Athletics (British Sports Library)

14 ATHLETICS time pot-hunting handicap meetings, may see that the status of the Amateur Athletic Association is comparable to that of the Rugby Union or the M.C.C., it may be as well to sketch briefly the progressive series of championship meetings which lead up to international honours and the super– international of the Olympic Games. There are no actual championships for school– boys in England, since the Powers-that-Be object to the use of the term " Championship " in this connection. In reality the Public Schools Sports, promoted annually by the London Athletic Club, at Stamford Bridge, London, afford schoolboys the opportunity of testing their athletic prowess against the best of the young athletes from other schools. A Quarter Mile Challenge Cup for Public School Boys was instituted by the London Athletic Club in 1890; six years later further cups were offered for the One Mile Distance and the 120 Yards Hurdle Race; in 1897 lOO Yards, Half Mile, Three-quarter Mile Steeplechase, High Jump, and Long Jump were added to the programme of what had now become the duly recognized Public Schools Sports meeting. In 1919 a One Mile Walk was introduced; this year (1925) there is to be a Pole Vault, and it is probable that the next few years will see the Low Hurdles, Shot Putting, Discus and Javelm Throwing and perhaps Hammer Throwing, with a hammer of