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Show WONDERFUL RECORD. (Tribune Special Sporting Service.) Xew York, July 4. John Flanagan, the great weight-thrower of the Irish-American Athletic club, has upset the ancient tradition that defeated champions cham-pions never "come back.'' On Saturday, two weeks since, Flanagan broke McGrath's world's record for throwing the sixteen-pound hammer, adding nearly two feet. Flanagan's new mark is 1T. feet 3 inches. Weight-throwers and wrestlers, they say. are the longest lived of athletes. John Flanagan came to America in 1S!I7. and in his first competition on American soil threw the sixteen-pound hammer loO feet 2 inches, breaking the world's record. At that time John was twenty or thirty pounds lighter than he is now. Throwing steadily year alter year, he added feet to his record every season. Only once in all this time did the record pass out of his possession, and that was when McCracken of the University of Pennsylvania slipped on a couple of feet when John was off his guard. Flanagan immediately im-mediately raised the record and claimed it again. De W itt of Princeton came very near getting the world's best mark, but Flanagan pulled away from him by a few feet, and after leaving college De Witt retired from competition. Flanagan held his supremacy su-premacy until Matt McGrath appeared on the scene. Flanagan coached McGrath and took great pride in the progress of his pupil. But when Matt cracked John's latest and best mark Flanagan was brokenhearted. broken-hearted. At that time John had gone into fat. He carried fifteen or twenty pounds too. much weight, and seemed to have lost his snap and speed. Everybody Every-body thought that Flanagan had "gone by" and would never again show in the lead with the hammer. Fl anagan had a different notion. Fast winter lie began training quietly and systematically. He played handball all the time, ran, jumped and threw the weight. Then he replaced the fat with solid musdle. Today he is looking: in better shape than since his first appearance as a champion, eleven years ago. Dogged determination put him back at the top. He went after McGrath's record this spring, and from the way he twirled the heavy weight it was evident that he would succeed sooner or later. . McGrath, meanwhile, having injured his knee, dropped drop-ped out of competition, and had no chance to beat the best mark himself. McGrath is getting into shape again now, and when the two big fellows get together again there will surely be some record-breaking of a spectacular sort. Park City, Utah, July 5, IMS. Editor Intermountain Catholic: Will you kindly inform interested readers how this herculean fete is accomplished I, with others, have taken a sixteen-pound sledge hammer and the highest mark we could make was ninety-one feet five inches. In weight, strength and muscle we were above the average, and coupled with our experience in mines drilling holes, we decided that the above record of 175 feet 3 inches could not be accomplished. accom-plished. COXSTAXT READER. On reading over our Park City correspondent's letter, we saw at once it was too much for us. We remailed the letter to Mr. Hogan of Chicago, an authority on every subject of athletics, from the "manly art" to hammer throwing, requesting him to look into the matter for us. We publish his reply, which is a masterly condensation of modern athletic history. Editor. Flanagan's cast of the sixteen-pound hammer of 175 feet is indeed a remarkable performance, and must be very near the limit of human possibility in throwing ihe hammer of sixteen pounds. In methods meth-ods of doing things, in training and in ingenius application ap-plication of t nought to improvement of conditions things have changed since I was a boy.. It would be impossible forty years ago for F'lannagan or any other heavyweight to hurl the sixteen-pound hammer ham-mer 175 feet. I knew in my time the greatest hammer ham-mer men then living. They were the Caledonian Celts, Donald Diunie, Rory McClellan, and the one- armed giant, Sandy Flemming. Their reputations as giant athletes and champions of the hammer were as great as are now the names of Flannagan and McGrath. In those days the hammer was fitted to a handle of seasoned elm or second growth of hickory. Xow the handle is made of elastic wire, which in the triple turn, within