The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-04-20
AMATEUR ATHLETIC { SEASON BLOSSOMS
 DURING THE WEEK
Several Important Races Scheduled-Big Pennsy Relay Carnival Will
 Close Week

New York April 19.-The present week
 will usher in the 1914 season of amateur
 athletics with events of unusual import
 ance Today will witness the running of the famous annual Boston A. A. mara
 thon race and on Saturday the week will
 close with the yearly relay carnival of
 the University of Pennsylvania at Phil adelphia, which assumes an international
 aspect due to the presence of the Ox-
 ford university 4-mile relay team repre- senting England in the premier event of
 the days programme. These games all
 ways attract a large gathering of athletic
 enthusiasts to Franklin Field. but the pres
 ence and personnel of the Oxford team
 Is such that the meet is of extraordinary interest this season.
 In this race which is for the four
 mile college relay championship of Amer lea, 10 colleges and universities have en-
 tered teams to run against Oxford, mak- lrg field of Il teams or A runners, each
 or whom will run one mile. Both east
 and west is represented, since the list includes Harvard, Cornell, Chicago, Penn
 sylvan1a, Princeton, Colgate, Dartmouth
 Pennsylvania State, Ohio State and Bos-
 ton college. Large as this field is, how
 ever. Oxford is the logical favorite, since
 S.
 tenn and unusual circumstances the Eng
 lisL university has team of remark
 able mile runners garnered from several
 parts of the world.
 The Oxford team, which consists of Ar
 hold N. S. Jackson, winner of the 15OO- metre race at the Olympic games at
 Stockholm in 1912; Norman s. Taber.
 Rhodes scholar from Brown university,
 Providence. U. s. Az c. M. Sproule,
 Rhodes scholar from Australia; D. N
 Gaussen and c. S. Robinson, both young
 English athletes of noye, Is a combina-
 tion of unusual merits. Every runner on
 the team including Robinson, who is sub-
 stitute. has a record better than min-
 utes 30 seconds for the mle The latest
 test of the form and ability of these run
 ners was in the dual games between Ox- ford and Cambridge at the Queens club in London on March 27. This meet was held on track and field heavy with the
 rain of storm which continued for several days previous to and during the games. Notwithstanding this handicap the Oxford runners showed remarkable form in the long runs.
 Jackson won the mile run in hollow
 fashion in minutes 23 15 seconds with ont being pushed at any point in the
 race. Robinson set the pace during the
 early laps but dropped out on the back
 stretch after he saw that Jackson was
 a sure winner Sprouts won the three fulle race, with Gaussen second, five yards
 in the rear in II minutes 34 4-5 seconds. new record for these games The first mile was run in minutes fl seconds, with Jackson and Gaussen trailing the field. The only disappointment was Ta- bers failure to win the one-half mile race. The American was selected for this event because Jackson and Sprouts were considered sure winness in the one and three-mile races. respectively. Taber was defeated by 12 yards by Atkinson of Cam bridge in i minute 56 2-5 seconds Taber and the winner had a neck and neck race for almost the entire distance and the result was in doubt until the American cracked near the finish while Atkinson had just enough reserve to stagger across the line. Since their arrival in this country the Oxford representatives have been train- ing at Brown university, and will leave tomorrow for Philadelphia for a final ta- pering off in condition. Their work at the Providence university track has been both fast and consistent and while the American college entrants have all been training hard for the race there does not appear at this time any practice rec ords to warrant the belief that the Ox- ford four will be defeated. Should any of the teams entered arise to the occa- sior as American athletes have a habit of doing, it will be one of the most not able victories of the 1914 season of sport