Los Angeles herald., 1907-08-21
TIMING OF RACES
is NOT ACCURATE
DIFFERENT RECORDS CAUGHT BY
TIME KEEPERS
Doubt Cast on Famous Records Owing
to Fact That Judges Frequently
Differ in Regard to Rum
ming Time

ST. LOUIS, Aug. 2O.-The recent ex-
hibition of timing that accompanied Carl
Forline's attempt at Central Y. M. c. A.
meet to set new mark for the lOO-yard
dash.- has caused the local followers OF
the cinder path to wonder as how au-
thentic are the local records.
In the 100-yard dash referred to hve
watches were held by as many officials
and five different records were caught
for the distance The watches ranged
from 10 1-5 to 9 3-5 seconds, and of course
the time adopted was the average, which
was more or less of guess
The natural result of this divergency
in timing and the other circumstances
has done much to cast doubt on records
made recently in st. Louis.
Especially has this applied to For
lines wonderful 40 for the lOO maze
at the NJ A. C. games. At the time
many laughed at such performance
and called it a mere spasm of rural
timing. but the man had faith in the
mark.
II was practically new set of officials
that caught the time at the Y. NJ. G. A.
meet. The old tried and trusty guard
that has been wont to stop the watches
on the runners hereabouts for the past
number of years were not concerned
in it.
But at that the fact that there is such
room for the personal equation in stop
ming a watch has led many to devising
some means of doing away with this
personal factor and placing the timing
on a more scientific basis.
In fact, the long continued wrangling
in the athletic world over the authen-
ticity of some amateur sprinting records
suggests the immediate need OF some
sort of an electric timing device to take
0F ctn hands
of human beings.
Although Dan Kelly of Portland. ore,
is credited with the worlds record OF
Q 3-5 seconds for the 100-yard dash, there
is hardly an eastern athlete or critic
who believes that Kelly ever did such
fast time. No one doubts the honesty
OF the western officials. but they at
tribute 1t to human fallibflity or mex
perience in timing races.
Many Fast Sprinters
Every spring there crops up all over
the country in preparatory schools, as
we'll as colleges and universities, about
a score of 10-second sprinters. Every
one of them is reputed to be able to
do even time or better on every at
tempt and the athletic world conse-
quently looks for a smashing of records
when these champions meet. This usual
lv occurs at the intercollegiate cham
pionships Great then is the surprise oc-
casioned when about half of these phe-
noms are shut out in the preliminary
heats in 10 2-5 and 10 3-5 seconds. They
keep dropping by the wayside in success
sive heats until the final heat is won in
10 seconds and sometimes 10 10 seconds
Now this proves beyond doubt that
there is something radically wrong with
the timing in the early races. IL is
probably not stretching the truth TO say
that not more than one man out OF a
hundred who handles a stop watch Is
competent to do it intelligently and with
accuracy. Yet if the meet is held under
the auspices of the A. A. U. and the
timers are regularly appointed. their an
nouncements must be accepted unless an
error is found in the distance or some
thing similarly wrong is proved. 1t Is a
notable fact that at practically every
championship meeting there is a differ
ence on the part of several of the timers
ir catching the sprinters. When A. Z.
Kraenzlein, the great Pennsylvania hurd-
Ter made his present world record OF
Is is seconds at Chicago three of the
timers got different results. One had
him in IL 4-5 seconds. one in 10 fiat and
another in Is 1-5.
According to A. A. U. rules, Kraenz.in
should have been giver 10 seconds, the
difference being split. Now there must
hav. been something wrong with these
timers for them to differ two-fifths of
second 1t stands to reason that the
watches themselves could not have ac-
counted for this disparity, so the men
who held them must have been at fault.
Timing sprirters and hurdlers is no easy
task.