Olympic Cavalcade

LOS ANGELES, 1932 177 P. Edwards, Canada; E. Genung, E. Turner and C. Hornbostel, all of the United States. At I)OO metres Great Britain-and some other countries had big disappointments. The Empire had looked to J. E. Lovelock, of New Zealand; E. Ny, Sweden; P. Edwards, Canada; Eflgland to J. F. -Cornes or R. A. Thomas, and Finland to E. Purje,.M. Loumanen, or Harry . Larva; but no one, I think, had ~xpected Louigi Beccali, of Italy, to defeat Comes, Edwards, and the great American runner, Glen Cunningham, for the title in the new Olympic record time of 3 mins. 5I·2 secs. The 5000 metres might well have caused some trouble. U.S.A., Finland, New Zealand, Sweden and Germany all were well represented, in addition to which Lauri Lehtinen had at Helsinki on I9 June, I932, made a World's re_cord of I4 min. I7 secs. Acting on the orders ofhis coach, Hill, represent– ing America, slipped early between the Finns and held that position as he jogged alo~ behind Lehtinen, who set the pace. For eleven laps Lehtinen, Hill and Virtanen, also of Finland, were well out .in front. Then Virtanen faded and on the back stretch Lehtinen made a great effort to drop the Oregon shadow, but Hill stuck close to the Finn, whom he seemed about to pass in the home stretch. Lehtinen swung out from the pole and appeared to force Hill to break his st-ride. The latter. then tried to pass on the inside, but Lehtinen again swung in and they went over the finishing line in what to all.of the spectators seemed to be a dead heat, but the films of the electric timer showed that Lehtinen had won by a trifle. The Finn was most apolo– g<:tic if he had appeared to cause any interference with his rival, whotn he tned to draw up on to the. dais at his oy.rn level when he received the first place medal, hut in any case the new Olympic record rime of I4 min. 30 secs. was credited to both men. , At Io,ooo metres it was the Finns who got the unpleasant shock. There · were no British entries for this event, but Australia, Canada and New Zealand were well represented, as were Germany ·and Sweden. The Finns ha,d Iso-Hollo and Virt.anen, and no one believed when the Pole Janusz Kusodnski raced into the lead .at the very start of the race that he would ever hold it, but he cov~red I 5oo metres in 4 mins I'f secs., followed by .Iso-Hollo, Virtanen, Syring, of Germany, Lindgren, of Sweden, and S~vtdan, of New Zealand, who became very prominent later on. At the half dtstance Kusocinski, showing 14 min. 56 secs., was still in the lead, and after that Virtanen began to flag, and .Iso-Hollo and the Pole went on alone. All thro~gh the last lap the Pole applied pressure, and came down the home stretch l.tke a sprinter to win by IO metres in the new Olympic record time of 30 mms. n·4 secs. Virtanen was 3rd and Savidan 4th. The 3000 metres Steeplechase, for which there is no official World's ~ecord, ~~qvided an easy win for Iso-Hollo in IO min. 33·4 secs., with his e~low Fmn, M. Martilainen 4th. There was a curious circumstance about t~us race in which the runners covered one lap too much, so that the winner's tune Was approximately 9 mins. r8·4 secs. for 3000 metres. which would M '