The Washington herald., 1914-08-09

Twenty-three months hence athletes
representing the nations Of the world VIII
meet in Berlin in the sixth revival Of the
Olympic games. but one would think the
games were only three months away TO
look over the foreign papers and follow
the preparations that are being made for
the games. During the past few weeks
most of the Continental countries have
conducted their championship meetings
and in every instance the performances
were better than one year ago. And with
the continued influx OF American trainers
the performances will be even better next
year. The athletics in countries that do
not have American trainers will learn up
to-date methods by watching the athletes
who do receive the modern Instruction
There are many athletes abroad. es-
pecially in the little northern country
of Finland. who are now as good as the
trainer in Finland to develop the sprin-
ters that state would be one of the
strongest of all athletic nations. In the
Baltic championships, in which the ath-
letes Of Russia. Finland. Sweden Den
mark and Germany participated, Finland
proved to the world she is coming along
fast. Myrae, a Finn. threw the javelin
the unheard Of distance of aI feet Z
inches. and Petoner, another Finn, threw
Lne spear IetL Inc OlNl
pic record is 800 feet. made by Sartisto.
also a Finn. Nicklander. of Finland, won
the shot put with a feet s inches, and
the 5s-pound weight with Is feet 3
inches. Lilyejerb, a Finn. Of course, won
the broad jump with y feet inches,
and Nystrom. another Einn. ran 1000
metres in 3 minutes and 20 seconds
Nicklander won his third championship
when he hurled the discuss IA feet 10
inches. Tunles, a Finn, won the hop,
step and jump with A feet II inches, and
Peterson. a Finn, too. threw the hammer
ISL feet 10 inches. When one considers
that these athletes have learned all they
know through their own endeavors one
can also see that a great improvement
could be made IL these athletes were
taught the finer points of athletes. For
instance Nicklander.- the shot putter.
stands perfectly still when putting the
shot, and yet got the missile out more
than ~ feet. There are only two Amer
leans who can do better than that and
they have the best Of FORM
Sweden won most of the events that
the Firms didn't grab. Reimes, Of Swe-
den, won the high jump with s feet
inch; Gille, Of Sweden, took the pole
vault with 12 feet 5 inches: Zerton, OF
Sweden, ran OF with the 100 metre hur-
die in 50 seconds and Wide, of Sweden,
won the 800 metres in 1-7 and the 1,50o
metres in L09. Termstrom, OF Sweden,
won the 800 metres in 40, and Zander.
of Sweden, finished first in the 5,Oo0
metre race in 1875. Nortin. Of Sweden,
won the high hurdle race in Is 2-5 sec
onds, and Alex. Ahlgren, Of Sweden, who
a few years ago won fourth place In the
nine-mile race on Lancaster avenue, won
the marathon In 236S2. Germany won
the two sprints with Hermann. who ran
the 100 metres in 10 As seconds, and the
200 metres in q 2-5 seconds, with Kern,
OF Germany, second In both races. Ger
many also won the 400 metre relay race,
clipping out the distance In q 4-5 seconds
As may be surmised. Russia and Den
mark did not score a point.
Finland cannot compete in the next !
Olympic games under its own flag. so
the Finnish athletes, as much as they
detest Il, will compete under the Rus
sian flag Bohemia Is another country
that will not be able to fly its own nag
in the next Olympics. They will COM
pete under the flag OF Austria
There were no good performances IN ]
the walah championships Jacobs won