Olympic Tryouts

At Cambridge. Some 30,000 spectators assembled in the Harvard Stadium to witness the final Olympic track and field tryouts for the U. S. The day was wet, muggy, miserable, autumnal ; the ground was more like a soggy sponge than an athletic field; nevertheless, 104 athletes won the right to wear the U. S. shield at the Olympic Games at Colombes (Paris) next month.

There were numerous outstanding events: 1) The 400-metre hurdles race was won by George Taylor, Grinnell College, who reduced a world's record of 53 seconds to 52 6/10 seconds; 2) J. C. Taylor, New York A. C, tied a recent world's record of 48 1/10 seconds when he hit the tape at the end of the 400-metre run; 3) F. H. Johnston, Illinois A. C, called it a draw with the four-year-old world record of 14 4/5 seconds when he puffed in from the 110-metre hurdles; 4) Chester Bowman of Syracuse traversed 110 metres in 10 6/10 seconds, thus beating an Olympic record.

But the outstanding event of the outstanding events came when Jackson V. Scholz,* New York A. C. sprinter, tripped the cinders with fairy feet for 20 9/10 twinkling seconds and won the semi-final 200-metre dash by a magnificent performance in which for the second time in one day he gave the world's record of 21 1/5 seconds a sick headache. In the finals this modern Mercury sped down the track in 21 seconds, tying his first effort on the previous day. By all odds, the gods had marked him down for an Olympic wreath.

Two days after these stirring and history-making events an army of athletes, coaches, managers and rubbers more than 300 strong, boarded the good U. S. S. America bound for Cherbourg.

Rowing. Over 20,000 people saw the Yale Eight sweep down the Schuykill at Philadelphia half a length ahead of the Navy Eight/- over a mile and a quarter course. This victory, which is but one of many, earned for the Yale crew the coveted right of representing the U. S. on the Seine next month. The time (5 minutes 51 seconds) was thought to be a new world's record.

* Jackson Scholz, modest, shy, ambitious, hails from Springfield, Mass., is by profession a sports writer.

/- The Navy represented the U. S. at Antwerp in 1920.