THE BEST SPRINTER.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8673, 13 July 1906, Page 4

THE BEST SPRINTER.

(By "SPRINTER" in the " Athletio

News.")

It will be recalled that last year these columns were, towards the end of the season, pretty . well occupied with discuesions upon, the world's best sprinter, also stayer. Letters from the Antipodes, America and even Egypt have since oome to hand, and in fairness to those correspondents, who deserve their 6ay upon the subjects, I have purposely held them until opportunity came to give them publicity. Horn's a gentleman writing from the City Hall, New York City, who tells us pretty plainly that C. A. Bradley was a better man than " Barney " Wefers. " This is the first time I have rushed into print, but I could not allow A. B. George's statement, printed in the " A.N." of September 23, 1905, to pass without comment when he refers to C. A. Bradley's race with B. Wefers in >the international events of 1895. " The day of the oontest was one of the hottest wo have ever experienced in this city; the humidity was extremely high, and naturally paffected the Britisher's chances a great deal. Bradley, in his training, ran up to form, but was not feeling himself by any means, and although he put up a great race was defeated, the official verdict being a yard, but a great number of people judged the result was even closer. • A. B. George is certainly wrong in stating that the start was perfect. On the- contrary, Bradley, a notoriously slow beginner, lost fully a yard, and this was commented on Ln all sporting papers. Let it also be known that during the week, previous to the contest it was' common knowledge that Wefers was practising starts with the same man who held the pistol at the official events. '" This, in my opinio.n, is the reason why Wefers got the advantage. Bradley begged for another race, but wa* refused.- 1 Referring to Hutchins, he was the finest sprinter of this or any other age ; but after him I real.y think Bradley should be reckoned the best amateur one hundred yards runner England ever produced. j "From the time he first won tbe championship in '92 his running was remarkable for its consistency.' Week after week he invariably ran even 6, or a yard worse at the outside. His best performance, I think, Tifas at Stoke, when lie and Downer ran two dead heats in 9 4-ssec, but the figures were not accepted ; but we must not forget tbat he holds the Scottish record, mado in 1893, I believe, when he ran one ! hundred and twenty (120) yards two 1 or three yards inside even time at th© St Bernard sports. "Speaking of Duffey's 9 3-Ssec record a 6 a great feat, it must be noted that the running tracks here are without doubt (and I am speaking from experience) two or three yards faster than in England, and although I do not wish to take any credit away from Duffey's performance, numerous people who witnessed that race claim he beat the pistol by a fraction of a second. "Really, I cannot understand why so muoh is being said about the American sprinters, while Bradley's many fine performances are ignored. In the height of his career he won between fifty and sixty scratch races withont a defeat; a record that has never been surpassed. "If the Huddercfield flyer had ' met .

Wefers in England that year the result of the 1895 race would have been reversed.— --Yours, etc., "ALFRED BLAKE." The pity of it all is " Charlie " Bradley will not contribute his ideas on the subject. Naturally, he is modest about the topic, but I assure him we will all forgive any feeling he may have about the matter if he would pen his thoughts about that great raoe in America in l which he was certainly served shabbily. I His version of it would be welcome.