View source for THE OLYMPIC SPORTS. - San Francisco Chronicle - May 31, 1884

=== THE OLYMPIC SPORTS. ===
==== Some Excellent Foot-Racing by Amateurs. ====
The [[Olympic Club]]'s spring meeting at the [[Oakland grounds]] yesterday was well attended, but there was scarcely sufficient variety in the entertainment offered the visiting public, the programme of sports being about evenly divided between the foot-racers and the bicycle riders. It was not altogether the fault of the management, however, that this was so, the disappointment of the day being that Kittleman, who had volunteered to attempt to lower the 220-yard record, failed to keep his promise and did not appear. His excuse by telegraph was that he was engaged to run in Los Angeles. Notwithstanding that it was about all of one sort, the day's sport was, however, good. [[Fred Russ Cook|Cook]], a new man to the public, lowered the half-mile record for this State on the flying [[wheel]], and the performances by the sprinters were considerably above the average for amateurs.

The first event of the day was a 100-yard [[maiden]] race. It was won by A. C. Phillips in 0:10 3/4. In a mile handicap walk, for which there were eight entries, the victor was C. B. Hill of the Merions, one of the two scratch men, J. B. Benjamin, being second. Hill had 125 yards allowed him. His time was 7:30 1/4.

A 100-yard race of heats was contested by some of the best of the younger athletes, among them being Haley, the ex- champion, Lubbock and Stewart Flynn, and a new and muscular contestant, H. J. Lucas. The latter took the first heat and Flynn the second; Haley's bad knee gave out on the start. Lucas, Flynn and Lubbock were in the final heat. Lucas outran the others, but he was unfortunate in unwittingly breaking the string with his hand when he should have breasted it. The race was given him, but was disputed, and the judges ordered the heat run again. Although he had run in 0:10 1/2 before, this time he was beaten by Flynn in 0:10 3/4.

For a 100-yard handicap there were the following contestants: First heat - W. R. Stewart, [[scratch]]; J. W. Flynn, 4 yards; A. B. Tennent, 6: C. J. Bosworth, 8; O. A. Tolle, 14. Second heat - W. C. Lubbock, 2 yards; A. L. Harris, 5; J. H. Walker, 8; P. N. Gaffney, 9; P. Jacoby, 14. Third heat - H. J. Lucas, 2 yards; A. C. Phillips, 3; W. H. Newell, 6; R. Luttringer, 9; M. M. Martin, 12. Fourth heat - R. Haley, scratch; B. A. Benjamin, 5 yards; H. R. Hertel, 6; G. E. Petterson, 9; R. A. Lewis, 10. Tennent won the first heat in 0:10 1/4. Walker the second in 0:10 1/2. Phillips the third in 0:10 1/4. Petterson the fourth in 0:10 3/4. Walker obtained the gold medal for winning the final heat; Phillips second. Time, 0:10. Kittleman was to have filled in time between the heats of this race in the effort, as he himself had proposed, to beat the best American time, that of L. E. Myers, 0:22 1/2 or the English record, W. P. Phillips, 0:22 2-5, for 220 yards.

Ray Locke, at scratch; T. Jennings, 25 Yards; F. M. Day, 100 yards; A. W. Brown, 125 yards, and E. Long, 150 yards, competed in a two-mile handicap race. One by one everybody dropped out until only Locke and Jennings were left. The latter, who is very young, displayed great stamina and pluck by holding his lead to the last. His time was 10:36 1/4.

In a 220-yard handicap (heats) the contestants were: First heat - Haley, scratch; A. C. Phillips, 7 yards; P. N. Gaffney, 18 yards; A. B. Tennent, 12 yards; O. A. Tolle, 22 yards. Second heat - Stewart, scratch; Lubbock, 4 yards; Flynn, 8 yards; Benjamin, 10 yards; Walker, 15 yards; Driffield, 20 yards. Phillips won the first heat in 0:27 3/4, Flynn the second in 0:24. The final heat, run by Phillips, Tennent, Flynn and Driffield, was won by Flynn.

A 440-yard scratch race, in which were Locke, Stewart, Jennings and B. A. Benjamin, was won by the latter in 0:56.
Lucas covered 19 feet 7 inches in a running wide jump, beating Schuster, Stewart, Gibson and Doolan. He also put the sixteen-pound shot 32 feet 4 inches, beating Schuster, Stewart and Tennent. McMillan, the wrestler, discounted the contestants by tossing the ball a length farther than any of them.

There were six contestants entered in a mile [[maiden]] bicycle race of three heats, but they narrowed down to [[W. H. Gibbons|Gibbons]] and [[Fred Russ Cook|Cook]], the latter winning in 3:19 1/2. Cook also beat [[Henry Carl Finkler|Finkler]] in a half-mile [[scratch]] in 1:29 1/4, the best time ever made here, but Finkler refused to have the honor of a five-mile [[handicap]] wrested from him by either Cook or [[George F. Day|Day]]. The time of this last contest was 17:00. The amusing finale of the day was an "obstruction" race, the difficulties to be overcome including the water-leap, greased pole, etc.

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[[Category:articles]]

{{#set:
 publication date=1884/05/31
 |newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle
}}