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Show BOBBIE W!l l RAPIDLY RECOVERING Champion Looked Like Winner When Accident Occurred at Berlin Track. Bobble TValthour. who rode hero the past season, has entirely recovered from his Injuries received In the fatal accident In the second heat of the Grand Prix of Spandau, Berlin, on Sunday, Septemher 20, In which ono man was killed and several sev-eral seriously injured. Walthour has left the hospital, and It Is reported that he will be recovered in a. short time. In a. special letter received by Ihe Bicycling Bi-cycling World, the following is tho first account given of the race this side of the pond: "At the moment the pistol was fired for the start of tho second heat Menus Bedell again took tho lead, but he was immediately immedi-ately passed by Guignard and Walthour. In splto of the terrific pace set by Guignard, Menus Bedell began, to gradually gradu-ally approach him by degrees and after a hard rido for several laps reached the leading pair. The spectators applauded Bedell when ho breasted Guignard and Walthour and when after a two laps' sprint he passed, their appreciation knew no bounds. In tho hard grind Walthour pulled away from Guignard and after several sev-eral laps more of riding- seemed a likely winner, barring accidents. Jn the fifty-first lap. at tho precise moment when Guignard was rounding tho lower turn a detonation sounded In the air. The front tiro of hit; motor had bursted, at the samo place where Peguny had met his fatal accident early in tho summer. Guignard and his pacer, Stiplo-schlck, Stiplo-schlck, executed a fantastic whirligig, and while tho two wore rolling on the track, with the motor turning several times over thorn, the burslcd tank caught tiro and loft a blaze along tho homestretch of the track. The excitement was immense. im-mense. Attendant Killod. The' track attendants ran to extricate Guignard and Silploschlck. Tho first luckily luck-ily escaped with a few abrasions of the skin, but the pacemaker had an arm broken. An ambulance attendant hurried hur-ried Guignard off tho track and after seeing see-ing that he was all right. Imprudently ran across the track, at the moment that Hoffman, pacing Walthour. came around tho turn at the rato of ninety kilometres an hour. The man did not have lime to jump aside before tho heavy motor struck him and his body was projected several yards. Hoffman and his machine fell over to one side and rolled several times, Walthour executing a somersault as If he had been hurled from a catapult, landing on his head on tho cement, then falling over on his bnck. An audible grdan went up from tho lm-monso lm-monso throng of spectators at the sight of the horrible catastrophe. Walthour lay still as did the ambulance attendant and the people turned their eyes away from tho spectacle. Walthour was rushed to tho hospital, whore It was found that he had sustained only a slight concussion of tho brain, and had not broken his back, as was at first feared. The ambulance attendant at-tendant was killed lnstnntly, his head being crushed and ono hund completely severed. Hoffman escaped with a badly wrenched leg and bruises, but his motor was smashed, and the unfortunate pacemaker pace-maker worried more over that than ho did from his injurlos. The poor German Beems to be Ill-fated. He was pacing Harry Elkes when that popular rider met his death several years ago, and he also was In front of Mettllng when the young American received injuries which resulted re-sulted in his demise. Now he has a third to his list and his nerves aro unstrung." |