New-York tribune., 1908-08-10
COMMENT ON SPORTS
MR.. SULLIT4N,S RETURN.
A Pleasanter aspect OF the Carpenter
Incident ReUeated.

:, :. "a sa boned that James Z. Sullivan
.a. of 4ba Amateur Athletic Union ano
"A American commissioner to the olympic gafnes'
bras said the last word upon the nhioi euiia'o
sdisputes and chickering's that marked the eieA'
.,,ae,s,g IN the stadium ct Shepherds Bush
ir5e said a good DEAL but acquaintance win
AR sullivan and with the splendid work ne
s,as done for amateur sport in this country
loads inevitably TO the opinion that he coaio
t,ar5lv have said less To him. rather IMAM
70 any other man. its official Representa-
tive the nation had TO look for true anu
faithful account of how its a'hletes VIC
,ea.es and no man was better ouallhed 10
give such an account. That duty ne mas per
formed with direct statement, and with no
raincing OF words with certain couhseis ioi
future meetings. and it were well now 10 let
the disagreements of those two weeks IN July
be forgotten as speedily as may oe
One thing that Mr. Sullivan explained is par
,;c,,larlv worthy of note He has at last mace
:, clear that there was official objection 10
The decision of the judges that there had
been q foul in the 4o0metre race II
seems almost certain, from what MT SULLIVAN
Pay Fvry and other experts nave sald' 10
sav nothing Of the testimony OF Carpenter
Robbins and Taylor. that there was as
matter of fact foul. but as MI SULLIVAN
,,roperly says that is not the question 1he
unfair the decision may seem. the good sports
,,o- x.,fr never dispute the word of the judge
., = or,estion Of fact. On questions OF inter
pretation OF rules, however, dlhereht at1-
tude may properly be taken ana IL was TINS
phase of the question that aroused pitter
Feelings after the 4oe-metre race Inc
settled precedent, and presumably the
actual rule of the Olympic games, is that
runner committing a foul should be dlsqudi-
fed. In the discretion of the officials now
ever the alternative course of declaring the
race void and ordering ii TO be run over may
be followed There is no precedent, however
.c- ,7,souaJfving any one of the original
starters from competing in the second run
ming of the race. After disQualify1ng car
r,enter the proper procedure would have been
IN award the race TO Robbins, who was clearly
and cleanly the second man and beat Lieu
tenant Halswen to the tape in hard sprint
as shown in photographs. and to place Lieu
-enaut Halswell second and Taylor thlro-
While such action would probably have met
with aisapproval on the part OF the Ameri-
can athletes IL would certainly have been en-
tirely within the rules, which the action actu-
ally taken not
In some quarters it has been said that the
English press has shown no appreciation of the
work Of American athletes in the Olympic
games. Nevertheless it would be difficult to
Imagine more enthusiastic praise that was
awarded by the sporting writers in London 10
Forrest Smithson for his amazing feat in run
ming the 11O-metre hurdle race in Is seconds
fat. and Sheridan, Sheppard Ewry and Rector
have all received the warmest praise, with many
other Americans
1t was TO be expected that reports Of record
breaking by Walker the South African sprinter,
who won the 100-metre dash in London, would
soon appear. He was timed in 8 20 seconds
for one hundred yards on a Scotch track the
other day, and it seems that the timing was
correct in all probability. However, an expla-
nation was looked for, and Arthur Duffy the
first man in the world to one hundred yards
sn e3-5 seconds although his subsequent con-
fessions of Irregularities make this profess
sional record furnished it. 1t seems that he
has several times run or this track, and that
the last fifty yards distinct downward
slone Duffy says he was timed in Is sec
onds on the same track. but did not even ask
for investigation Of the record.
There are few finer passages in the annals of
sport than that which chronicled the victory Of
the Dixie II in the international motor boat race
for the Harmsworth trophy, in England last
year by MI SchroedeT's first Dixie. The victory
was one of grit and nerve no less than of ma
chinery for in the last miles Of the struggle,
with his boat travelling fast as many an
automobile on land, Captain Pearce. himself,
almost fainting from the sitting heat under the
Dixie's hood, and the noxious gases from her
engine steered her with one hand while with
the other he held up TO the freshening air the
head of his engineer, who had collapsed COM
pletely and become unconscious. 1t was sheer
human pluck that made the victory Of the Dixie
possible combined with the finest motor ever
put into a small vessel and the victory over the
WoIseley-Siddeley and the Daimler II, the Brit
ish challengers, was fitting sequel to the Olym-
pic triumphs
The defeat of Beals C. Wright by Raymond
D Little in the final round of the play for
the Longwood Cup last Monday was d stun
ming surprise to followers OF lawn tennis. Lit
tie has always been a dangerous player, but
even the match OF last week hardly serves
20 convince one that he is capable Of beat