GREAT ATHLETE

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 128, 1 June 1935, Page 15

GREAT ATHLETE

YOUTHFUL JESSE OWENS

PREDICTIONS FULFILLED

American athletic coaches a few seasons ago predicted a great future for a schoolboy on the running track. That boy was Jesse Owens, and his recent notable more than confirm the justification for the high opinions held of him. His breaking of three world records and equalling a fourth in one day admits him to the ranks of the great athletes. Like Eddie Tolan and Ralph Metcalfe, two of America's best-known sprinters of recent years, Owens is a negro, and his age is given as twen-ty-one years. American papers to hand show that, apart from his amazing performances at the end of last week, he has been running and jumping exceptionally well at other meetings. For instance, at Des Moines, in April, he made everyone sit up and take notice. Now that he has gone on to further triumphs the following account of the athlete himself and of his performances at Des Moines is of special interest:— After establishing a new American record in the broad jump with a leap of 26J inches, Owens came back the next day to thrill a crowd of 18,000 spectators in winning the 100-yard dash in record time for the meeting to climax the twenty-sixth annual. Drake relay carnival. . • The 21-year-old Cleveland ■ lad, bounding from his starting blocks like a rabb.it, instantly shot into the lead and. maintained it. to the finish. He broke the yellow strand of yarn marking the finish at least two yards ahead of Milton Holt of Fresco (Calf.) State College to tie the Drake record of 9J sec, made by Roland Locke of Nebraska in 1928 and tied by Metcalfe, Marquette's famed flyer, in 1932. Owens, running in perfect stride, sailed down the chalk-laned cinder path like a machine. His curly head bobbed at his shoulders as he dug his spikes into the track to maintain his margin over Holt, rated one of the outstanding sprinters on the Pacific Coast, Owens was not even extended. He won as he pleased. The crowd, the largest ever to see a Drake carnival, gave him a rousing ovation as he trotted back to receive the handclasps of his competitors. ■..-.■.