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"Greatest Race." Finns regularly win Olympic races at 3,000 metres or more. Last week three solemn Finns named Vol-mari Iso-Hollo, Gunnar Hoeckert and IImari Salminen won their specialties, the 3,000-metre steeplechase, the 5,000 and the 10,000-metre runs. With U. S. victories in the sprints and intermediate runs, outside competition centred, as usual, on the 1,500-metre race. Among 39 entrants, eight were outstanding. New Zealand had Jack Lovelock, onetime world-record miler. England had Stanley Wooderson, who had beaten Lovelock three consecutive times this year. Italy had Luigi Beccali, winner at Los Angeles in 1932. The U. S. had Gene Venzke, Archie San Romani and Glenn Cunningham, all three good enough to beat Bill Bonthron, who held the world's record for 1,500 metres, in the Olympic tryouts last month. Sweden had dependable Eric Ny and Canada had Negro Phil Edwards.
Every installment of the Olympic games produces at least one historic race. With considerable justice, track experts called last week's 1,500-metre final the greatest ever run. The field lined up without Wooderson, who had been put out in a preliminary heat. Hitler reached his box just before the gun sounded for the start. While the murmur of the crowd gathered into a huge expectant roar, the field of twelve runners finished the first three laps with Ny leading, Cunningham second, Lovelock third. Then, still a good 300 metres from the finish, Lovelock began his amazing sprint. It carried him, a tiny light-footed figure in loose, black shirt and shorts, past the leaders and down the stretch in such a burst of speed that Cunningham, famed for his own finishing kick, was actually losing ground until Lovelock turned to glance casually at the field strung out behind him and then coasted through the tape, first by six full yards.
Lovelock's time was 3:47.8, a new world's record by a round second. The next four finishers—Cunningham, Beccali, San Romani, Edwards—broke the Olympic record of 3:51.2. In his dressing room, Lovelock coolly admitted he had known that incorrect placing of the starting line had cheated him of three yards, had not considered it worth calling to the attention of officials. Asked why he had looked back and slowed down at the finish, he said: "I didn't hear anyone so I thought I had better have a peek. . .. They thought I could sprint only about the last 70 metres and weren't prepared when I started my run. I think I could have sustained it for another 100 metres if necessary. ... I was a bit wound up, wasn't I? ..."