The evening world., 1911-07-03
Great Performances In the
Championships Show That
America Still Leads the World
In AthIetics-Good Outlook for
Next Years Olympic Games.

TN spite OF a heat blast that struck
Pittsburg Saturday the national
e championship games on that after
noon brought out more great athletes
n great athletic performances than
any other championship meet Of former
years. II shove that the tremendous
interest aroused In athletic game IN
Europe during the past v years and
the hundreds of frst class athletes de-
vsioped IN Sweden. Finland. France.
Germany. Greece. italy and England
will not yet threaten American su-
premacy. American athletes are at least
keeping pace with the rest OF the world.
Almost all OF Saturdays performances
would have been phenomenal a few
years ago. Yet In very few cases were
tho winners far ahead OF second and
third men. Usually two or three were
close TO the worlds records. From the
the winners a team could be picked for
the next olympic Games that will be
held in Sweden a year from now-and 1t
would be q winning team.
The ls-pound shot put was won by
Pat Mcdonald. the gigantic Irish-Amer-
loan. who scales go pounds stripped
WHCu III COllulAloAAs bak " ~"
0 In. and could have done q foot or two
better II pressed.
The half-mile run was the greatest
contest OF the day. Mel Sheppard. In fine
condition. was favorite. but there were
many dark horses" The best Of these
proved to be Edmunson Of Seattle.
known In the East only by report.
Edmunson cut out a terrific pace from
the start. Shepard was far back in the
bunch. and In the first quarter was con-
tent to hold his place. But after that
he began closing in. Eddie Frick OF
the N. Y, A. c. was fighting It out with
Edmunson. In q last. fierce squirt OF
fully . hundred and fifty yards Shep.
pard closed In on the leaders. and his
team mate. Riley. came along behiad
him Brick was forced to drop pack.
Twenty yards from the finish the seat
tie man was stih leading. and It seemed
impossible for Sheppard to get him.
But Mel did. He passed Edmunson
and forged ahead a few inches. Game
TO the core. the Seattle man tried to
answer squirt with squirt, but he was
run out. and he fell senseless two yards
from tho tape, rolled over and missed
reaching the line by a foot. II he had
been able even to stretch out his hand
he would have been second. Riley sad
Frick passed before he recovered, III
was hard luck. after such a wonderful
race. There would have been only n
small fraction OF a second between the
time made by Edmunson and Sheppard.
had the former finished. Sheppsrd's
time. I'm. u LESS. was within 1 2-5s. OF
Lunghi's worlds record. And the track
at Pittsburg was laid by Mike Murphy
during the four days preceding the
games. What would Sheppard have
done on the Harvard track?
A MOTHER great race was the mile.
~ won by Kiviat. running far ahead
OF his field. IN the great time of
I minutes 70 3-6 seconds. Kiviat I'm
ished AZ strong as a horse, and had he
been pressed could have gone a little
faster.
Gwynn Henry OF Texas made good
by winning the 100 yards In even time.
10 seconds. beating Rosenberger by half
a foot. He Is a roundly built fellow.
fairly tall. with short legs that send
him bounding along like n rubber ball.
lie hasn't reached his speed limit yet.
Con Walsh's hammer throw OF III
feet ~ inches was a fine performance,
and McGrath and Ryan were close be-
hind. In the discus Sheridan had the
famous Sheridan luck" lie was last
until his very last throw. but. gathering
himself for the heave. managed to win
by . inches from Talbot. Second. third
and fourth man were within 2h feet of
sheridan's winning. l33.9n.
Gish OF Seattle ran a great quarter, ID
seconds. In the fve miles George Bon
bag showed his mettle. He was leading
by thre~e-Quarters OF a lap when the
last lap started. with th~ree-quarters OF
q lap to so. and running with the ease
and smoothness of a machine. Bonhag
stepped on the rail. stumbled, and strtk-
ing the rail with his right foot. sprained
his ankle badly. lie reeled across the
track. but kept on running and finished
in the fast time OF 25 minutes 60 2-5 Sec
onda II was n good exhibition OF game
ness. for his ankle VAS much swollen
aud infiamed.
THE pole vault showed that America
needn't fear the new l2-foot per-
former In Germany. Three mon
tied at u feet 6 inches. and Cook OF
Cleveland won when the three agreed
to toss for places instead OF vaulting Il
on.
The high jump performances were the
most remarkable OF the day. ten men
clearing 9 feet or more. Grumpelt and
Porter tied al 6 feet 3 inches. and Grum.
pelt won the jump of. A furious thing
happened here. for when the bunch tied
for third jumped off the tie Burdick o,
Pittsburg also reached 6 feet 3 inches.
Plat Adams had revenge for his one.
9th OF an inch defeat by Irons last
year. He won the broad jump with g,
feet. a very aIe performance, E.. ]
Eller tied his own record OF "a ass. IN
the low hurdles. Nelson Of seattl,
(these Western athletes are coming up
ran a hne 22O In p as.
snedigar OF San Francisco won tn,
j~aveiin. breaking the American record
with 1861 feet This compares well with
the performances OF Leming Of Sweden
worlds champion and record holder
Daa Ahearne's hop-step-and-jump o,