The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-12-14


S. H Webb wins Veteran class, $500.
Dick Sullivan wins Open class, 1908,
H. M. Ayres, second, 1910.
The heavyweights were waiting round,
All eager for the start;
Each had a number pinned above
His large and manly heart.
But only three of them were there
The latest of the fat
And someone asked in accents loud
<'Where is that big bluff Matte"
They waited for another car
But Matthew never came.
~'Come on, 4" cried Charlie, "let US start
And don't delay the game"
Jack fred the gun and off they went
Adown the wide long street;
But Matthew Heffern was not there,
He must have had cold feet.
The great walking contest was pro-
nouneed by the hundreds, almost thou
sands, of spectators who congregated
to watch it, as one of the greatest and
most successful sporting events ever
pulled off on the island. From the
starting point to the finishing tape the
road was thronged with spectators and,
during the omen class race, the COM
petitors were hemmed in and hidden by
the dense crowd of watchers who fol-
lowed them on foot, on horseback, In
buggies and in automobiles.
At the finishing post the crowd was
so dense that it was all the police could
do to clear lane for the walkers. The
finish between Sullivan and Ayres was
so close and exciting that people were
pressing forward and craning their
necks to see which one of the mighty
athletes would force himself onto the
tape the first. Sullivan, by pure con-
dition and wind, gained on Ayres in the
last few hundred yards and passed the
post a winner by several yards and ex-
aetly seven seconds in time.
From start to finish the pace was
heartbreaking. So terrific was 1t that
the field was very soon spread out ike
the tail of a comet, with the shining
bald pate of the Methuselah Britisher
flashing in the lead and the bright
green running pants of the winner, be-
low and slightly behind, to add variety
to the coloring of the scene.
Sam Hop Leads Start.
Sam Hop dashed to the front when
the gun was fred, setting a fearful pace
that he was unable to keep up for more
than a few hundred yards. Then came
Cheathem and Fahy with Ayres and
Sullivan rapidly climbing up on the
leaders Before a quarter of a mile
had been covered Ayres and Sullivan
took the lead and Sam Hop had given
Mace TO Cheatham who was strldlng
easily and with little arm movement.
Hang Chack came up about this time
and took fourth place to Cheatham,
then came Sam Hop, Fahy, Bill Huihui,
Henderson and Oscar Lind with the re- |
corder of events struggling half way
between them and the big bunch of the
field. all massed in a crowd of flashing |
legs and arms in the rear.
Each walker had some friend to /
cheer him on, either on foot or IN /
buggy. The crowd seemed to sympa- |
thize with Dick Sullivan and the lead
ers were hemmed in with automobiles
from which excited spectators, many OF
them of the fair sex. cheered the ath'
letic boxer on to victory.
Bv the time the car line was reached
where it turns from the rice slOughs in
To the Waikiki road, Ayres and Sulli-
van were neck and neck hundred
wards ahead of Cheatham and Hang
Chack a hundred yards behind him.
Sullivan Spurts.
Then it was that Sullivan began to
spurt. In magnificent style, with arms
keeping an easy accompaniment to his
flashing stride, Dick literally spurned
the road from him and shot ahead of
Ayres while the crowd roared with de-
light. Ayres had some more shots IN
his locker but he thought that Dick
could not make the pace last. That
was where he was wrong.
Without the least slowing of his
speed. Sullivan kept going, and, try
as he would. Ayres could not catch
him. The latter finished with per-
fectlv wonderful burst of speed, but
Dick was too far ahead and the best
the Britisher could do was to close the ,
gap appreeiably before the tape was
reached.
Cheatham followed fifty seconds
later, and the recorder of events,
wantonlv called the jingler by SCOT
fers. having discovered that he was
really in good condition, had passed :
eight or nine contestants and came IN
a bad fourth Just thirty seconds after
Cheatham.
,Fahy. Hang Chack and Sam Hop
with only a short distance
between them, then came a few more