Athletics and Football (extract)

RUNNING AND RUNNERS 7 r for the generality of runners the old and popular division of distance was right, but those who saw Myersand Phillips race for the English championship at Aston in 1881, or saw the American crack win his quarter-mile handicap at Lillie Bridge in 1884, when he ran round his field and came in a winner in 481 seconds, can hardly help arriving at the conclusion that withsome phenomenal runners a quarter is only a sprint ' long drawn out.' But whatever be the limit of sprinting powers, sprint-running,which is always the most popular of all kinds of athletic sports with the public, is certainlysomething entirely different both in the action and in the essentials of success to the running over longer distances. In sprinting, the front musclesof the thigh, which bring the leg forward, are the most important factors for speed, as it is on the rapid repetition of the stride that the main result depends ; in running of longer distances the back musclesof the thigh, which effect the pro­ pulsion, bear the chief strain. Both sets of muscles are of course used in every race, but the longer the distance the less important the front muscles become. And here we may per­ haps give vent to a reflection which must often occur to those who consider a meeting of foot-races far superior in point of interest to a set of cycling matches. At a cycling meeting the same man who wins the mile race will probably win the five or ten mile races, and mayeven, like H. L. Cortis during his time, hold all the records from one to fifty miles. The reason is simply that, although there are differencesof degree in stay­ ing powers with cyclists, the same muscles are used for every race, while between the sprinter and the miler there is a differ­ ence not of degree but of kind. At a meeting of foot-races there is an infinite varietyof different kinds of excellence. It is common for a runner to manage twodistances well; he may be able, like F. T. Elborough or Colbeck, to run any distance between 100 yards and half-a-mile, but the man whocan beat his compeersat everydistance has not yet been found, and is not likely to be. But to return to our subject of sprinting. The rapidity of