Russian marathon runner

in Berne than Jim Peters had at the British. Empire Games.

fairly fresh, and then ran around the
direction Finland’s Veikko Karvonen

and they finished in that order.

Mixes wine with
sloshes to

If only Baptista Pereira had known a fe

clipped half an hour off the

The 33-year-old Portuguese wi
Nel race made an extraordinary start W.
Over Marie Hassan Hammad. :

Before the echo of the starting
Pistol had died away, Pereira was
Clear of his 15 rivals and plough-
ng between the armada of pilot
boats lying 500 yards off Cap Gris
Nez,

Onlookers in the waiting boats
Saw him disappear unescorted into
the pitch darkness heading strong-
Y for mid-Channel.

Minutes later, having completely
lost his bearings, he reappeared
Swimming in a wide are back to-
Wards the French coast, while his
€scort boat was going in the other

direction frantically searching for |

1m.

Speaking nothing but Portu-
Suese, he did not understand the
Cries of “the other way” that were
yelled at him: as he passed each

at.

He had almost reached the coast
efore his escort boat made con-
tact and piloted him back towards
™Mid-Channel. :

The bad start cost at least half
’n hour, but once on course he
Tapidly regained the lead and kept
It to become the first Portuguese
€ver to swim the Channel.

Pereira knew that his strongest
if allenge—apart from the cold and

tide—was Hammad, who had al-

Ivan Filin (right) had tough

track the wrong way.

er luck at the European Championships
Filin ran 26 miles, entered the stadium

By the time: he headed in the right
(right) and Soviet runner Boris Grischaev were in the lead,

By FRANK GULLETT

1.2 hours
nner of the August

water,

Channel win

LONDON

w words of English he might easily have
and 25 minutes it took him to swim the channel.

21 international cross‘Chan-

hich could have cost him- his 24-minute victory

Nishant A
ready swum the Channel three

times.

Waiting offshore for the five-
foot four-inch building worker
were four workmates who had
hitchHiked to Britain and hired a
launch at Dover. . They were yell-
ing “Baptista, Baptista, Baptista

li ee SsEN Sane

Russian turned
left by mistake

BERNE

The marathon race in the Euro-
pean Athletics Championships last
week provided one of the most
astonishing finishes In an event
which has frequently been packed
with drama. f

The gruelling run ended with
the Russian Filin taking tHe wrong
turning on entering the stadium
first. Spectators near the entrance
said he had been misdirected on
his way to the finishing post.

While officials ante a sia
ere trying to put Fun ‘on e
right course, Finland’s Veikko Kar-
vonen and the Russian Grischaev
followed the right course to pass

the post first and second, sa al

tively.

as the swimmer was making the
last few hundred yards.

Pereira stopped for a moment,
was passed a bottle of wine from
his boat, raised it in a victory
toast to his workmates and then
pushed on to shore.

As he landed the moment was
too much for the Portuguese in
the launch. They put their arms
around each other’s shoulders and

| wept for joy.

The Portuguese champion won
$1,400 and a $2,940 silver cup.
The Egyptian won $700. Third-in
the race was Brénda Fisher from
Grimsby, making her second suc-
cessful Channel swim.

She collected $1,750 for being
first in the women’s section and
$300 for being third in the race.
Her time was 14 hours, 36 min-
utes.

Perhaps the most unlucky figure
in this year’s race was Jenny James
from Pontypridd. Unemployed for
some time, she had trained hard
and was quietly confident of doing
well, having previously crossed

the Channel in 1951.

On arrival at Cap Gris-Nez she
became unwell an hour before the
start and was taken back to Britain
crying bitterly.

re

LABOR DAY

From Labo

Little Mountain

Advance xs Point Grey
Dry Dock Moberley Victory Square
Electrical Mount Pleasant West End.
Forest Products Norquay Capitol Hill
Grandview Niilo Makela vitae
Kitsilano Olgin sie

GREETINGS

r-Progressive party clubs

Philip Halperin

{games and tied one.

