Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-02-11
& or I Seconds
Lost, One Says
After4:05.6Run
Finnish Star Eighth
In Mile Of Century
As Royalty Watches
BY the Assoeiotsd Press

Oh ANc1s AuSlI dllA, TGU. IL.
With the Duke of Edinburgh
cheering him on. John Landy,
Australian miller. made another
effort today to set a new world
record for the mile-but was
thwarted by stiff head wind.
! Running over a specially-pre-
pared, quarter-mile track of
close cropped grass on the Sgd
ney Cricket Ground, Landy was
timed in 4:05.6. This compares
to his best previous time of 1902
made last December IL at Mel
bourne and is more than four
seconds over Gunder Haegg's
world mark of 4:O1.4.
After the race. it was an
nounced that the wind had i'm
peded Landy six or seven Sec
onds." Thus. Australian officials
reckoned that without the wind.
Landy would have broken
Haegg's record and perhaps run
the, first four minute mile.
Les Cotton. technical officer in
charge of the wind gauge, de-
clared 4l2-meter wind Gap
proXimately II miles an hour
was blowing while the race was
in progress.
/ This made a difference of six
or seven seconds in Landy's
time" he said. Il believe it
worth at least so yards"
70-Yard Straightaway.
| The oval track has a 70-yard
straightaway on two sides. but
! Cotton explained that the help
of the wind down the farside
| far from compensated for the
slowing effect in the home
stretch
An inch of rain had fallen on
the track in the "a hours pre-
| ceding the race at 6 pm. tSyd-
ney time). but officials declared
the grass absorbed the water
and remained fast. An indica-
ton that the rain had little eff
feet on the track came earlier
when Hector Hogan equalled the
Australian record Of 9.5 seconds
for the l00-yard dash.
|. Arthur Semple set a fast pace
! for the first quarter mile, of SIS
/ seconds, then dropped out.
Landy took over after the first
lap and went on to win the race
10, the Australian National
championship - by about 80
! yards from a fellow AuSsie. Jim
Bailey
Finland's Denis Johannsson,
who has 4:04 mile TO his credit,
finished eighth in a field of 10.
! Landy obviously made a ter
rife effort in the last lap. The
crowd of notwithstanding the
Duke-gave him a terrific cheer
as he headed down the home
/ stretch.
officials announced Landy had
run the first quarter in one min
ute f1at-he was about 10 yards
behind Semple-the half in 1902
and the three-quarters in sos.
| One of Best Runs.
| That was one of my best
runs ever" Landy said after
wards. L don't know why
didn't get a faster time"
Il think" he continued, "the
slow time must have been due
to the track. 1t felt better than
the cinder circuit at Melbourne
(where he ran his 4:02) but
although I put an enormous
amount of effort into it, nothing
happened.
| Il couldn't get any spring of
the surface and I knew my stride
was shorter than usual. How
ever, I felt that I had run my
best and / expected to hear
time of 400 announced. When
did hear the time. I just did
not know what TO make of it.
/ felt good throughout the race
and am perfectly all right now. -
During the race the half-mile
time was announced as 2:04 and
the three-QuarterS as 1903. but
the officials later admitted the
wrong times had been called out
Queen Elizabeth did not see
the race. She returned to Gov
eminent House after she and the
duke had returned from an aft
ernoon visit to Wollongong.
Johannsson said he was bit
terly disappointed with his effort
in what Australians had billed
/ as the mile of the century"
Il just could not go on" he
said. But l will do better in
my later appearances"
JohannSSon is scheduled to go