REMARKABLE TIMES.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume IV, Issue 1128, 22 September 1917, Page 2 (Supplement)

REMARKABLE TIMES.

THE FASTEST MILE EVER. TWO GREAT PERFORMANCES. Writing from Chicago under date August 14, a friend sends to The Sun's Wanganui correspondent an account of a great performance two days previously, over a mile by a runner named Joe Stout, who is credited with having cut out the distance in 4min 11 2-ssec at the Speedway. The performance will not stand as a record because it was not staged with official sanction. The correspondent states that there is no doubt that Stout registered the time all right, and the distance was correct. The condilions under which Stout ran were ideal. The Speedway track is a two-mile oval made of board, with just enough spring to make it fast. Stout started on the curve and ended on the opposite curve. He had only about GOO yards of straightaway, but the rounds are very easy, and he was forced to slacken scarcely at all because of the curve. There was no wind. Stout was paced over only the first 600 yards of the run. He ran himself out completely, and finished practically exhausted. His times, caught at various portions of the journey, are as follow:—44ovds 58 2-ssec; 000 yds, lmin 30sec; 'BBO yds, 2min 2sec; 4-mile, 3min Gsec; and the full distance 4min 11 2-ssec. Seen afterwards, Stout expressed himself as willing to prove against any other runner in the world or to the satisfaction of any critic that he is able to repeat his feat on the s.inie track and under similar concisions. The Western American intercollcgiate track and field championships, which recently were run off at Statrg Field, Chicago, U.S.A., were productive of several brilliant performances, notwithstanding the wretched weather conditions the athletes had to contend with.

The sensation of Ihe meet (says an American exchange) was the running of Eddie Fall, of Oberlin, in the one-mile, doing 4min 15 4-ssec. Fall, if unshed during the second halfmile, could have made a world's mark even under the wretched conditions he had to travel in. ITe displayed perfect distance running form. He throws nothing away in his running from start to finish. Give the boy a good day and track and he will shatter to nieces the world's figures of 4min 12 3-ssec, made by Norman Tabor over the famous Harvard Stadium track in a speciallynrvnn.tpd race a couple of years ago. Fall also won the two-mile even! in Omin 'Usee, without having to trv during any part of the performance. Bob Simpson, of Missouri, was a triple winner. taking the high | hurdles in 11 4-ssec, the low hurdles, run around a turn, in 21 1-ssee, audi 'he broad jump, clearing 23 feet ?>'l inches. Simpson also ran fourth in the 100-vard snrint. The final heat of the 100-vard event was a grand race, five of the finalists qualifying in their heats in 10 l-ssec. and the winner of (he race in his heat went through in even time. The men were sent awav to a perfect start and at the finish one yard would have covered the Hold. The turn up in the race was J. Y. Seholz. of Missouri. Sol Butler, the negro runner from Dubuque College, finished second close up. Charley Ifoyt of Grinnell, who was picked by many as the likely one previous to the heats, finished third. The Grinnell runner, however, made good. <r< the 220, winning in 21 l-ssce. The race was run in lanes around one turn. An eumfe<m-vear-old giant by the name of Higgins, from the University of Chicago, won the javelin throw with a record performanee, doing 101 feet 11 inches. Arbuckle, of Purdue, the former champion and record holder, finished second and covered over 191 feet. The former best mark was 172 feet.