Olympic Cavalcade

BERLIN, I936 209 P. D. Ward, all of whom reached the Final, while U.S.A. had Don Lash and L. Zamperini in the Final, but none of them could hold the flying Scandinavians, G. Hoeckert, Finland, 14 mitis. 22·2 secs., his countryman, Lauri Lehtinen, 14 min. 25"8 secs., the Swede, J. H. Jonsson, I4 mins. 29 secs., Murakoso, Japan, I4 mins. 30 secs., J. Noji, Poland, I4 mins. 33"4 secs., nor I. Salminen, Finland, I4 mins. 39·8 secs., who finished in that order, with L. Zamperini, U.S.A., 8th in I4 mins. 46·8 secs. Lash and the Englishmen were among the also rans. On Wednesday, 5 August, which was a day not kind to either athletes or spectators, the Stadium was again packed with people who wished to see Owens, who had become popular with the Berliners, win his triple crown. Up to that moment Glenn Hardin was the only white winner for the United States, but U.S.A. had captured 5 of the 8 events completed in the Stadium. The forenoon witnessed the preliminaries of the 110 metres Hurdles, the Pole Vault, the Discus and the I500 metres events. The Americans, hitherto so successful in all these branches of athletics, came thr_g_ugh about a·s expected, but there were points of great satisfaction for Great Britain and the British Empire. In the Pole Vault we had qualified for the Final at I2 ft. 5!in., F. R. Webster, who was to achieve I3 ft. I! in. in the Final, the highest vault ever yet made by a British athlete, and in the no metres Hurdles D-. 0. Finlay and the late J. St. L. Thomton, who held the English and the Oxford and Cambridge record of then I 5 secs. The Discus Throwers B. L. Prendergast and L. Reavell-Carter had both failed to reach the Final and in the I 500 metres S.. C. Wooderson and R. Graham, earlier British mile record holders, had failed to survive their heats, althougE. the two Oxford men, J. E. Lovelock, New Zealand, and J. F. Comes, Great Britain, both came successfully through to the Final. U.S.A. placed most. of her reliance upon Glenn Cunningham and Archie San Romani, but had in mind that Jack Lovelock had already beaten Cunningham and their former famous miler, Bill Bonthron, and if Lovelock failed they expected to see Wooderson win the Olympic championship, but Wooderson had damaged an ankle in training and faded out in his preliminary heat of the 1500 metres at Berlin. They had a respect, too, for Luigi Beccali, Italy, who had won the Olympic crown at Los Angeles, and Jerry Comes·, the Britisher who had hunted him home. Of that Final we ~ill talk in a moment. Meanwhile, the big field which was to walk 50 kilometres (3 1 miles 122 yds.) was off in fair weather conditions. There Were 31 starters, including the famous English walkers, H. H. Whitlock, T. Lloyd Johnson and J. Hopkins, and the most famous long-distance road men from Switzerland, Latvia, Czechoslovakia, Sweden and Italy. The Britishers might, I suppose, have done better than they did; actually th~ race ended with H. H. Whitlock 1st in 4 hrs. 30 mins. 41 secs.; A. T. Schwab, Switzerland, 2nd in 4 hrs. 32 mins. 9·2 secs., followed home 0