the seyen-foot crele, gives an impetus to the hammer, when leaving the hands of the thrower, impossible under the old conditions. The application of the pneumatic tire to the trotting trot-ting "sulky" lowered the harness record twenty seconds, sec-onds, and the introduction of the wire handle in the hammer ring added at least fourteen feet to Donald Don-ald Dinnie's greatest casL That is to say, if Dinnie were now living and in condition he would beat his own record fourteen feet. The Irish and Irish-Americans are the greatest athletes in the world. The records prove it. Let us take a few. The highest recorded leap, 6 feet 5 3-8 inches, is held by Michael F. Sweeney. The fastest hundred yards ever run by man since, the world began, be-gan, so far as we know, was run by Arthur Duffy and Dan Kelly. In all probability these records for the hundred sprint will never bo lowered. To accomplish ac-complish this wonderful feat called for such phen-nomenal phen-nomenal reserve of electric energy, such quickness, of thought and action, such a grouping and concentration concen-tration of alertness, grit, nerve, "sand" and lightning light-ning speed, that unless the athlete was trained to the minute, and the heart in superb condition, the sprinter would drop dead in his flight. . The world's fastest half mile. 1 minute 53 2-3 seconds, has before it the name of Kilpatriek (Patrick (Pat-rick of the Church). Hugging the name is that of Horan, 1:57; Burke of Boston. 1:57. and that of Frank Cregan, 1:58. These are marvelous -records. The swiftest amateur mile ever run. 4 minutes min-utes 15 3-5 seconds, was accomplished by an Irishman, Irish-man, Thomas Patrick Conneff, who also holds the three-quarter mile record, th? mile and a quarter and mile and a half records. The Marathon championship, Olympic games, say twenty-five miles run in two hours and fifty-one fifty-one nrnutes, is held by William Sherring, an Irish-Canadian, Irish-Canadian, and member of Sr. Patrick's Athletic club. Hamilton. Canada. The -Boston Marathon races, same distance run four years ago. was won by John McCaffrey. An Irishman. Patrick O'Connor, O'Con-nor, holds the record 24 feet 11 3-4 inches for the running broad jump. Weight-throwing is a game for men of strength and activity combined, and here the men of Irish blood excel the world. Here or abroad it is the Flannagans, Mitchells. Kielys. Horgans. "Harrys, McGraths and their kith and kin who are 'masters. The present marks for both hammer and the shot-put shot-put are held by Matt McGrath and John Flannagan. Although bigness and great strength must always go with the weights, cleverness and technique are a essential. Footwork, distribution of the weight of the body and a trained eye and hand enter largely large-ly into the game. , Martin Sheridan's cast of the discus. 134 feet 4 i inches, remains unbeaten. Sheridan, at Athens in lOOf). won the shotput, 46 feet 5 inches, sixteen-pound sixteen-pound shot, against the world. The running hop, j step and jump 10 feet 2 1-2 nches was won at the Olympic games by O'Connor, who also holds the record, 3(5 feet 3 inches, for the three standing jumps without dumbbells. In rowing, perhaps the greatest oarsman that ever sat in a shell wrs the Irish-Canadian. Edward Hainan. "Bill" O'Connor, another Irish-Canadian, if he had not died prematurely, would, according to Ilanlan himself, outclass the world. For three years Haitian of Oxford held the "diamond sculls" Henly against all comers, and when he resigned, Louis Scholes, an Irish-Canadian, won them, beating beat-ing Europe and America. The greatest all round athlete today, and perhaps per-haps the greatest the world ever saw. is Martin Kiely. The greatest living trainer expert student of psychology and temperamental variations of nerve, brain and muscle is "Mike" Murphy. James P. Sullivan, president of the American Amateur Athletic union, and John Halpin, manager of the Olympic team, are remarkable men in their departments. depart-ments. I might fill columns of your newspaper with the names of famous Irish Celts, who in every department, depart-ment, of athletics stand pre-eminently alone. Why, considering the paucity, of their numbers in comparison com-parison with the world's population, they are such tremendous successes I leave to you to explain, for I cannot! ' . MALACHY HOGAN "Chicago, July 12. |