The Washington times., 1923-06-13

There Is every reason to believe
that II Charley Paddock decides to
grace the olympic tryouts next
spring he'll have use for every bit OF
the great speed that the watches
have credited to his sturdy limbs.
The a6nBwer Is: Lever, Of Penn
eylvania: LeConey, of Lafayette;
LOVejoy. OF Cornell; Clarke, Of Johns
Hopkins; Woodring, of Syracuse;
Michigan; Murchison, Of Newark A.
C., and Jones, Of the Illinois A. c.
every one OF them capable Of beat
ing even time.
In the quarter and haIf.mile
runs, too, the situation is de.
cidedlY encouraging. Against
positive donrth Of fast "44O" men
four years aEO, Uncle Sam now
has 8 flock Of them doing 40
seconds and better.
The fourth man through the tape
Ia the recent intercollegiate quar-.
ter.mile championship = Gage, Of
Yale--did 80 fiat, with Showers. OF
Williams: Taylor. of Princeton, and
WOodr ng, OF Syracuse, ahead Of
him. That's Olympic running and
no mistake.
For the half, an imposing array Of
runners. led by Allan Helffrich, OF
Penn State, who has done 1854 this
spring, are being groomed. Neither
will America be found wanting in
the l,6O0-meter distance, which 10
$50 yards short of the English mile.
Here, again, the United States 10
well fortified with the great Joie
Ray, Eddie Kirby, Of Cornell, who
beat 4:1S at the 'intercoliegi
Jimmy Connolly. of Georgetown;
Nal Douglas, of Yale, a sure 4:18-er
when he's not run ragged; Ray
Watson. capable Of beating 4:2o al
most any time, and Ray Buker, the
Chicago divinity student, who turn.
cd in 4:16 performance few
weeks hack.
One must bark back to the Stock
holm 1919 team, with its Jones,
kiviat. Taber and MADEIRA, to re-
call such wonderful string Of one
Wile runners.
Perhaps the most ENCOURAGING
phase Of the last six months ON
track and field has been the
demonstrated ability Of at least
four H1egD-StOF4s, Of Yale. Angler. |
Of IlIinola, and S0rrenti and Neu-
field, Of California, to hurl the !
speAr over 900 feet.
These fellows have started the |
ball rolling. They are the proto- |
types that win eventually lead |
Uncle Sam to the top of the heap. |
Il is not unreasonable to expect |
one Of the four to get the spear out |
30 feet next summer and when |
this thing happens, America will
have definitely arrived" in the
event In which our stalwarts have
Jagged. for no reason at all except
lack Of interest.
The weak spot in Uncle Sans
Olympic arnlor remains, as usual,
the longer runs. Here, again
Americas shortcomings are charge
able to lack of interest on the part
Of her athletes who prefer the
events that call Tor dash, skill and
agility to the grinding process of
the distance events.
II must be recorded that there is
but one fair distance prospect in
olght for 1924-R. Earl Johnston,
the colored boy, who wears the
colors Of the United States Steel
Corporation IN competition.
Neither can he. by any stretch of
the imagination, be rated as a
worthy opponent for such runners as
Nurmi and Rastus, the Finnish
champions, and Backman, the
Swede.
The last six months have seen
two superweight men make their
way to the front in the Eastern
meets-Tootell, of Bowdoin, and
Hills, Of Princeton. Tootell. little
more than a novice, looms up as
the greatest thrower of all time
He has made foul throws Of more
than 100 feet time and again and
needs but a moderate Improvement
in technique to wipe the existing
worlds record, held by Pat Ryan,