Athletics of To-Day for Women

72 Athletics of To-day for Women when the French girl took the tape in 7~· secs. In the very last stride molova passed Hitomi but could not catch Thompson. (Pictures 27 and 2 .) The next event was the tanding Long Jump. Th women's world's record of 8ft. 2~ ins. had stood since rgzr to the credit of Miss C. Rice, Lasell eminary, U..A. At othenburg, Hitomi, Japan, molova, Czecho- lovakia, and Holliday and Birchenough, reat Britain, proved quickly that they were all a pirant for world's record honours. No fault could be found with the i. chnique of any o£ th seven finalists, but Hitomi proved a perf et paragon of consi tency, with not a single one of her half-dozen jumps mea uring less than 7ft. ro ins. Finally she reached ft. rA in., to tie with molova, who was not so consistent in her fforts. A tie had resulted also in the Running Long Jump, it will be remem– bered, and now, as then, Hitomi concentrat d all her faculties for the production of the superlative winning effort ( icture r87) with which she achieved 8ft. 2 ins., failing by only half an inch to equal the five-year -old world's and American record. Miss Holliday was third, 2 in . ahead of Florence Birchenough, at 7 ft. gl ins. Great Britain lined up against zecho- lovakia and Poland for the first heat of the 440 yards elay (4X rro yard ) amid t considerable excitem nt, for v ry one had complete faith in the ability of the Briti h girls to beat the xisting world's record of SI s cs. coul r was due for th first stage, Haynes for the second, and Thompson for the third, with that great finish r, Edwards, d tail d to run th final rro yards. rom the crack of the pist l, coul r began to draw away from Poland's first string, z cho- lovakia coming into second place at the first change over. With ea h succ eding relay a British runner forged further ahead until Edwards went through the worsted in 50 secs. for a n w world's record, and we began to ask ourselves what sort of time Gr at Britain was going to make, if France was fa t enough to push our girls to a big effort in the final. The Czech girls had returned 52 secs., and the Poles, eliminated from the final, 53! secs.