Bert Wigte's

SPOR

HEN more than 20,000 “fans
turn out to watch the Lions
epen the regular season’s play,
and another 15,000 sit in the rain.
to. watch a second game two
nights later, it‘means we’ve got a:
football town.

How: long Vancouver will re-
main-.a football’ town without a
winning team remains to be seen.
Nobody expects miracles, but
Stukus’ lads had better score a
few more touchdowns or the faith-
fu] will dwindle before October.

There’s no reason why’ we
should*be ‘pessimistic¢ at this ‘date.
Give the Lions another couple of
games under their belts and they
should be set to win one at home.

* * *

Local soccer filberts are going
ga-ga over the news that Moscow
Dynamos mav tour this country
in 1955. A

Reaction of most fans is ,simi-
lar to that of Dave Fryatt, secre-
tary of the B.C. Soccer Commis-
sion: “Tremendous . « .. what a
boost for soccer!”

When the Dynamos first tour-’
ed Britain in 1945, shortly after
the war ended, they won three
Old Coun-
try enthusiasts just couldn’t be-
lieve what they say—a new style
of play which made the English’
lang-passing game obsolete.

Since then, of course, the Eng-
lish have watched the Hungarians
in action.

xk @ * :

The British Empire Games has
made B.C. sports spectators con-
scious of the glamor of track and
field events, which were neglected
here for too long. Consequently,
everyone has already read of the
Russians’ great victory at Berne,
where they smashed‘ threé world
marks and rolled up 269 points to
win the European Games.’

Just how good the Soviet ath-
letes are is evident when you ex-
amine the showing of other na-
tions. England, whieh won the
BEG, finished second to the Rus-
sians with 101% points, followed
by Czechoslovakia with 90, Poland
with 81 and Germany with 79.

Emil Zatopek, the great Czecho-
slovakian distance runner; won

*

the 10,000 metres but finished a

Winner of the Channel swim

Pitt | tT PTT TT

TLIGHT

’ poor third behind Russia’s, Vladi-

mir Kue.and England’s Chris
Chataway in the 5,000 metres.
* * oa

Here are some highlights of

“the European Games as described

by a London Daily Worker sports
reporter:

“Russian athletes. swept the

board at Berne last Friday —
their biggest day — winning sev-
en of the. eight’ gold medals de-
cided, and lengthening their big
lead.
“They. got off to a great start
when Nina Oktalenko beat Bri-
tain’s Diane Leather in’ the 800
metres event and Ukhov ended |
their successes by setting up a
championship best when winning
the 50 kilometres walk.

“Another good victory was that
of Ignatjev, who scored cleverly
te win the:gold medal in the
men’s 400 metres in the new
championship record time of 46.6
seconds.

“Trina.. Turova. captured -the
women’s 100 metres sprint title
in 11.8 seconds, while, in the
field, Miss Ponomareva took the
discus with a throw of 157 feet
642 inches.

“The strength of Russia’s all-
round athletes was shown in
their winning of the. women’s
pentathlon and the men’s deeath-
lon: u

“The tall Alexandre Chudina
took the women’s. pentathlon
with a margin of°41 points over”
the German girl. Maria Sander.
Kuznecov captured the decathlon,
finishing more than 300 points
ahead of the Finn Lassenius.”

* * *

Roger, Bannister, winner of the
Mile of the Century here last
month, was an easy victor in the
1,500 metres in the rather slow
time of 3.43.8. He just loafed
along behind the field until the -
final turn, then put on his famous
finishing kick and finished well
ahead.of Gunnar Nielson of Nor-
way.

Bannister announced that he
would not compete again this
year and may retire from sports
to devote all his time to his medi-
cal career.

was Portugal’s Joquim Baptista

Pereira, shown climbing ashore after making the France-to-England

trip in 12 hours, 25 minutes.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — SEPTEMBER 3, 1954 — PAGE 11

i