Notable Instances Of Lack Of Sound Judgment In Running

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6658, 19 September 1931, Page 11

Notable Instances Of Lack Of Sound Judgment In Running

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ESIDES being of special interest because the Olvmpic Games will be held next year, and university athletes are practically certain to be prominent there, the recent

athletic contest, at Stamford Bridge, between a team representing the American universities ot Harvard and Yale and a team from the English universities of Oxford and Cambridge, provided at least two notable instances of lack 9f judgment. 1 two instances, which occurred in the half-mile and the mile, are worthy of being pondered over by athletes. The Americans won the contest by 71 events to 41, only first places counting. All the racing was good, and the general standard of performance was unusually high, though rain. fell intermittently and a strong wind bc v against the sprinters and hurdlers. New records for this series of meetings were established in the mile, weight, and 120 yards hurdles. It was rather curious to find Oxford scoring 3J points to one by Cambridge, and very satisfactory to know that two of the scorers, vv. L. Lang (Oxford), who won the long jump with 22ft 9Jin, and L. F. York (Oxford), who at 6ft dead-heated with G. VV. Kuehn (Harvard) for first place in the high jump, are freshmen. Good American Team. The American team was a very good one. The Americans are always rich in jumpers, weight-putters, and hurdlers, and they are never weak in the sprints, but the English universities usually expect to win the half-mile and one mile. This year Harvard contributed two middle-distance runners of real class, D. Cobb and N. P. Hallowell, who dealt very faithfully with the shortcomings in judgment and condition of their Oxford opponents. Neither H. S. Townend (Oxford) nor .1. F. Cornes (Oxford) was properly fit through no fault of their own, and they failed lamentably to suit their tactics to their state of training. F. T. Horan (Cambridge) made the pace for the first lap of the half-mile, which be ran in 55 3-ssec, with Townend close up and Cobb (Harvard) striding comfortably two or three yards behind Townend. Even at that stage Cobb looked much the most comfortable and powerful man in the race; there was a chance that Townend, who has a tremendous burst of speed at the finish, might beat him on the run-in, more particularly as Cobb is a converted miler and his long suit is stamina, not speed. The best plan for Townend (comments a writer in the “Manchester Guardian ) was clearly to reserve his big effort till the last hundred yards, but he chose to pass Horan and to make the pace down the back straight. The inevitable happened; Cobb caught him at the . last

AMERICANS DEFEAT ENGLISHMEN

bend and ran away from him at thit finish. The result was disappointing, not because Cobb would not have won in any event, but because Townend showed so little racing sense. He nas great physical gifts and unbounded courage, but he has not reached the championship class and will never reach it until he realises that a waiting race is the right one for him. Bluff That Failed. The story of the mile was a different one. Here Cornes had a real chance of winning, even though Hallowell (Harvard) is this year’s intercollegiate champion of America. Near the end of the third quarter Cornes went away witn a tremendous burst, which gained him nearly 20 vards. Hallowell was worried- he looked at Cornes and then back at D. VV. Price (Cambridge), wondering which of them was the real danger. Like a good racer, he made his decision quickly, went after Cornes, caught him at the last bend, and won at his ease. Cornes was completely spent after his big effort, and Price passed him near the post. Cornes’s premature sprint was a gambler’s bluff of the sort which docs not succeed against a good man; had he delayed it for another 200 yards it might have come olf. Price ran as second string to Cornes, and made all the earlier pace; he, too, might have won had he run as first string.