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D_4LONG BEACH lt;CAL1f. PRESS-TELEGRAM _SUNDAY, APRIL 15. 1948_STORY OF THE OLYMPICS«rThree Men Make Strange HistoryArticle No. 15(EDITOR'S NOTE: Thin is the fifteenth of a senes of daily articles on the Olympic tow, pa*t and present, leading up toward the competition to be held this,summer in London. The author is an acknowledged international authority cn track- and fieldj as well as 7cm-dered sports that are an integral part of the Olympiad.)By MAXWELL STILESrpHIS i* the story of the man ± who trained four years for one race, of the man who would not run on Sunday and who therefore became an Olympic champion, and of the man who always ran second.The first Is now a New York City doctor, a gentleman from New Zealand, named Jack Lovelock. The man who would not run or Sunday was Eric Liddell, a Socotch divinity student, and the man who always ran sccond was Morris Kirkscy of Stanford University.It was in the autumn of 1931 that Lovelock first made his appearance at Exeter College, Oxford, as a Rhodes scholar from New Zealand. The young medical student quickly won the respect of men who knew a one mile runner when they saw one, and that season, he ran as the No. 2 man on the Oxford mile team. No, 1 was the great J. F. Comes. They ran one-two against Cambridge, and in the annual match race against the British A. A. A., Comes not running, Lovelock set a new British record of 4? 12, This at once placed him on the New Zealand team for the Olympic 1500 meters in Los Angeles.But at Los Angeles, Lovelock did not even finish in the first six. ' Comes ran second behind the terrific finishing ‘'kick of Italy’s Luigi Beccall. The race taught Lovelock a lesson he never forgot This race told him that he was physically capable of only one great race each season. His one great race in 1932 had been run in London, and he had nothing left for the Olympic 1500,Having learned this lesson about himself, Jack Lovclock became, probably, the greatest blue chip” ‘ runner in the history oftrack. He spent the next iour years getting ready for the one big race of his life, the 1500 meters in the 1936 Olympics at Berlin. During those iour years he lost race after race to other loremost milers of the world, particularly to England’s great Sydney Wooderson. But there always seemed to be, each season, one important race that Lovclock would Win. He was never interested In winning any races but the greatest. And each year when came the day of the race that, to him, was the greatest, Lovelock would ^vln.His great racc In 1933 was InCharley Paddock, jecond from right, win* fh# Olympic lO mefer* in AntwerpAmcrica against Princeton’s BUI Bonthron, a runner who was able on many occasions to best Glenn Cunningham when Glenn was at his very best. Lovelock defeated Bonthron In 4:07.6, a new world record for the title.RIVALS STUDIEDLovelock devoted 1934 to meeting and studying all the men who he thought would be his most dangerous adversaries in 1936. He met Beccali, Ny of Sweden,;Wood-erson. Sometimes he won If he didn’t have to put out, too much to do so. More often he lost, But In a “Mile of the Century” in Amcrica, he beat Cunningham.The late E. A. Montague, former athlete, sports writer for the Manchester Guardian? war correspondent and director, wrote about Lovelock in what was perhaps his last article just before he died. In “World Sports,” Montague reveals: “Wooderson, of course, he knew inside out, and the others he studied with one of the acutest brains that ever applied itself to athletics. What he thought he kept to himself; he never gave anything away. But seven months before the Olympic race of 1936 I asked him, 'You know them all now; which is the most dangerous?’ He answered, 'Wooderson, because he shortens his stride when he sprints.' “As it turned out, Wooderson was injured shortly before the Games, his injured foot broke down In a heat and he failed to qualify for the final. But all the other great milers of .the world were there for the final race.Lovclock and Cornes were In the same heat, along wtih Gene Venzke of the United States.: This proved to be the weakest heat of the four, and by clever pace-setting tactics the pair managed to slow the pace so that their time was five or six scconds slower than run by any of the otherqualifiers. The slowest third placein the other heats was 3:56.2, by Phil Edwards of Canada. Cunningham and Ny had run 3:54.8, Beccali 3:55.6, Archie San Romani 3:55. Comes and Lovelock trotted in yawning together In 4:00.6 as they allowed Venzke to win In 4:00.4—the equivalent of a 4:17.5 mile, Lovelock therefore started the final a fresher man than all his most dangerous opponents, Cunningham and Becalii having qualified in times equivalent to a mile in about 4:11 or 4:12.It is significant that right up to the last qualifying trial at the end of his four-year campaign, Jack Lovelock was scientifically andmethodically training for just one great race. When the day of that race arrived, Lovelock was ready,Beccali and Cornes set the pace at the start with Lovelock, Cunningham, San Romani and Venzke well to the rear. Cunningham took the lead at the end of the first lap and did not