Athletics (British Sports Library)

HURDLING 87 with alternate legs leading, a practice which, especially to the novice, may appear convenient, it is far better to train oneself to that pitch of per– fection which enables the runner to throw the same leading leg over each successive flight. It is a golden rule, but it has its exception, in that it sometimes pays, over the last flight at the very end of a hard race, to take the last fence with the leg leading which comes handiest, as this avoids chopping the stride at.a crucial point in the race. In the foregoing advice to athletes training for the furlong race over low hurdles emphasis was laid upon the need of a fair amount of distance work to build up staying power. But now that we come to the consideration of the Quarter Mile Hurdles, comprising ten flights each 3 feet in height, a warning must at once be given that it is necessary for the quarter-mile hurdler to devote quite a lot of his time to the acquisition of sprinting ability. Another point which has been stressed is that the majority of low hurdlers fade out towards the finish, which, of course, argues that stamina they must have at almost any cost. Their staying power, however, need not be quite so perfect as that of the quarter-miler on the fiat, but at the same time it is undoubtedly the fact that a good quarter-miler over the sticks should be able to very nearly hold his own with the best of the two-