Glen Park, Yonkers, NY, June 18, 1927
Van Cortlandt Park, New York, NY, November 20, 1927
The New York district sprints saw fierce competition in the 1920s, and summer 1927 was no exception. 200-meter Olympic champion Jackson Scholz outran 18-year-old junior Karl Wildermuth, U.S. champion Frank Hussey, and Paris fourth Chester Bowman in the 100 yards. Curiously, in his favorite event, the 220 yards, Scholz lost to future Amsterdam 200-meter Olympian Henry Cumming(s), who clocked a personal best and the best time of the meet, 21.2 seconds (straight track), on a bumpy track.
Phil Edwards, who would later become a three-time Olympic medalist in the 800, gradually began to emerge. The fellow, who had started studying medicine in New York, unleashed a kick on the final backstretch of the 880-yard race that others couldn't match.
Finnish success was also seen at the Metropolitan championships. Ove Andersen, who had been in the Big Apple for about a year, won the six-mile race. Ville Ritola, who started strongly, withdrew due to stomach problems.
In November, Ritola won the Metropolitan area cross country championship for the seventh time, witnessed by a record crowd of 5,000–6,000 spectators. The carpenter attacked the lead immediately at the start of the race and began to pull away from the others. As he broke the finish tape, he also broke the previous race record.
The Finnish-American Athletic Club had dominated the New York cross country team competition throughout the 1920s, but in 1927, the club finished second, even though Yrjö Korholin-Koski raced to fourth place behind Ritola, Ilmari Prim to seventh, and David Fagerlund to tenth.
1–4 (Spalding’s Athletic Almanac)
Helsingin Sanomat December 11, 1927 (in Finnish)