relinquish It until Ny of Sweden passed him just prior to the bell denoting the last lap.CERTAIN OF VICTORYBy now Lovelock was so supremely confident of winning that he thought of Jumping the field at the very moment Ny did that very thing. But he was a man of iron self-mastery and he shook off the temptation to commit the folly which, in Ny's case, causcd the Swede to fold up and finish far out of the six who scored points.Cunningham scooted past Ny and tried to open as wide a gap as he could on the only man in the race he feared—Lovelock. , Just before the race Cunningham had told my friend Lon Jones, the Australian writer, that he fearedthe patter of Lovelock's feet behind him. You can hear him coming,” said Cunningham, with wisdom born of previous experience. “You know he is drawing close. You try to go faster, to shake him off. But you hearthose feet pattering up eloser and closer, and tsere is nothing in the world you can do about it. Presently he is by your side, then he is ahead, and then the race is over and you are congratulating him on his victory.”Nobody expected that Lovelock would make his move until 200 yards from home. So, with 300 yards to go, Lovelock jumped away from his field. One hundred yards before the move was expected, he shot past Cunningham -^and away he went to win by six yards in the world record time of 3:47.8.Cunningham ran . second in 3:48.4 and Beccali third in 3:49.2, The first three runners were under the world's record. San Romani and Edwards, who finished fourth and fifth, were under the Olympic record set by Beccali at Los Angeles.Want to know how good Lennart Strand is? When the Swede, who is the 1948 favorite for London, tied Gunder Hacgg’s new world record of 3:43, he was nearly five seconds faster than Lovelock ran that day 12 years ago in Berlin. That represents about 35 yards. Who can say that on that particular day, for which ho had trained four years, Jack Lovelock could not have run fast enough, had it been nccessary, to have beaten himself by 35 yards?Now for the story of Eric Liddell. At the Olympic Games of 1924, in Paris, the two most promising British sprinters were Harold Abrahams of England and Eric Liddell of Scotland. Liddell wanted to run the 100 meters, but refused to do so when told that the first two trial heats would be held on Sunday. So, with no adequate training for the distance, Liddell entered the 400 meters.Abrahams won the 100, riofcal-ing Charley Paddock, and it is doubtful if Liddell could have defeated those two speedy gentlemen. With his head thrown back,his mouth wide open, his soul on lire, Eric Liddell broke the Olympic record in his first heat of the400 meters. A runner from Switzerland then broke Liddell’s new mark. In the final, Liddell, running wide open all the way, never judging pace but giving his all to every stride, tore around the stadium in 47.6s to lower the Olympic rccord just set up by the Swiss. Because he would not run on Sunday a race he could not have won, Eric Liddell became an Olympic champion.Morris Klrksey always ran second because he was always tangling with Paddock. And Paddock always beat him—always by Inches only. Several times they met in intercollegiate competition, and Paddock always just barely won by that famous flying leap.Came 1920 and the trials leading up to the Olympic Games at Antwerp. On June 26, at Pasadena, Calif., were held the Western Olympic track and field trials. Paddock won the 100-yard dash in 94-5 seconds, Kirkscy was second. Paddock won the 220 ■ in 212-5 seconds. Kirkscy was. second.Next the final U. S. team trials In Harvard Stadium. Loren Murchison won the first semifinal in 10 seconds. Kirksey was second. Then the final. Murchison was first, Jackson V. Scbolz second and Kirksey fourth. Yes, you guessed it, Paddock was third— even when defeated still one notch ahead of Kirksey. 'Then the final of the 220. Paddock won. Yes, Kirksey was second.WORD or WARNINGAnd so to Paris. Paddock won the Olympic 100 meters championship, Who was second? Naturally, a guy named Kirkscy. Murchison in that final had one of the most heartbreaking disappointments that ever befell an athlete. Just as the men were about to start, the clerk of the course cautioned Paddock not to put his hands over the mark.Murchison, accustomed to methods of American starters in similar instances, cxpected an order to stand up,” and proceeded to arise, just as tho other men were off to a good start. Left flat on his marks, the heart-broken Murchison trailed along in last place in a racc he well might have won.In their long and bitter rivalry, Paddock met Kirkscy 26 times. And 26 times It was that Paddock defeated Kirksey, There was one bit of irony but of which, perhaps, Kirksey, one of the great sprinters of all time, may have gained some sadistic satisfaction. Elim-inated In the semifinal of the Paris 200 meters, Morris Kirksey stood in the stands and watched another man run second. That man was Charles William Paddock. .TOMORROW—Long Beach and Compton in the Olympics.
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Long Beach Press Telegram
Long Beach, California, US
Sun, Apr 25, 1948
Page 42
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