Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-02-01


There was reason for that attitude,
for the runner was an awkward, thin
llmbed flaXen- haired kid-an Abo
grammar school youngster, just 10
years Of age.
For days the little chap had been
Fostering them to hold their watches
while he Circled the lumpy track
which SO recently had become the CEN
ter of-Aboian interest.
His had not been an unusual re-
quest. The urge to athletic conquest
had just taken hold of the little Baltic
nation. Only the year before the
latent ability of it's hardy sons had
been revealed to Finland by Vile
.Iaervincn, and throughout the land
there were ambitions to emulate this
newly acclaimed hero.
Record Stimulates Firms.
Vile Jaervinen, as the record books
will disclose, won the discus throw
Greek style) in the Athens Olympic
games of 1906 Some months before
he had come upon a discus and
through experimentation had learned
to scale the heavy plate great dis
tanCeS. He did not know the form
employed in modern discus tossing-it
was by sheer strength of arm that
no propelled it. But in Athens the
Greeks had insisted that not only the
modern but the ancient style of dis
Gus throwing be given a place on the
program and it was in the discus
throw Greek style)-an event no
longer found in Olympic. games COM
petition-that Vile achieved the
triumph which was to serve as the
incentive for Finland's phenomenal
rise to its present high place in in
ternational athletics.
Finland scarcely could wait for the
SHOWS to disappear in the Spring OF
1907 to launch an intensive campaign
III preparation for the London Olym-
pic meet of 1905. Running tracks
were staked out on the fields and
along the roadways; field event equip
ment, rudely fashioned, was set up,
and weekly meets in every hamlet be-
came regular feature. The en-
thusiasm Of the older athletes spread
quickly to- the youngsters.
Running Became the Vogue,
On Sunday afternoons in Abo every
schoolboy could be found perched upon
some vantage point in or near the ath-
letic field each studying the form of
some favorite as he scampered or
leaped TO victory. Throughout the
week the journeys to and from the
Abo grammar schools were not made
with tagging feet. The little Villes,
spotted one another en- route than
challenge was flung and a wild race
was under way.
In these impromptu races there was
one youngster who outfooted every
rival. With the speed of a whippet he
would dash from the starting mark;
in q. dozen strides he would be out in
front, and he would dance up the
school house steps yards ahead of his
rsiIy riN lG ay16 20
ugued by his effort. The same result
would come when those rivals de-
handed a head start" And the
Villes, Hannes, Jonnis and Marttis,
acknowledging his superiority and i'm
pressed with the speed of his stringy
legs, urged him to compete against the
older athletes in the Sunday programs
OF the Abo Urheilulfitto.
There was a understanding smile.
but a very positive shaking of the
head when this 10-year-old summoned
sufficient courage to ask the athletic
officials If he might race with the older
runners.
No" they replied, little boys like
YOU would get in the way and you
might get hurt. The older ones run
too fast"
Began Fostering Campaign.
The 10-year- old turned away and
reported to his waiting companions.
For two days they discussed the
case among themselves. They did
not know how fast the older athletes
ran. They must find out And the
next Sunday the 10-year- old was put
ting this new question to the Urheilu-
1iitto officials. When he had learned
the time made between this stake and
that stake-the stakes that marked
the 1,500-meter course-he was anx-
ious to learn the time in which he
could cover the distance, and then be-