New Britain herald., 1928-05-01
BY ALAN J. GOULD

tASSoClated Press sports EdltOr)
 New York. May 1 Barring some unforeseen developments be- tween now and the first week of August the neetest array of middle distance runners in track history will toe the marks for the final of the Olympic S00-meter race at Am stordam.
 Picture the prospective struggle of speed. courage and resourceful- ness with these five stars alone in the final.
 Douglas Lowe. long stridng Brit ish stylist and present Olympic champion.
 Dr. Otto Peltzer, lanky German who holds the worlds record for both the half mile and 800 meters, at 1851 3-5.
 Lloyd Hahn, American ace who holds the worlds indoor half mile record of 1:51 2-5.
 Phil Edwards great negro star, American trained but an Olympic representative of Canada.
 Seraphin Martin. French sensa- ton, conqucror of Pelitzcr and credited with the fastest Soo-meter time of the past season. 1:52 4-5.
 Here are five runners all capa ble Of doing the 1900" in 1:52 or better q mark that has been beaten only once in all Olympic history. There may be other contenders including Ray Congcr and Ray Watson Of the American brigade. but the spotlight will be on the Big Five.
 Certainly this is the greatest as- scmbly Of half-milcrs for any race since the 1912 Olympics, but the competition may be no more thrill- ing than it was in the epic "S0O' final at Stockholm 1G years ago.
 That was the last time America captured this feature of the Olym- pic program, but the Yankees made a field day of it by putting six out of eight men in the final and finish ing 1c-3 as Ted Meredith. the 1s- ycar-old schoolNoy. beat Mel Shop ard and broke the worlds record.
 Swedish athletic sagcs are writ ten aronnd that spectacular strug- gle which ended with four Ameri- cans and the German star, Braun. separated by only seven-tenths Of q second in a dime novel finish.
 "As soon as the pistol was fired |" runs tho official story. Sheppard at once threw himself forward and led at an unheard- of pace. with Meredith and Braun as his nearest men. Sheppard's time for the 400 meters was 52 2-5 seconds. he then still keeping the lead. When the bell rang. Sheppard was still lead ing. with Meredith close behind him. On leaving the last curve sheppard still lay first, but now Meredith came with his spurt which brought him nearer and nearer to the leader. For moment II looked very possible that Braun would get to the front, but he did not succeed, probably mostly on account of the pace given to the finish by the phe- nomenal final spurt made by Shep- pdTI ana NtFcultl. davenport came on. too, in the last five meters. and then Braun was run out. He lost his stride and was within a hairs breadth of being beaten out by Caldwell on the very post. Meredith won the race by half a meter from Sheppard. who was only a hands breadth before Davenport. Meredith's time for the half mile (S04h metcrs) was Is. 1-5"
 Sheppard was thus baked by a narrow margin from accomplishing what no Olympic champion has ever been able 10 do-repcat his victory in a track race after four-year interval "Peerless Mel" had won the "soo" at London in 1908 out running Lunghi of Italy and Braun Of Germany. in the then worlds record time of f:52 4-5. and was th" fayoritn 'n 1912.
 N"rcdith's mission in that race was 70 push Sheppard and give the veteran as much pace as possible