(5 of 5)
¶ In the single sculls final, long-nosed Henry Robert Pearce of Australia, rowing with the quick savage stroke that won for him in 1928, built up a two-and-a-half-length lead. Five hundred metres from the finish, Bill Miller, 26-year-old oarsman of Philadelphia, pulling with a quicker swing, began to cut down the open water between the bow of his shell and the stern of Pearce's. Miller's bow was coming up even with the waist of Pearce's shell when Pearce's bow reached the finish. Last major event of the Xth Olympiad was the final heat in the 2,000-metre race for eight-oared crews, between England, Canada, Italy and the U. S. It was the race that Californians have been waiting for all year. A University of California crew won the Olympic Championship in 1928. The U. S. crew on the starting line last week was another California crew, undefeated in a season of college rowing and in the Olympic trials. Eighty thousand people along the Long Beach course saw an unforgettable finish. Coming into the last 200 metres, the bow of the California shell was a half-length ahead of Canada and England but it was even with the bow of the Italian boat. Dressed in blue shirts, pulling with the same kind of quick, hard-catching stroke that coach Ky Ebright teaches his Californians, the Italians made their bow move out ahead. With 100 metres to go, it was 3 ft. in front of California. Coxswain Norrie Graham of California backed his stroke up to 44. The 3 ft. grew slowly narrower. Twenty-five yards from the finish, it was 1 ft. At the finish, California was ahead, by the width of a hand. Canada's Leander crew was 8 ft. behind Italy, England was fourth by 6 ft. more. A crowd of 95,000 saw the Olympic Torch extinguished, the 1936 Olympic Games promised to Berlin in the ceremonies that closed the most successful modern Olympiad on record. Final point score (three points for first place, two for second, one for third): First Second Third Points United States 39 32 21 202 Italy 9 12 11 63 Japan 7 6 4 37 Sweden 9 3 3 36 France 8 4 2 34 Finland 5 5 8 33 Germany 3 10 4 33 Great Britain 4 6 5 29 Canada 2 4 10 24 Hungary 6 1 4 24 Holland 2 4 1 15 Australia 3 1 0 11 Argentina 3 1 0 11 South Africa 2 0 3 9 Austria 1 1 2 7 Ireland 2 0 0 6 Czechoslovakia 1 1 0 5 Mexico 0 2 1 5 India 1 0 0 3 Denmark 0 1 1 3 Philippines 0 0 3 3 Latvia 0 1 0 2 Switzerland 0 1 0 2 Greece 0 0 1 1 Spain 0 0 1 1 Uruguay 0 0 1 1 New Zealand 0 0 1 1 Last week's Olympics, witnessed by 1,000,000 spectators who paid $2,000,000, were the second Olympic Games held in the U. S. The first, at St. Louis in 1904, attracted few foreign competitors.
