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♦ , — ■ — — Nations Leading Track Stars Meet in Annual AAU Games i t Two-Day California Meet Is Last Stop Before U.S. Finals for J 952 Olympics By HENRY RIEGER United Press Sports Writer LONG BEACH, Calif., June 19.— The i sixty-fourth annual national AAU championships - — last stop before the U. S. Olympic " finals — gets underway in Veterans Memorial " Stadium here tomorrow night with a high caliber entry list of 460— including r virtually every American cinder great now I actively in competition. Additionally a half-dozen foreign invaders, topped by sleek George Rhoden, will make the two-day AAU meet their last port of call before heading for Helsinki to j represent their homeland in the -1952 I Olympiad. Rhoden, who says he has "never been 1 running better," is favored in the 400 D meters — the top track event of tomorrow v nights nine finals. Twelve events make up 9. Saturday afternoons session. Other Friday night finals include the e 100-meter, 400-meter hurdles, 3,000 meter r walk, 10,000 meter run and in the field — - the broad jump, hammer throw, javelin I and shot put. The 10,000 meter prance, the last on a . Friday eves program, is "it" for the Olympic " hopefuls, with the winner and the two 0 runners-up making the jaunt as Uncle e Sams representatives. Topping the big field in the long run are e favored Fred Wilt, his New York AC teammate ■ and winner last year, Curt Stone, !» and NCAA champ Walt Deike from Wisconsin. The remainder of the AAU event winners s and the next five finishers in each event i* . join more than 100 collegians who qualified J for the U. S. Olympic finals in last weeks s NCAA meet, and 18 of Uncle Sams military " finest who did likewise in the-recent it all-service event. Service Champs on Deck Most of the NCAA and service champs ■ ■ will be on deck for the AAU meet and ■ could crowd out many post-grads and prep P stars who have this lone opportunity to ° make the go-for-broke Olympic session in n " Los Angelss Memorial Coliseum next week. *■- 1 And while the Americans battle for po- - 2 tential Olympic roles, the infringer from n 1 Jamaica by way of Morgan State, Rhoden, *• will make the most thunder. "If conditions are right, and Im assured ■ they will be," says the slender Negro in the ie i best Oxford diction, "I might break the * r world record. He holds the present 400-i " meter standard of 45.8. m Conditions should be perfect. Temps will II be in the upper 60s. The AAU mahouts ts i have put Mel Patton, 1948 Olympic 200- - meter king and now track coach at the ie 1. Jocal City College, to manicuring the cinders. Competition will be keen as furnished ■ by Mai Whitfield, Johnny Barnes, Eddie ie - Macon and veteran Herb McKenley. i Only Ollie Matson, the U. S. bright hope e t in the metric -quarter, will be missing. He Ce fc skips the 400, due to a strained groin t muscle, and will go only in Saturdays 200-s meter dash, d Another world record might result from 11 - the 400 -meter duel between American a record-holder Charley Moore* and Kansas s - NCAA victory, Bob De Vinney. a Northwesterns Jim Golliday is expected ;°- *. to have it all his own way in the 100- _ meters. Top field shows for the evening will be e - the continuation of the shot put battle ■ y between world record holder Jim Fuchs and l" r fast-improving Parry OBrien, and the h four-way javelin contest with Bill Miller, *j 0 the choice over Cy Young, Bud Held and l* - Dr. Steve Seymour.
