholm in I9I2, and won at every Celebration by a representative of Sweden, was won again in I928 by Sweden's representatives placing Ist, 2nd and 4th. Germany, however, took the 3rd and 5th places, and of the British team D. Turquand Young, who had been in the British team in Paris.in I924, was 6th. Lieut. A. A. Goodwin, the Army Pole Vault champion, was 22nd, and Lieut. L: C. East 25th. Eleven nations sent their full complement of three competitors per nation, and treating the competition as a team one the result would have been Sweden Ist, Germany 2nd, Holland 3rd, Italy 4th, Finland 5th and Great Britain 6th. The Modern Pentathlon comprises: I. Revolver Shooting (snap shooting at 25 metres),-20 shots with the competitor's best hand. This section was won by H. Hax, Germany. 2. Swimming 300 metres Free Style, in which E. Pagnini, Italy, beat S. A. Thofelt, Sweden, the ultimate winner of the whole Pentathlon. 3· Epee Fencing, won by H. J. G. Gensen, Denmark. 4· Cross-country running, won by S. Szelestowski, Poland, and 5. Cross– country Riding, 5000 metres, won by I. Berg, Sweden. Allied in my mind with the Equestrian and Modern Pentathlon contests is Polo, which had figured only three times in the programme since the revival of the Games in I896. In I908 Great Britain won the tournament, and was again successful in I92o, whereas in I924 the Argentine had gained the victory. But there was no Polo, unfortunately, at Amsterdam. The Olympic Regatta was held at Sloten, a few miles outsideAmsterdam, over a course of 2000 metres, which is I mile 427 yards of perfectly straight rowing. Britain was well represented, and the standard of British rowing upheld by our Eight, Light Four, Pair and Scullers. Great Britain was represented in the Eights by the Thames Rowing Club, whose fine crew had been coached by J. Beresford Senr., and was beaten by only half a length in extraordinary fast time by the United States, represented by a Californian crew (Stalder, Brinck, Thompson, Dally, Workman, Caldwell, Donlon and Blessing [cox]). They returned 6 mins. 3·2 secs. as against the British team (West, Beresford, Killick, Lane, Gollan, Badcock, Nickalls, Hamilton and Sulley [cox]), whose time was 6 mins. 5·6 secs. The ISt Trinity Four, coached by Dudley Ward (Bevan, Beasley, Waniner and Lander [stroke]), returned 6 'mins. 36 secs. to beat United States (Bayer, Heales, Miller, Karle [stroke]) by one second. The Single Sculls was won by H. R. Pearce,Australia, in 7 mins. II se~s. from K. Myers, U.S.A., but T. D. A. Collet, Great Britain, did well to wtn the race for 3rd place in 7 mins. 56·4 secs. from L. H. F. Gunther, Holland: In the Pairs Germany (B. Muller and K. Moeschter) were much heav1er than the ~ritish pair (R. Nisbet and T. O'Brien), whom they only just beat by half a length in 7 mins. 6.4 secs. U.S.A. defeated Italy for vd place. In Pairs with cox Switzerland, showing 7 mins. 42·4 secs., defeated France and Belgium, and in Fours with cox succumbed to Italy in 6 mins. 47'8 secs.