Yankee Stadium, New York, NY, September 8, 1923
Fast times were recorded on the triangular track at Yankee Stadium during a high-caliber invitational meet. The value of the results is heightened by the fact that rain was coming down and the track was soaked.
Ray Watson defeated New York native Alan Helffrich in the 800m, recording the season’s second-fastest time of 1:53.8. Watson was just 0.1 seconds off his personal best from the Midwestern Championships a few weeks earlier. Helffrich’s runner-up time of 1:54.0 ranked third globally for the season.
Helffrich had previously won IC4A and NCAA titles but faltered at the U.S. Championships, where Watson bested him. This marked Helffrich’s second consecutive loss to Watson in head-to-head competition.
Watson would later feature in the 1500 at the Paris Olympics, where the relentless pace of Paavo Nurmi proved too much.
Ville Ritola, in excellent late-season form, won the 5,000m, defeating R.E. Johnson with a time of 15:02.8. Ritola held back during the initial laps and pulled away from the rest over the final two circuits. The carpenter's winning time put him third in the season’s global standings, though Nurmi had run five faster times during the summer.
The Finnish-language New York newspaper commented:
"Ritola had intended to let the Americans compete amongst themselves, but memories of his failure in Chicago stirred his blood; the bragging rights had to be taken away from Pittsburgh’s Johnson. And so said the New York newspapers, which are by no means overly verbose when it comes to Finns, that Ritola had no difficulty in defeating his competitors. In the early stages, almost halfway through, Johnson tried to keep up, even occasionally surging into the lead, but Ritola didn't care, simply continuing his trot at the same pace. Starting the fourth and final lap, Ritola put in a few long strides and left Johnson behind, so that by the finish line, he was well over a hundred meters ahead."
In the 400m hurdles, clocked a world-leading 54.6 seconds, narrowly edging by 0.1 seconds. finished third, improving his earlier time to rank third globally.
The 400-meter hurdles was also run at full tilt, resulting in a decent battle for the victory. The top three crossed the finish line within 0.2 seconds of each other. Ivan Riley clocked a world-leading time of 54.6 seconds. Bayes Norton, who was involved in the development of the atomic weapon during the Second World War, lost by only a tenth of a second, but took the second spot in the season's rankings. Richard Oram, in turn, lost another tenth to Norton, although he improved his previous time set at the Metropolitan Championships in Yonkers a couple of weeks earlier, securing third place in the world rankings.
Riley gave it absolutely everything he had. Immediately after crossing the finish line, the Illinois guy collapsed straight onto the track. Teammates carried him, a crumpled heap, to the locker room, and he barely knew what was going on.
Leroy Brown of New York solidified his position as the season’s top high jumper, defeating Harold Osborn again, as he had at the U.S. Championships.
Orville Wanzer, the newly crowned U.S. shot put champion, threw 14.86m (48-9) for the season’s third-best mark.
The meet at Yankee Stadium was sponsored by the Wilco Athletic Association, drew a respectable crowd of 8,000. A portion of the ticket earnings were to be donated to the Red Cross relief fund for survivors of the Japan earthquake a week earlier.
Uusi Suomi, September 30, 1923 (in Finnish)
Helsingin Sanomat, September 30, 1923 (in Finnish)
Idrottsbladet, October 1, 1923 (in Swedish)
Running And Jumping At Yankee Stadium, 1923 To 1938 (Society for American Baseball Research)