Los Angeles herald., 1908-07-14
BY Associated Press.

ONDON, July 13.-Rain greatly in
terfered today with the opening
- of the fourth international Olym-
pic games by the king at the stadium
at Shepards Bush. The attendance
fell short of expectations. In some of
the events the American contestants
appeared affected by the adverse
weather conditions, but in other
events, particularly the 15O0-meter
race, in which the greatest interest
centered, the men were up to their
form, and twice during the afternoon
the record for the distance was
smashed.
Melvin w. Sheppard of the Irish
American A. c. of New York was the
first to accomplish the trick, when, in
the second heat, pressed by his team
mate, ]. P. Halstead of the New York
A. c., he ran the distance in the splen-
did time of 4:05, just 2-5 of q second
faster than that made by J. d. Light
body of the University of Chicago at
the Olympic games at st. Louis in 1904.
The two Americans in this heat beat a
number of good men, including G. But
terrified, the English four-mile cham
pion, who finished bad third.
j. P. Sullivan of the Irish-American
A. c., and Lightbody, who were first
and second, respectively, in the first
heat of this event, took longer to cover
the distance, but they were not pressed
and doubtless could have done better
} il 1t had been necessary. Meadows OF
Canada set out to make the pace in
this event, but Lightbody went to the
front in the stretch and seemed likely
winner until Sullivan, with fine burst
of speed, passed him few yards from
the tape. -. s
The best performance of the day.
however, was that of M. G. HalloWs'
an oxford blue, who cut fuli Two SEE SCI
onds off the record, much TO the SUI
prise of everybody, as HalloWs alWays N,ass
had been at his best at the three miles,
while 1900 meters was considered 10 pc
short for him. He is now thought TO
be the most serious rival of the amer
leans in the finals of this event. whlcn
will be run tomorrow. !
Sullivan, Halstead and Iightpody
failed to qualify. s. L. Coe of the UNI ,I.5
Versity of Michigan, made a strong plu
for victory in the fourth heat, but ne
was unable to keep up with Il. LoIIey
Of england, although the time was hot
narticularly brilliant, Coe finishing sec
Ia THE other American, F. II. Riley
of the Irish-American A. e, ran uli.
nlaced in this heat, the third, Whicn
was that in which Hallows MADE the
record. a.,-nL
Americans Are Satisfied
The American team VI dllllCtCo - 49,
aotisfed with the results obtained on
the first day of the revival of Olympic
charnnionship games, having soltSn
two men, j. H. Sullivan and Melvin w.
Sheppard both of the Irish-Americ.atin
Athletic club, in the f1nal neat, Wnton
will he run tomorrow, of the 15OO-meter
,aca Thev were unfortunate, however,
In the first heat, when two OF thelr
hest men at the distance had to run
against each other, and these same
Conditions prevailed in the second neat
when ]. P. Halstead New fork an, All
1etic club. was beaten by his team
mariner, Melvin w. Sheppard, py haiL
The Americans point out the injustice
caused by the English drawing Ior
heats. as shown by the fact that Hal
stead, although he ran much raster
thon the winners of the other heats,
is eliminated from the final, as ne nm
ished second.
Charles NJ. Daniels, N. Y A. c., al
though entered in the 400-meter sWlm'
did not start, having decided to reserve
himself for the shorter distance
T. Bud Goodwin, N. Y. A. c., was the
only other American entered, but was
unplaced. A..
The other event of the day was the
four-heat tandem bicycle OF, 200 meters
and though some of the Americans :
were entered in this event. none OF
them reached the scratch.
An incident which Is causing much
talk in sporting circles is the failure OF
the Olympic committee to have either
\ the American of the Swedish flag dis
played in the stadium. The Americans
offset this omission somewhat by
bringing out some of their own stars
and stripes, but Sweden, although
Grown Prince Gustave was present, was
represented by single flag carried by
that nations athletes.
King Opens the Games
Shortly after 3 o'clock in the AFTER
noon the royal box, which mad been
fitted up for the accommodation of
forty persons, began TO MI up, the early
arrivals including the crown prince and
y princess of Sweden and their chlldren,
the crown prince and princess OF
Greece, the duke and duchess of Con-
naught and the duke and duchess or
Argyll A short time afterWard the
playing of the national anthem py
band of the Grenadier guards an
nounced the arrival of King Edward,
Queen Alexandra and Princess Vic
toria, with their suites, who mad peen
driven in state from Bucklnghan
palace. Lord Desbrough, chairman or
the council of the British olympic as.
ISOLATION, welcomed their maJest1es at
the entrance to the stadium and pre-
sented the members of the Olympic
council.
AS the king entered royal box a
bugler gave a signal, the gates leading
to the competitors quarters flew open
and the athletes marched out under the
banners of their respective nations. The
procession was framed in alphabetical
order, Austria leading, with the excep-
tion that the English speaking races
came last. This latter section was led
by an American team, with Garrels of
the Chicago Athletic association at its
head, carrying the Stars and Stripes.
The British colonies were directly be-