Athletics and Football (extract)

7 2 ATHLETICS motion, we have said, is derived from the front musclesof the thigh. The push comes from the back musclesof the thigh and from the small of the back. To convey to an uninitiated reader a notion of what real sprinting includes, he may be reminded that in longer races a man who wishes to pass an antagonistmakes a rush or spurt for a few strides. Sprintingcon­ sists in a continued rush or effortat high pressure,and as such is far more exhausting than it seems. The foregoingreflections may serve to explain in some measure the many surprises and anomalies that a considerationof sprinters and sprinting sug­ gests. Sprinting ability consists in the capacity to make a violent effort in the wayof speed. It is thereforenot a paradox to say that it requires as much cultivation as a capacity for any other kind of athletic sport. You mayfind the capacity in men who appear of all shapes and sizesto a superficialobserver. -Certainly your sprinter may be tall or short, may be of any weightup to thirteen stone, though he is rarelya feather weight. He is more often inclinedto be fleshythan to be thin, and may be of any height, though he rarely is over six feet. Of some famous sprinters the unspoken reflection of many a spectator must have been, ' Well, you are the last man I should ever have thought could run fast.' When Junker, the Russian,who won the Hundred Yards Championship in 1878, first appeared at an athletic meeting, a patriotic and jocosejournalistdescribed himas a ' bulky foreigner.' Another well-known sprinter, also a champion at the same distance, was advised by a competent authority to try some other distance, as he was too fat to run fast. Another curious thing about sprinting is the varieties of action in which good performers indulge. Junker sprinted as if he were badly bandy-legged, although we never knew that he was so. Lockton, of the L.A.C., who in his day was, we think, even faster than Junker, ran in the style most affected by professional pedestrians, with his body low and well for­ ward. W. P. Phillips, who managed to beat Lockton for the championship in 1880, ran almost erect, looking even more than his full height of six feet. Trepplin, one of the fastest of