In the 60 metres, he ran both the preliminary and final in 7.0 seconds, defeating Walter Tewksbury by bare inches in the finals. His victory in the long jump was remarkable, as Kraenzlein defeated silver medallist Meyer Prinstein, his great rival from Syracuse University, only by a single centimetre. Prinstein's mark had been set in the qualification, and he did not attend the final, because it was held on a Sunday. As it was said, the two had an informal agreement not to compete on Sunday, and when Prinstein learned that Kraenzlein did show up he became violent, allegedly punching Kraenzlein according to some accounts (others claim that Prinstein was restrained before he could land the punch).