A note on hyperspherical manifolds of positive curvature and geometric contractibility (Q1099820)

A complete Riemannian manifold M n is called hyperspherical (HS) if there exist essential distance-decreasing maps \(f_ R: M\to S\) \(n_ R\), for any \(R>0\), which map a neighborhood of \(\infty\) in M to a point in S. M is called geometrically contractible (GC) if for any \(\delta >0\) there is a \(\rho\) (\(\delta)\) such that the geodesic balls B(x,\(\delta)\), \(x\in M\), are contractible in B(x,\(\rho\) (\(\delta)\)). For M a surface of positive curvature it is shown that HS implies GC. A counterexample for a corresponding statement in case \(n=3\) is constructed.