A hundred years ago today, the Swedish aviation pioneer Baron Carl Cederström was busy organising Skandinaviska Aviatik AB, the first Nordic aviation company, with production of aeroplanes after the Ask-Nyrup model. Meanwhile in London, Harriet Steedman, who had made a fine income for herself sitting at her manor in Warwickshire and publishing scandalous reports from life in the high society, was finally declared insane and admitted to a mental hospital, to the great relief of her more or less noble acquaintances.
Way down in the Antarctica, preparations for the winter continued, and in Amundsen’s camp they spent the week transporting provisions, to be stored in a depot 600 meters away from Framheim. For each sledge ride they drove up 300 kgs in 6 crates, and at noon on Saturday, all the 900 crates were in place. In addition, the house now was in full order, and the explorers gathered there for the evening, merrily playing music on the phonograph and sharing toasts for the future.
Skaters did a lot of travelling this weekend. At Hamar they had cup races between the Hamar club, the two Kristiania clubs and the Trondhjem club. The weather was pretty, but cold, and the races were well attended, despite the fact that the starting time was set forward to 2 o’clock. The clubs had one senior each, and Martin Sæterhaug won both distances among them, the 500m at 46,9 (or 46,7 or 46,4) followed by Henning Olsen 47,0, Otto Monsen 47,8, and Magnus Johansen 49.0, and the 1500 in 2.37,8, with Johansen 2.38,3, Olsen 2.40,0 and Monsen 2.45,0 trailing. Thus the newly crowned national champion did not impress here. In the junior class, Einar Berntsen from KIF won the 500m in 48,8, and Kristian Fyhn of TSK the 1500 in 2.45,0. TSK won the team cup as well with 32 points, KIF suprisingly beating KSK for second place with 39 resp, 40, and HSK last with 44. There is a small handful of other results known, but no complete lists. Please tell if you have them.
Trygve Lundgreen and Jacob Frang were in Horten, where they shared the spoils in a very cordial fashion, both clocking the same time in both distances: 50,8 and 2.42,2. In the junior class a precocious young ex-Trønder, 18 years of age, starts without achieving any times deemed worthy of mention in the news. His name: Kristian Strøm.
One of the other 9 meets of which we have results in Norway this Sunday is the one in Moss, where the 20 years old Ole Mamen from Rygge, who lived at the farm his relative Hans Christian Mamen bought when he came back from America in 1904 after participating as a soldier in Cuba and the Filippines and digging gold in California, won the two longest distances in 2.51,6 and 10.28,8. Unfortunately he lost the 500m, and since they only published the winning times, he still stands with the pb he set last time he went to town to skate: 73,5, 6 years before.
At Lindvann, one of the small lakes on the mainland southeast of Tvedestrand (58°34'23" N, 8°56'26" E), Tverdalsøens IF arranged frolics on the ice for the islanders and other locals. Here, Selmer Wroldsen won the 1000m for adults in 2.07,5 while Terje Tellefsen won it for the 15-18 years class in 2.12,0. In the 500m, Ingolf Madsen won the 15 years class in 65,4, Georg Nilsen the 12-15 years class in 66,0, and Øivind Henriksen the below 12 class in 73,0. They also had pairs races, where Konstanse Pedersen and Robert Høiesen won in 80,0. But the ladies were allowed their own races, too, and here, Konstanse skated a NEW WORLD RECORD in 85,0. Former record: 86,2, set by Anna Strutz in Loretto, Austria, on Feb. 5th, 1905.
As reported earlier, Sigurd Mathisen was selected for the international meet at Stockholm. The venue was Hammarby sjö, and the organiser Hammarby IF. The weather was fine and the ice good, but the meet was not very well attended. It started half past 1 both days, and all I know about its unfolding is that Otto Andersson was paired with Emerik Larsson in the 500m, where he managed to beat the world record holder.
