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Show fflilPiffi ! . I Says English Athletes Will Ilarc I J to "Back Up" in Order j to Win. AMERICANS CAN BEAT BRITISH OFF THE MARK There Arc no Athletes Across Pon (1 That Can Win Weight Events. Tribune Special Sporting Service. I N13W YORK, Sept. 7. Alfred Shrubb. champion lonp-distanco runner of the world, says: "L't was my first appearance at a regular A. A. U? championship at Travers Island Sat-urdny Sat-urdny and 1 must admit that tho committee com-mittee on amateur athletics in this country know how lo run off a greu sot of prainos. In England at our rog- 1 ular championships the officials ami spectators are always speaking of the efficient manner in which tho championships cham-pionships are conducted, but in this respect re-spect I do not see where we have it the least bit on the American committee. commit-tee. The different events were all well contested, and there was not iho slightest hitch in any of the events. Tho contests were or special interest to me. for L was anxious to aeo tho real class of American athlete, and 1 wanted to figure tho prospective chance of tho British tuhleto in tho forthcoming Olympic games at Loudon ne.vt year. Judging from tho high standard of performances that wero made by tho many athletes of tho Irish Athletic club, it is evident that the old country will have to ' bnck up' if she wants to uphold her prostigc on the track and field. "What in particular struck my fancy fan-cy as I entered the beautiful grounds of the N. Y. A. C. was the small crowd tlmt attended the sports. Perhaps the weather had something to do with it, but it seems at loast there should have been double tho number for mcli a set of sports. At tho championships in England, wet or fine, there arc always from eight io ten thousand ;noplc. If thero is one thing, however, where tho champioushins at homo have it n tho American championships, it is in tho system of announcing the starters, tho uon-starters and winners in tho different differ-ent events to the spectators. I do believe be-lieve that if tho American committee were to adopt the English style it would be much moro convenient to the spectators. At homo in all sports' meetings we use tho telegraph' board-That board-That is a large revolving staud similar to what might be seen at any horse race meeting in this country, and upon which tho numbers of tho starters, tho non-starters and winners aro placed. At the games here many times 1 could not catch the 'numbers of tho different winners, win-ners, and I noticed that many pcoplo about mo wero constantly crying to tho announcer td repeat. An Ideal Site. "Travers Island makes a most suitable suit-able site for a sports' meeting and in I many respects resembles the celebrated I Ibrox Park track in Scotland, which is responsible for so many British rcc- ords. Tho track was rather slow for I smart performances, but I expjctfd to sco much faster limes returned' in tb ; distance races. In particul ir was the work of Shcppard, Keating, llillman, j Sullivan nud Bonnag noticeable iu the track events, and Sheridan, MctJrath i and Allen in the field events. All j these athletes made a fine showing, and could hold their own or defeat any other athletes in tho world. "In sprints it was easily seen that tho American sprinter was much faster out of tho holes than the British sprinter. But on tho finish I noticed that many runners were inclined lo go up in the air and weaken a bit. In England, the sprinters are all fast fin- . ishers, but slow beginners, but grad- ' ually they arc getting on to the American Ameri-can stylo of starting. Had J. W. -Morton, the present British champion, brcn present to compete against Keating, it would have been a very close race, and very difficult to pick a winner. American Athloto Leads World. "In the hurdles the American style of timber-topping was plainly evident, j Every hurdler tried to just skim the hurdles and did not clear them as well j as the English hurdlers do. In tho : old country tho fixed hurdle, as a nile, has always been a hard problem tor the American hurdler to solve, when competing abroad. Just whv it should be so is hard to explain, we have no low-hurdle event in England. In fact, it is only recently that a 220 llat was added to the rogular list of events. "In tho weight events and vault, wo have no athletes who should defeat Sheridan, McGrath and Allen. The performance of cither of these athletes ath-letes in their respective events was well worth going many miles to see. The American athlcto can easily be acknowledged to lead tho world iu these specialties. "Tho absence of a steeplechase event and also tho two-mile walk was quite a surprise to me, for I thought, inasmuch as these two events nro lo bo held at tho Olympic games, the Americans Ameri-cans would be making preparations for theso events as well as the others. Those two endurance tests have always al-ways been fixtures at the British 6ports' mcotings. In particular should stccplcclmso running be encouraged, for in such contests many cross country coun-try and distance runners aTC developed. |