The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-13
By JOHN O'BRIEN Leased Wire to Age.Heraldl ]

COLOMBES STADIUM, PARIS, July 12.-On field that danced and shimmered with the waves of terrific heat, Harold M. Osborne of Chicago captured the Olympic Decathlon cham pionship Saturday aftwnoon and Elm erson Norton of Geof getown university contributed further points to Americas towering total by taking second place. Klumberg of Esthonia wes third. Osborne established a new worlds re- cord of TITO points.
 The heat was so fierce that specta- tors among the 10000 in the stands were toppling over from time to time all through the days program and sev- eral of the athletes collapsed in the contests on baked plain within the en- closure. Nevertheless, three world rec ords were smashed, one of them three times.
 Swedes Fan Out
 Four members of the Swedish team went down from sunstroke and over extertion in the 10000 meters team race in which the United States ran second to Finland. Sweden's greatest athlete, Wide, cayed in and three others quickly Topped. They were Ebelin, Turesson and Bergstorm. Turesson was
 
 doctors had given him two hypOdermic injections hush fell ober the crowd as the word went around that he had just an outside chance to recover. The other three were still in the hospital when night fell.
 The America runners although vast ly outsidstanced by the incomparable Paavo Nurmi of Finland, took second place in the team scoring because Earl Johnson of Pittsburg was the tn D l individual to finish. coming behind Nurmi and Finland's other great dis tance man, Willie Ritola. No other na- tion had more than one man in the scoring positions; Harper or England being fourth, and Lavaux of France, fifth. Nurmi so outclassed the field, even including Ritola, that he finished 300 meters ahead of Willie. The Amer ican runners were able to go to the dressing rooms under their own steam, although they were almost exhausted.
 Runners Fall
 There was one moment in the last lap of the long struggle when the track seemed to be strewn with the bodies of beaten runners who 'wilted and flop ped into the cinders under the ter rife strain. Ambulances clattered over the infield picking them up and hustling them to the first aid stations.
 The trainers were not surprised to see men in first class condition going to earth that way for they saw an explanation in the arrangements for the race. The men had gone six miles over rolling country in the open and then entered the stadium where the breeze could not furnish any fresh air and tried to finish with a sprint in a killing atmosphere. Marchal, the greatest distance runner of France, col lapsed only ten yards from the finish and made subconscious effort to claw his way across the line on his stomach. His twitching- muscles failed, however, and he was picked up almost within jumping distance of the goal.
 Finland Scores Big
 In the scoring of the 10000 meters, . both individual and team marks count. Finland therefore profited greatly, for she won 10 points with her team score and 15 more for the individual accom- plishments of Nurmi and Ritola. In- cidentally, this was the third contrib ution of 10 points that Nurmi had made to the Finnish total, shed first in the 5000 meter team race trials.
 Nurmi's time in the 10000 meters was S2 :54 4-5.
 Hubbard Hurts Heel
 A stone bruise on the heel of De Hart Hubbard, the negroN athlete from the University of Michigan, cost the