500m
1.Otto Andersson.Nyköping 47,6 pb 2.Sigurd Mathisen.KSK 48,6 3.Jean Pettersson (unknown time) Birger Carlsson 50,8 Sven Andersson.Nyköping 53,0 pb John Brage 54,0 G Andersson.HIF 54,1 pb Henrik Morén 55,0
5000 m
1.Otto Andersson 9.11,6 Swedish record 2.Paul Pettersson 9.18,6 pb 3.Ernst Cederlöf.HIF 9.21,0 pb 4.Sigurd Mathisen 9.25,6 Birger Carlsson 9.34,7 Emerik Larsson 9.41,4 Sven Andersson 9.55,8 pb Carl-August Elfversson 10.04,0 Henning Vestin 10.08,1 John Brage 10.32,5 G Andersson 10.40,4 pb
1500 m
1.Otto Andersson 2.34,8 2.Jean Pettersson 2.37,2 lowland pb 3.Paul Pettersson 2.38,8 pb 4.Albert Berglund 2.40,2 pb Birger Carlsson 2.42,0 8.Sigurd Mathisen 2.42,2 Carl-August Elfversson 2.47,4 Henning Vestin 2.55,8
10000 m
1.Otto Andersson 18.56,2 2.Paul Pettersson 19.00,2 pb 3.Josef N Pettersson 19.20,4 pb Ernst Cederlöf 19.36,0f pb Jean Pettersson 19.47,5 lowland pb Carl-August Elfversson 20.16,0 pb
Many substantial improvements here, especially by the 20 years old Paul Pettersson, who climbed to 37th place in the 10000m statistics, and 57th place in Adelskalenderen. Probably many pbs too in the results that we don’t have. Grateful if you can provide them.
One of the missing results is from a ‘skateoff’ to select the team for the match against Kristiania next weekend. It was won by Cederlöf, but the three other team members (Otto, Paul and Jean) protested against his conduct, claiming that they were going to withdraw if he was selected. The protest was accepted, and Paul’s twin brother Josef was selected in Cederlöf’s place.
We can only guess the reason for this protest. Had he been cheating or inadvertently broken the rules in some way? Cederlöf was rather an inexperienced skater, and does in fact not have any known result before this meet. Did he block or fail to pull enough in the skateoff? Or did they just dislike this newcomer barging in like that, or play a trick to get Paul’s brother on the team? The strangest things happen. Anyway, Cederlöf apart from skating is known to have set a Swedish record in the 10000m foot race, evidently a multi-sportsman like so many in his days. Most other Swedish top skaters were also top bikers, including Otto Andersson. Cederlöf got his chance to skate at Frogner later. Hard to tell if his omission had any effect on the strength of the Swedish team.
From Russia, rumours of strong times were floating in. Strunnikov 47,0 and 2.30,6, Khorkov 9.05 and Naidenov 18.31. What would those imply when the skaters transferred to the fast ices of Hamar and Trondheim? And from the even faster ice at Davos, another warning shot arrived. Thomas Bohrer was chasing records and had announced his intention of travelling north for the championships. The Scandinavian mile of Østlund survived only by the whiskers of a hare’s breadth.
500m
1.Thomas Bohrer.Austria 45,8 pb 2.Trygve Christiansen.Norway 46,8 pb 3.Fred W Dix.England 51,0 pb 4.Franz Schilling.Austria 52,4 5.Heinrich Weidinger.Austria 53,4 pb 6.Eugen Freytag.Germany 53,6 pb 7.Pierre Vallée.France 54,6 pb 8.Adrian Maucourt.France 55,0 pb 9.Jac P de Koning.Netherlands 64,6f
juniors
1.Max Kniel.Switzerland 49,8 p 2.I Boudzilowitsch.Switzerland 57,8 p
5000m
1.Bohrer 9.02,0 2.Schilling 9.38,4 3.Dix 9.44,8 pb 4.Christiansen 9.47,0 5.Weidinger 9.55,8 pb 6.Freytag 10.00,2 pb 7.Vallée 10.22,2 pb 8.de Koning 10.27,6 pb 9.Maucourt 10.50,2 pb
1500m
1.Bohrer 2.23,8 pb 2.Schilling 2.33,2 3.Dix 2.33,8 pb 4.Christiansen 2.34,0 pb 5.Freytag 2.42,0 pb 6.Weidinger 2.44,8 pb 7.de Koning 2.47,4 eq.pb 8.Maucourt 2.54,2 pb 9.Vallée 3.04,8f pb
juniors
1.Max Kniel 2.42,0 pb 2.I Boudzilowitsch 2.57,4 pb
10000m
1.Bohrer 17.51,0 pb 2.Dix 18.52,4 pb 3.Weidinger 19.15,6 pb 4.Schilling 19.20,2 5.Freytag 19.56,4 pb 6.Vallée 20.40,6f pb 7.de Koning 20.47,6 8.Maucourt 21.16,2 pb
With these results, Bohrer climbed from 9th to 3rd place in Adelskalenderen, only Oscar and Peder Østlund ahead of him. He also climbed to 7th place in the 500m list, 6th place in the 1500m list and of course 2nd place in the 10000m list. The Briton Dix did well, too, climbing to 34th place in the 1500m and 29th place in the 10000.