Just fifteen of the thirty-eight starters finished the event due to the extreme heat,[6] The Times reporting the scenes at the end of the race: Some way behind Harper a figure in the scarlet drawers of Spain appeared in the entrance, turned the wrong way, was stopped, and then ran horribly round in little circles till he plunged on his face.

He also tried to run the wrong way, was checked, and turned round, ran giddily a few yards, staggered, met another competitor, a Finn, also reeling, and the two fell together in a dreadful heap.

Meanwhile a Frenchman had entered and ran three-quarters of the distance to the winning line, began to zig-zag, threw up his arms helplessly, and crashed full length on the ground.

[1] Harper earned praise for advising eventual winner Sohn Kee-chung not to chase after Juan Carlos Zabala, who had opened a big lead.

In addition, he won numerous Yorkshire and Northern cross-country titles and represented England in International Cross Country Championships in 1923–1931, winning the individual competition in 1926.

As well as the 1936 marathon incident mentioned above, in a 1924 international cross-country race he waited for another competitor, as described in The Times: [The collapse of Ryan], besides causing much excitement, left Harper with every prospect of coming in first.