Evening star., 1932-07-27
OS ANGELES, Calf, July 26.-
More than 40 nations and close
upon 1000 of the worlds picked

Y OS ANGELES, Calf, July 26-
More than 40 nations and close
upon 1000 of the worlds picked
athletes now face the last week
Of training for the greatest of all Olym-
pic shows.
The curtain lifts on Saturday with
the opening day march and on Sunday
the competition opens, featuring the
10,00o-meter run.
This will be a week of interesting
developments all along the line. What
about Nurmi, for example? Will he be
allowed to run? If he is reinstated or
approved, what about the strained hga-
ment in his foot, where an Achilles
tendon blew up some time ago?
'Nurmi can run and win without any
feet" a leading German expert re-
marked And there is better chance
now for the flying Finn's entry to be
accepted than there was 10 days ago.
Nurmi has been limping and favoring
his sore foot ever since he arrived, but
even if he has only one leg he will be
favored in his two big races-the TO-
900 and the marathon.
A MOTHER feature this week will be
N the final bid of United States track
and field coaches to have the team
on edge after the massive flops of 1924
and 1928.
One would think that with Metcalfe,
Tolan and Simpson for the 100 and
200 meters, with Carr and Eastman for
the 400 meters, the United States would
be fairly safe up to the middle distance
runs.
Yet foreign experts who have been
around for 20 years believe the United
States will have carload of trouble
on the track outside of the 200-meter
test, where Metcalfe. the colored cata-
pult, is conceded a big edge. They give
us only fair chance at the 100 meters
and less than a fair chance at the
400-meter whirl, in spite of all the nice
things that have been written about
Carr and Eastman.
MOST of the outside experts pick
lV1 Rampling of Great Britain for
the 400 meters, Hampson Of Great
Britain at 800 meters and Lovelock
and Thomas over the 1,500-meter path.
Those who have seen these men run
believe any one of them can travel
| close to world record time And world
record time after the strain and the
trial heats OF an Olympic test will be
hard to beat. The British middle
distance men are all strong runners
and stamina plays a big part in the
aftermath of killing heats. This means
that Carr, Eastman, Genung and Hal
lowell will be put to a smashing test
after what happened on the fat at Paris
and Amsterdam.
Considering these opinions, it is no
part of a certainty yet that the United
States will get any great revenge for
/ 1924 and 1928, although the outlook
| is bright for at least two victories. I
don't quite see yet how any one is going
to run away from Metcalfe and Tolan
In the 100 and 200. And nothing short
Of a new record is going to stop Carr
and Eastman at the 400 distance. Even
q new record may not be quite fast
enough II Carr can hold his edge and
big Ben can report with most Of his
old fuel restored. At least there can
be no complaint II this quartet isn't
good enough.
CWEDEN is ready to answer the chal-
- lenge in the pentathlon. And it Sc
happens that Sweden has in tht
man-mauling event the greatest recorc
of Olympia.
The pentathlon was started at Stock
holm in 1912. That year Sweden I'm
ished one, two, three.
In 1920, at Antwerp, Sweden agar
ran one, two. three. The same thini
happened in Paris in 1924. At Amster
dam in 1923 the SMedes xan one. EEo