Button Leads National Skating Championships

World champion Dick Button built up a strong lead yesterday at the midway mark of the Men's National Figure Skating Championships in Washington, D.C.

The 20-years old Lowell House sophomore scored 942.1 points out of a possible 1050 in "compulsory" events. This was about 50 points below his expected showing, but was enough to give him a substantial margin over the rest of the field. Hayes Jenkins of Akron, Ohio, held second with 881.7 points, and G. Austin Helt and Richard Dwyer of Berkeley, California, were third and fourth, about ten points behind.

Double-Double Axie

Next on the Championship agenda is the improvised "freo" skating event in which Button is considered to be without parallel. His tour de force, unduplicated by any skater in recent years, is a jump called the "double-double-axie." In this text, Button comes into the jump skating backwards, leaps into the air, and executes a two-and-a-half body spin. The complete maneuver covers about 30 feet of ice.

The five judges varied widely in rating Button's performance, two of them giving aim considerably lower scores than expected. The champion's leg muscles seemed to stiffen after he had completed three of the required six intricate figures in the compulsory section, slowing him down in the rest of the meet. Button explained that he had taken an examination on Wednesday and had had considerably difficulty sleeping on the train that night.

Button has own the national title four times, before. In the early part of this month, he went to London to compete is the International Figure Skating Championships and carried off the world title.

On Monday, February 20, Button was presented the Sullivan Trophy as the outstanding amateur athlete of 1949.