Black Breakers

U. S. Negro athletes, for reasons no coach has ever been able to explain, have dominated broad jumping championships for the last 15 years, won sprints up to 220 yd. for the last five. Nonetheless, at the Amateur Athletic Union's national indoor championship meet in Manhattan last week, even trackmen who have grown accustomed to this state of affairs were amazed at what Negroes did in these two specialties. In the broad jump, Ohio State's Sophomore Jesse Owens broke the world's indoor record with a leap of 25 ft. 9 in. Negroes also took second, third and fourth. In the 60-metre dash, Negroes won the four preliminary heats. Broad-jumper Jesse Owens made a new world's record (0:06.6) in the first semifinal. The only white man in the final, Columbia's Sam Maniaci, crossed himself and led the field in jumping the gun three times. Columbia's Negro Ben Johnson won the race, beating Owens by inches. His time equaled the new world's record.

If the broad jump and the sprints astonished white competitors, they were honestly alarmed by the high jump. For the last two years, the most promising high-jumpers in the U. S. have been New York's George Spitz and California's Walter Marty. Last week Spitz finished in third place. Cornelius Johnson of Los Angeles' Compton Junior College and Al Threadgill of Temple University, made it clear that the high jump, too, might presently be exclusively an accomplishment for Negroes. Unbeaten in championship competition since 1932, Johnson jumped 6 ft. 7 in., beat Threadgill by a safe inch. Experts expect Johnson some day to clear 6 ft. 10 in.

Indoor metric records are comparatively new. Last week's meet caused two notable ones to fall. As is usually true of any race in which the field includes the runner generally admitted to be greatest middle distance star since Nurmi, the 1,500-metre run was the most spectacular event on the program. Famed Glenn Cunningham of Kansas beat his onetime rivals, Bonthron and Venzke, by 30 and 31 yd. respectively. Against the only real rival he has left, a stopwatch, he won by a couple of strides. His time--3:50.5--nicked the world's record he made in the same race last year.

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