Rubber Race

In four races this year, each had won two. When they crouched on the starting line at Milwaukee last week for the 1,500-meter run in the national Amateur Athletic Union championships, Bill Bonthron of Princeton and Glenn Cunningham of Kansas knew that their fifth race would decide a series that has made track history.

As usual in contests between Bonthron and Cunningham, they had for pacemaker, a miler who two years ago was considered the greatest ever developed in the U. S. -- Gene Venzke of Pennsylvania. As usual, they let Venzke lead for the first lap. Cunningham passed him first, Bonthron a little farther on. One hundred and fifty yards from the finish, when Cunningham was 15 yd. ahead and gaining slowly, it looked as if last week's race might be a replica of the one at Princeton three weeks ago when Cunningham won by 40 yd. with a new world's record for the mile. But spectators were destined to see a finish none of them is likely to forget.

Bonthron's head suddenly began to bob more quickly. In 30 yd. around the last turn, he gained 7 yd. Down the home stretch he made up the distance more slowly, a yard at a time. Twenty yards from the tape, the two men were abreast. Ten yards farther on, Bonthron was almost 2 ft. ahead. He turned his head to look at Cunningham, then broke the tape with a world's record -- 3:48.8.

Sports pages this spring have been full of stories about how Cunningham's legs were burned in a school-house fire so badly that doctors did not expect him ever to walk again. When Bonthron was a child, he encountered a live wire while climbing in an apple tree. The result was a burn which left a large scar on his left leg. Like Venzke, who used to run to work every day for training, Bonthron goes everywhere on his own two feet. He owns no automobile, dislikes streetcars because "they stop at every corner." In racing against Cunningham, he has perfected a technique: to stay close behind until the last 200 yd. The last thing he did in every afternoon of practice this spring was to run a fast 220.

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