Athletics and Football (extract)

1 2 6 ATHLET1CS year Venn had learnt a lesson, and although when he had first appeared on the path his fair form had been unmistakable,in the championshipof 1878, whenhe metWebster again, the pair both ran more or less the whole way, Venn running rather faster than Webster and winning in the time of 52 min. 25 sec., which is in some quarters accepted as a best on record, perhaps not unwisely,as it may be considered certain that the next best record was made with the help of some equally shifty going. Another result of the system is that novices learning to walk imitate their betters and so soon break into a run, leaning their body forward to trot as soon as they begin to tire. The result is whatWesthall calls an 'undignified' trot. The atti­ tude is not only undignified, but is in most cases hideously ugly,which no fair running or fair walkingis. In an ordinary walking handicap the public is thus treated to an exhibition in which more than half the competitors are in ridiculous and contorted attitudes. Naturallyspectators are more inclined to laugh than to admire, and neither treat the affair as serious, nor take any interest in the result except upon the occasions when that rarest of specimens, the fast fair upright walker, is in the contest, when the interest immediately becomesgenuine and unbounded. Once therefore let the walking be so re­ formed as to be unexceptionable in style, and walkingmatches will sufferfrom no lack of popularity. Then probablywe shall see a newand improved class of fair walkersarise. So much as to the evils in vogueat present; it remains to suggest a means of remedying them. To put it shortly, the judges must all see that each man is walking fairly,and not that he is not walking unfairly, by which dark saying we mean this : the three characteristics of walking which distinguish the exercise from running are these : (1) The weight of the body is on the heels when the step forward is taken ; (2) One foot is always on the ground ; (3) The knee is perfectly straight as the foremost foot reaches the ground. The judges should see that each of the three essentials is rigidlyadhered to, and promptly disqualify the man whoeither gets on to his