Los Angeles herald., 1908-07-15

II ONDON, July 14-America and
IL Great Britain captured most of
- the laurels In the first real bust
ness today of the Olympic sports.
Twice the Stars and Stripes fiuttered
to the top of the staff in the center of
the arena, and the American enthusi-
asts, who monopolized section of the
stadium, waved their flags and broke
out in cheers which in a smaller field
would have been deafening.
The honors were nearly even for four
of the events finished. The United
States and the United Kingdom each
won two gold medals. Great Britain,
however, took three silver medals,
while America got only one. Canada
Australia, Great Britain and Belgium
each obtained a bronze medal.
The Yankees had the hammer throw
to themselves, as had been expected,
and the performance of John J. Flan-
agan of the Irish-American A. Z. IN
breaking the Olympic record with the
hammer, and the almost equally good
record made by M. j. McGrath OF tne
New York A. C. were eye openers 10
the foreigners.
M. w. Sheppard of the Irish Ameri-
can A. c., however, did more spectac-
uIar work, and aroused greater oe-
gree of enthusiasm by crossing the
fame ahead of his English rivals in a
dashing finish to the 1900 meters run
This the Englishmen had counted on
for Wilson or Hallows, no propnets
conceding them any better than tniro
place.
To add to the satisfaction OF tne
Americans, the judges announced tnas
George w. Gaidzik of the Cnicago
A. G. had done the pesl WIN a.
fancy diving.
The british pedestrians had their own
vav On fine $500 meters walk. There
lwere no American competitors III LIE
event. $40 ~.
most cosmopolitan event of the day
T.. a. Wientz of the New YORK A. y
made a desperate effort, but ne wa
: unable to secure q place in the ma
snrint. The eight riders were wei
punched in the last lap, and II was
only in the final 100 yards tnat Tue
fight was decided.
mile team race were interesting. Inc
! United Kingdom was pitted agaills'
4 Italv. Holland and Germany In the hrst,
|, and in the second the Americans met
4 teams representing Sweden and France
Great Britain had WalKoVsr IN
the first heat four members OF heE
team running their opponents on their
! legs and coming under the wire elpoW
to elbow in slow time. 4.
The Americans set a faster pace IN
their heat, but on nearing the nnlsn the
Frenchman, Bouin, shot ahead OF the
field, and the best the Americans coulo
get was second and third places.
Tho Canadians, who were expected
To make a good showing In this heat
failed to appear. The final Will be cop-
tested tomorrow by the three trst men
, of each team. A.
The other interesting number on the
program today was the 66O-yafd cycle
race of which there were sixteen meats.
OF this number the United Kingdom
won six, France three, and America
!, her only entry being Cameron, VINO
won: Holland, Canada, AFRICA, Ter
MANY and Belgium one each. while one
! heat was void because the time limit
was exceeded.
Like Three-RIng Circus
The games were as bewildering to
: watch as a three-ringed circus At one
time a dozen bicyclists were wheeling
along the outer edge of the oval, while
twenty runners were racing on the
! cinder path lust inside of 1t, swim
mers with bright colored caps were
smashing through the long tank, while
on the green sward within members OF
the Danish and German gymnastic
clubs. arrayed in glaring white uni
forms, were performing spectacular
feats on the horizontal and paraiei
bars and giving exhibitions of calls
thenic drills.
Judges, scorers, trainers, timers and
rubbers of the many nationalities rep
resented swarmed everywhere. The
only disappointing feature of the exhi-
bition was the crowd in attendance.
The enormous stadium, which was
built for the accommodation of 10000
persons. at no time today held more
than 10000. There were great blocks
of empty benches and during the morn
ing session there were only few hun
bred people gathered through the
great expanse of chairs.
| Considering the English devotion to
sports and the generosity with which
the public responded to the appeal for
$4,000 by subscription, the small at
tendance is surprising.
II The weather, today was discouraging
to sport. 1t continually threatened to
rain and few light showers fell.
| Unless the attendance greatly in
creases the France British exposition,
which built the stadium and receives
70 per cent of the receipts, will be
heavy loser.
| The Irish athletes have expressed dis
satisfaction because the Olympic COM
mission has refused to allow them TO
| enter a corporate team on the ground
that ireland is not a nation, thereby
compelling them to compete as part
Of the British team.
| The Firms were anxious to parade
under the Finnish flag, but ias their re-
| quest to be allowed to carry IL was
vetoed by the Russian officials, the
Finnish contingent was the only one
that appeared yesterday in the process
sion without a flag, as they would not
| display the Russian colors.
/ The committee will consider the
American protest against the eligibility
Of Tom Longboat. the Canadian Indian