Wait Until August

Across the country from Squaw Valley, U.S. track stars put on a dazzling show at the national A.A.U. indoor championships in Manhattan, promising a more impressive showing at the Summer Olympics in Rome. In a single night U.S. athletes shattered three world records.

Most spectacular was Weightman Hal Connolly, 1956 Olympic champion, who last year inexplicably failed to live up to his old form. Last week burly (6 ft., 230 lbs.) Hal Connolly, with one titanic heave, threw the 35-lb. weight 71 ft. 2 in. 1/2--breaking the 70-ft. barrier and surpassing the previous record by an impressive 2 ft. 6 1/2 in.

After his victory, Connolly finally admitted the cause for last year's poor showing. Two days after he lost to Vasily Rudenkov, in the U.S.-U.S.S.R. meet in Philadelphia, he had surgery for a hernia that had plagued him all season. Married to Discus Thrower Olga Fikotova, Czechoslovakia's 1956 Olympic gold medalist, Connolly has a simple explanation for his new strength: "A happy marriage and eating well." Other record breakers:

P: Boston University's fabulous sophomore John Thomas, 18, continued to jump higher than any other man ever has either indoors or out, this time cleared 7 ft. 2 in.

P: Army Lieut. Irvin Roberson, 24, onetime star Cornell halfback, jumped 25 ft. 9 1/2 in. to break Jesse Owens' 25-year-old indoor broad-jump record by half an inch.

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