Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 January 1913 — BETTING FADES SPORT [ARTICLE]

BETTING FADES SPORT

American Sprinter Makes Study . of Game Abroad. Contestants Wish to Fool Handicapper and Races Are Marred by Trickery Caused by Wagers, Say* _ Charles E. Holway. .. ? -... .. Charles E. Holway, the American professional sprinter, who has donned spiked shoes 'and competed in various countries, declares that if there was not so mueh betting England there would be better athletes in that country. English professionals, he says, waste time and energy trying to fool the handicapper, and, this spoils them In the long run. Holway has met and defeated some of the best professionals in the world and has much information concerning athletic conditions the world over. Some day, he says, Australia will produce an athletic team , that will surprise the sharps. The'climate there, he adds, is just suited for athletics, and only the small population prevents it from keeping abreast with the countries which enter teams in the Olympics. In his travels Holway had an excellent chance to observe conditions and the methods of various athletes in training. In speaking of his wanderings and observations Holway says: "If there was not so betting there would be more good athletes in Great Britain today. A professional runner wastes half of his career' trying to fool the handicapper and waiting for the mark he considers good enough to win comfortably. There are always five dr six like that in every handicap, where a man will be on limit, say sixteen yards, when he should be allowed about ten. The handicapper says‘Well, here is a lad that has never won a heat,’ so hl& limit is fixed at 16 yards in 130. Some one must be on that mark. The fellow who has fooled the handicapper gets on this big mark and the scratch man has no chance. A man may have a couple of runners and if there is not much betting they are saved for another year and sometimes two years, and they get so used to not trying that they never get to be good runners. Here is the secret of the American athlete’s success. He is always trying. In England the athletes do not try, and I include both amateur and professional—one is as bad as the other. Simply because one amateur athletic meeting has given a >IOO watch and chain runners wait for this prize. * “I like England land was used well there by hearty everyone. They are very hospitable. The reputation all American athletes have when in England is shown thus: The English will say, ‘We can back So-and-So; these Americans are always triers,' and I have always felt proud to hear that said. "Mik “Now, in Australia and New zdjr land, professional athletes and professional athletics are thought more of than the amateur, because the best times are set up by the professionals, and the people seem to want to see the best, no matter whether professional or amateur. “The climate is superb for athletics, and when one considers that there are more people in Greater New York than in Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania ■ combined, I think it is a wonderful country to turn out so many good athletes. “Everyone loves sport in general and there are few that do not indulge in some pastime. I think the Australians are the biggest hearted people In the world. They certainly like Americans, and I find in many thing* they copy American methods. "In South Africa the climate is very hot. I could not produce my best results consistently, although at times I ran faster in Johannesburg than I ever ran in my life.”