Rowing and Track Athletics (extract)

Track Athletics seconds, made at the English championships, in 1884, which was at that time a new record for the world. The fastest amateur mile that has yet been run was that done in 4 minutes I sf seconds, by T. P. Conneff, at the New York Athletic Club track at Traver's Island, on August 28, 1895. So far as the record books go, therefore, America can claim the fastest amateur mile; and yet Con– neff was born in Ireland, and he had run on the other side before coming here. Our next fastest mile, 4 minutes 21f seconds, was made by George Orton, and he came from Canada. In England, on the other hand, a number of men have done 4 minutes 20 seconds in the mile, and at the Eng– lish championships in I 902, for instance, J. Binks won in 4 minutes 16-g- seconds, the second man was only one yard behind him, and the third and fourth men both finished within 4 minutes 20 seconds. Of the American runners who have attained distinction in the long or middle distances, and proved an exception to our ruling mediocrity, Lawrence E. Meyers was first, both in point of time and in merit. Meyers was essentially a runner of the middle distances, and certainly one of the fastest all-round runners that the world has ever seen. He was an athlete of indomitable · gameness, and there was none of the shorter distances at which he was not always willing and ready to compete. He made records in the