Evening star., 1936-06-14
TOUGH TIME SEEN
FOR US. RUNNERS
No Cinch in Sprints and
Shedding Much Harder
in Longer Events.
BY GAYLE TALBOT,
Associated Press Sports Writer


~ ERLIN.-While Americas phe-
- nomenal collection of Negro
II sprinters has every reason to
- feel confident of sweeping
both the 100 and 200 meter events at
Berlin this Summer, it might pay not
to become overconfident.
There are some better -than-fair
dash men here and there in Europe
who would be delighted to SNEAK up"
on the Yanks, just as Percy Williams
of Canada did in 1923. On their best
days, some are good. Any OF them
might hit one Of those days in the
Olympics.
Probably the best of the lot is Chris
tiaan Berger of Holland, who has been
officially clocked in 1913 seconds for the
100, matching the Olympic record set
by Eddie Tolan in the 1892 games. He
beat Eulace Peacock at Amsterdam
two Summers ago, and the Dutch
claim he is an improved runner now.
Then there are three others-Paul
Haenni of Switzerland, Erich Borch-
meyer Of Germany and c. B. Holmes
OF England-who have official times of
lO.4 to their credit. Tinus Osendarp
OF Holland has consistently done the
100 in 10.5 during the last year, beat
ing Berger several times.
AuStria's Dark Horse.
IN THE 200. Haenni, the swift Swiss.
has twice been caught in 2l.2 bv
the timers, equaling Tolan's second
1884 Olympic triumph, and Osendarp
has hit 2l.3 several times. The real
dark horse" though, is one Felix
Rinner Of Austria, who is credited with
having set an Austrian record Of 81
seconds fiat! If the watches were
right, he is not to be taken lightly.
America, from all survey of Europe
by the Associated Press brings to light,
should have slight difficulty retaining
the 400-meter laurels won by Bill Carr
at Los Angeles. The best time set in
Europe during the past year appears
to have been 48.2 seconds, by the
same Austrian star, Rinner. That is
two seconds outside Carr's winning
time.
Holland, incidentally, is figuring
strongly on grabbing the 1o0-meter
relay. In addition to OSendarp and
Berger, two really fine sprinters, she
has couple more named Van Beveren
and Baersma.
From 800 meters on out the Amer
ican competitors are going to have
their hands full and may draw total
blank, as they did in the last games.
Glenn Cunningham possibly is the
best bet to break through, in the 800.
Real Race the $500.
ALTHOUGH Tom Hamps0n, Eng
lands 800 champion at Los
Angeles, has retired, there are several
other Europeans who may step into
his shoes. Stothard appears to be
Britain's new hope. Eric Ny. the
veteran Swede, was credited with a
1904 performance during the past
year. He has been living in the
mountains for months, doing lots of
walking to increase his strength and
stamina. There also is Wladyslaw
Kucharski of Poland, who beat Gene
Zenske at Stockholm last year In the
$500. Hjalmar Johannessen of Nor
way has done the 800 meters in 1:51.2.
Hampson's winning time in 1882 was
1:498, a world record.
The real race, though, is going to
be the 1900. Cunningham will lock
horns with some fellows who can
run, including Jack Lovelock of New
Zealand, Luigi Beccali of Italy. who
won at Los Angeles; Stanley Wood
ersen of England, who beat Lovelock
twice in mile races last year; Kuchar-
ski, the Pole, and Ny, the Swede,
Dr.. Paul Martin, the veteran Swiss
star, is training for a comeback in
this event. It should be one of the
high spots Of the Berlin games. The
wise money will be riding on Love
lock # he says he is in condition.
Lauri Lehtinen, the f1awleSs Finn, is
favored to repeat his 1882 triumph in
the 5000 meters, while Janusz
Kusocinski of Poland, who captured
the 10000 at Los Angeles, is said to
be better runner today. The same
goes for little Juan zabala, Argen-
tina's marathan champion, who. while
training in Germany, recently low
cred Nurmi's 20-kilometer record by
1872 seconds.