U.S. ATHLETICS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 93, 10 December 1931, Page 2

U.S. ATHLETICS

AMATEUR CHAMPS. OUTSANDNG PERFORMANCES OF AMERICAN ATHLETES. INDICATIQN FOR GAMES, The American amateur championships, which were reoently held at Lincoln, Nebraska, described hereunder, providd some interesting reading and call for thought in view of the nearness of the Olympic Games, which are set down for competition next year. Frank Wykoff lost his championship last year through a broken ankle, but Dr. T. C. Young, University of California, pronounced that the injury, with care, would not hamper his ' speed, and this season the Los Angeles sprinter has won every event he competed in up to the time this article was written, and in 42 races he has shown 9 2-5sec. In the American 100 yards Wykoff won his semifinal in 9 5-10sec, and an ItalianAmerican, E. Toppino, also equalled ,the record, which the negro, E. Tolan, holds. In the final Wykoff again touched 9 5-10sec. to win, Toppino second, and Tolan third; Both Wykoff and Percy Williams, the Canadian Olympic champion, have shown 9 2-5 sec., but the International Amateur Athletic Federation has not yet passed it. Tolan won the 220. yards, but a young Missouri sprinter, H. A. Hellmich, beat him in the semi-flnal in 21 l-10sec., the best time for the championship record on a bend. Tolan's final time was 21 3-10sec. Percy Beard ran away in the 120 yards hurdles in 14 1-5-sec, beating Earl Thomson, 14 2-5sec, and E. Wennstroem, 110 metres, same time, for 120.2yards. Beard and J. Hatfield won their heats in 14 3-5 sec. Lee Sentman did a little better, 14 5-10 sec, but lost his place! on the post in the final. Beard and Hatfield were third and fourth in the 220 yards low hurdles. R. Maxwell, Los Angeles, winning in 24 5-10sec,' and beating a new championship record. Maxwell put up a record as far back as 1925, but the figures were not passed. R. Pomeroy, also from Los Angeles, expected to take the 440 yards hurdles, but Victor Burke, N.Y.A.C., won the race by a yard. Adverse Conditions. Vic Williams, quarter-mile champion holder, .in 46 l-10sec, again won, this time in 43 4-5sec, but in heavy rain. A few weeks ago he won the inter-collegiate A.A.A.A. at Philadelphia in 47 2-5sec, and tied the world's record. A. Woessner, the junior champion, was second. A Washington half-miler, E. Genung, in the final at night, beat championship record by Imin 52 3-5sec. Otto Rossner, N.Y. A.C., runner-up. ~ Then came the New York side. In the mile Leo Lermond beat E. Venzye by a short yard, Frank Crowley third, ail New York A.C., and the time 4mln 15sec. F. Lydic, the junior champion, a farmer of Nebraska, was fourth, and beat 4.20. L. Gregory, Newark, N.J., the holder, again won the six miles in 31min 26 2-5sec, 5sec better than last year. The steeplechase, another race in the evening, was won by the holder, J. McClusky, Fordham University, by half a minute better than 1930, and his time, lOmin 11 3~5sec, for two miles, is a new American record. The field events were spoiled on a sodden ground, but the holder, Anton Burg, Illinois, cleared 6ft 5 3-9in to '.ake the high jump — the great G. 3pitz, N.Y.A.C., with three championships in the Eastern, and beat 6ft 6in, was fourth at Lincoln with 6ft 3in. A. H. Bates, another holder from Philalelphia, again won the broad jump by 34ft 7in, but L. Casey, the Illinois hop, step and jump holder, lost his title by llin, R. Kelly, Olympic Club, San Francisco, jumping 47ft 7^in. A new pole vaulter, J. Wool, Olympia Club, won that by 13ft 4Mn. Three others touched 13ft. Prodigious. Herman Brix, the shot holder and Olympic Games "runner-up, put 50ft 8|in, Leo Sexton, with his 16J stone, second with 49ft lOiin, and Paul Jessup third with 48ft 4fin. Jessup, nf Washington, again took; the discus by 152ft 51in, and J. de Merz, of Los Angeles, the javelin, with 211ft 5!in, Kenneth Churchill was second, but his 220ft 112in at Philadelphia was a failure in the championship, and his best throw was 196ft 3in. The heavyweight throw seems a lost art. One Edward Flanagan took the hammer at Lincoln, but 158ft 8in is a long way behind the old 170 or 180 ■and the 561b weight-winner, L. Sexton, although he threw 35ft 1 3-8in, is five feet behind the record of Matt McGrath. In the twilight of the gods> old Pat McDonald, in his 52nd year of age, took second -place. In the Metropolitan championship, a fortnight earlier, McDonald beat Sexton, and McGrath was placed. The fourth man home in Nebraska was another Olympic Games world champion, but he was the high jumper in Stockholm in 1912, Alma Richards! Prodigious. At the end of the meeting Los Angeles took the honours by 43 points, New York A.C. second by 35, and the Olympic Club, 24, third. But the American field events athletes are great, and they should win many places next year.