There is a hush in the crowd, while the three timekeepers put their heads together; for it is seen that the winner has done a fine performance. All three watches agree in marking 10 sec. or 'level-time,' and when the telegraph board shows the figures a cheer bursts from the crowd, for at last after years of struggling and disputing a genuine 'level-time ' performance has been accomplished. Half an hour later Wharton comes out for the final to meet Shaw, Ritchie, Wood, and Bassett (the last two of whom as 'seconds' in the two fastest heats run again), and he is once more greeted with a cheer. In the final Wharton is not off so fast, and at ten yards Wood and Ritchie are in front of him; then the foreigner rushes ahead and is leading by two yards twenty yards from home. This time, however, he appears to tire a little - and no wonder, for sprinting is a violent effort and leaves the bones and muscles aching; Wood and Ritchie close on him a little, and Wharton wins by a good yard, with Wood this time a foot in front of Ritchie. The time again is 10 sec, 'level time' twice in an afternoon - a marvel indeed!

Meanwhile between the heats and final of the hundred a gigantic Irishman, J. S. Mitchell, of the Gaelic Athletic Club, from Emly, County Limerick, has won the hammer throwing (a 16 lb. hammer, four feet long, thrown from a 7 ft. circle), with a throw of no ft. 4 in., his opponent, J. D. Gruer, of the London Scottish R.V., making but a poor show this year; and the two heats of the 120 yards hurdle race have been run off. In the first, C. F. Daft, of the Notts Forest Football Club, and S. Joyce, of the Cambridge U.A.C., are first and second, while in the other heat (from which Croome, the Oxonian, who won the Inter-'Varsity Hurdles, is an absentee), G. B. Shaw,1 of the Ealing Harriers, and S. O. Purves, another Cantab, fill the first two places. Then comes the pole jump, in which F. G. F. Thompson, of the L.A.C., fails at 10 ft., and Tom Ray, of Ulversion (who so far has never been beaten at this sport, and holds the present record of 11 ft. 4 1/4 in.),2 wins his fifth championship with a leap of 11 ft. A marvellous jumper is Ray. He is a tall, rather heavy man, of fine proportions.

Grasping the pole about its middle, he takes his leap, and when the pole is perpendicular, poises it almost at a standstill, raises himself clear up it by sheer force of arm, and shoots himself over the bar. Sometimes he poises the pole too long, and the present writer can once recollect, when he was acting as one of the judges at the Northern Counties Championship, seeing the pole and jumper, after a moment of suspense, fall (to his great relief) upon the other judge. Then comes the final heat of the hurdle race. Daft, last year's champion, and Joyce, the Cantab, have another rattling race. For the first eight hurdles they rise together; at the ninth Daft has the slightest possible advantage, and as neither man is rising an inch too high, or thus wasting an ounce of strength, it is evident that the 'run in' will decide the race. Over the tenth hurdle Daft again has a shade of advantage, and, running on faster, wins by a yard in sixteen seconds, another 'record' - the second during the afternoon. Next comes the quarter-rnile race - won last year by Myers, the flying American, but by this time Myers, like W. G. George, another amateur champion, has joined the professional ranks.

There is little chance of another record being done in this event, for since first Myers in America cut into the old record of 505- (done both by Colbeck in 1868 and J. Shearman in 1877), he has more than once beaten 49 seconds, and done times which probably no man, either professional or amateur, has ever touched. The race this year is set down for two heats, but as Cowie is hots de combat, and four others do not put in an appearance, the six runners are sent off in one heat. This is lucky for Wood, as he has two 'hundreds' out of him, while Lyle Smith, the Civil Service 'crack,' comes up fresh for this race. The other four starters are Wharton, whose phenomenal performance in the sprint makes people wonder what he is going to do in the quarter; E. D. Robinson, who is nearly as good at this distance as at a half-mile; W. Dock, of Windsor, and Norman Jones, who are good men, but hardly good enough for their company. When the pistol fired for a moment everyone held his breath, for Wharton was seen to be flying off almost at top speed with the same extraordinary flat-footed action.

Wood, who knew by experience how fast his opponent could travel, was determined not to let him get away, and so the pair ran away from their field down the long straight of nearly 300 yards, upon which the first part of the quarter is run at Stamford Bridge. But when a little more than 300 yards had been run it was evident that Wharton had shot his bolt; he died away and stopped, and Wood was left a hundred yards from home with a ten-yard lead; but upon him, too, it was evident that the pace had told, and it seemed doubtful whether he could last to the end. Slowly but surely Lyle Smith and Robinson, who were coming up behind, gained on the leader, and nothing but pluck and condition brought Wood in two yards in front of Smith, a yard behind whom was Robinson, the winner's time being 49 4/5sec. - a great time, for there are but few men like Myers, and no one until he showed the way ever got within 50 seconds. Here, as is always the case, the fast time was due to the pace-maker, as, besides the first three, Jones and Lock finished within the standard of 52 sec.; and five men in one race finishing within 52 sec. is almost a phenomenon.

1 Shaw left England for New Zealand, where he won the championship, and returned to England again, and during the years 1891, 1892 and 1893 was the best English hurdler. In the latter year he once covered the usual distance well inside 16 sec. In 1891 and 1892 he was beaten in the championship by D. D. Bulger, a very speedy Irishman. In 1892 he was only beaten by a few inches in 16 sec, the third man, Batger, the New Zealand champion, being only a foot behind Shaw. Never did three such good hurdlers meet in one race before, and of the three I think Godfrey Shaw was the best upon his best day.

2 Ray was beaten at Southport on June 2, 1888, by E. L. Stones, who jumped 11 ft. 7 in. The pair tied for the championship in 1888, but in 1889 Stones beat Ray.