Word: patton
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...last June, Mel Patton's secondhand car wouldn't start. He got out to push, and strained a leg muscle. That was the beginning of trouble for the world's fastest human. Last month, after setting a new world record for 100 yds., Patton pulled another muscle. His injury put a damper on U.S. hopes of winning a single flat race in the Olympics...
...last week, Mel Patton showed up at Minneapolis, and after gingerly testing his legs, announced that he would run in two National Collegiate championship events. Without too much strain, he won the 100-meter dash. Then, with a following wind, he stretched his long legs and covered the 200 meters in 28.7 seconds (equaling Jesse Owens' record time around a curve in the 1936 Olympics). Southern California's Patton was now ready for the final Olympic tryouts, and then a trip to London...
...Fresno, Calif., two of the world's swiftest sprinters - Southern California's Mel Patton and U.C.L.A.'s Lloyd La Beach - matched strides. Despite a desperate try, La Beach just failed to catch Patton at the tape. When the time was announced, the crowd gasped. It was a new world's record for 100 yards...
...University of Southern California's newest candidate for "world's fastest human" was just, beginning to warm up last week. Unlike the late Charlie Paddock, who was chunky, 23-year-old Mel Patton is tall (6 ft.) and frail (147 lbs.). In Los Angeles' huge Coliseum, against a brisk breeze, Patton sped the 100 yards in 9.7 (three-tenths of a second off the world's record which he shares with seven others...
Later in the day, he did better. His 20.7 time in the 220 was a new track record. But Patton, ex-G.L, father of one child and the big U.S. hope for the Olympics, barely heard the announcement. He was behind a stack of sawdust bags being sick, as he is after every race. "It's a damn hard day's work," he said...