Gold for Canada, Italy and the US in another exciting day’s track and field events
Antwerp, 18 August 1920 - The highlight of today’s events was the men's 110m hurdles final, which took place at 2.30pm. It was a fiercely exciting race. Going over the final hurdle all six of the competitors were within three yards of each other, but it was the Canadian Earl Thomson who finished the strongest and secured the victory, despite having been drawn in the outside lane.
The athletes going over the last hurdle with Earl Thomson just in the lead (Image: Olympic Games Handbook (New York, 1921))
The final of the men's 10km walk also took place today, but the event failed to impress the Belfast Newsletter correspondent. Of the winner, Ugo Frigerio, the paper remarked that even though his 'grace of movement' was worthy of praise, even he failed to redeem this form of racing.
The men’s high jump event concluded today. The USA took home the gold and silver medals through Richmond Landon and Harold 'Brick' Muller respectively, with Bo Ekland from Sweden taking home bronze. Corkman Timothy Carroll competed for Great Britain, finishing ninth. A native of the village of Ballineen, in west Cork, Carroll is a constable in the Royal Irish Constabulary stationed at Belgooly, near Kinsale.
Timothy Carroll, from Co. Cork, finished ninth in the high jump competition (Image: Irish Life, 27 August 1920)
In tennis, the reigning Wimbledon champion Suzanne Lenglen breezed past Briton Kathleen McKane in straight sets 6-0 6-0 to reach the next round. Ms Lenglen is also competing in the doubles and the mixed doubles competitions.
The British tug-of-war team secured their place in the final against the Netherlands by comfortably beating the host nation. The final will take place tomorrow.
[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]
