RUNNING SENSATION

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 283, 27 August 1935, Page 14

RUNNING SENSATION

How Lovelock Was Beaten

Fifteen of the twenty-four A.A.A. championships decided at the Wilke City on July 12 and 13 were won by British athletes (writes J. Armour Milne iu “The Sporting Life,” London). Our Olympic stock soared many points. Only one foreigner won on the track, and we had the remarkable spectacle of a British athlete taking the gold medal in a field event when Stan West won the high jump at 6ft, 3in. Every feat was dimmed by the wonderful win of the 20-year-old Blaekheath harrier, S. O. Wooderson, over Jack Lovelock, in the mile. The 18,525 who paid far admission and the ticket holders who swelled the gate to over 20,000, went mad in their enthusiasm.

Wooderson was the hero of the day, and he will be the hero of British athletics for many years to come. He did something that Glenn Cunningham and Bill Bonthron, America’s big shots, could not do. A minor hero was Peter Ward, of Cambridge University. He was the only one willing to “make a race of it” from the start. Peter went away from the gun and soon gained a long lead. Fast First Quarter.

Clocking 61.2 sec. at the quarter, the Light Blue led by fifteen yards from the cat-and-mouse company around Lovelock. The New Zealander was running his usual waiting race. Wooderson was marking him and showing much cf the novicq in his tactics. Flagging a little seeond time tound, Ward was only three yards to the good at the half-mile in 2min 6 4-ssec. At the bell, Lovelock went to the front, but his advantage was a brief one, Wooderson, all legs and arms, went ahead. Round the bend for home Lovelock was hard on “the Heathen’s” shoulder. He obviously sensed danger. Then came that mechanical finishing run that had hitherto succeeded against the world’s best. Lovelock sprinted. Wooderson, a foot in front, responded. The man who runs to beat his man and not the watch was being beaten by both man and watch.

Up the straight tore Wooderson and Lovelock was in the background. In the stand Wooderson’s mentor, Albert Hill, the old champion, was roaring nimself hoarse. “I knew he’d do it, I knew he'd do it.”

Others have done faster time, including Albert Hill, but no win has been more sensational. Wooderson is not a stylist. His tactics during the race are rough and ready, but he has speed and power and the will to win.

This was his second defeat of Lovelock. He beat him in the Southern Championship at Guildford last year when A. V. Reeve (Polytechnic H.) was the winner. Wooderson finished second to the New Zealander in the A.A.A. and Empire Gaines championships.

The Ryder Cup. If a confident captain is the keystone to success then Great Britain will retain the Ryder Cup in the maten with the United States, at Ridgewood. New Jersey, on September 28 and 29 (declares “The Sporting Life,” London). Charles Whitcombe, who will lead the side, said recently: “Great Britain will win.” After declaring that the intense heat on the Ohio course was fatal to °ur chances in 1931. he said: "This year we are playing in New Jersey in September, and rain or snow are more likely than heat waves. For this reason alone I think we have a great chance of retaining the cup we won two years ago at Southport. A more important reason is that the team is definitely stronger than the 1933 side. I do not think a mistake has been made in the selection. We know Hagen, Sarazen, Picard. Craig Wood, Horton. Smith, and Olin Dutin, and despite the unknown quantity represented by Lafoon and others, I think we shall be too good for them. I hope to get the players together onee or twice before we sail. I want to make them a happy family.”