Athletics of To-Day for Women

120 Athletics of To-day for Women swaying, and the head is well over in front of th scratch line, so that you can just preserve your balance. The back kn e is raised just high enough from the track to allow of a slight drop from the back of the knee to the heel. All this is portrayed in Picture 6r. It is particularly important that the hands and arms should be held in a tense position. The arms must on no account bow at the elbows, nor n1ust you let down the palms of the hands. Apart from the support afforded by the front leg, the weight of the body should be supported by the two tripods made by the spread of the fmg rs. The complete '' Get Set '' form is shown splendidly in icture No. 6r of Miss Gilliland. For her height she is using an unusually short foot-spread, but many, even tall, runners favour this foot position nowadays. She, however, is using the Bullet start position. None th less, the long spread position is the best for tall girls, but it calls for a forward action in the first strides before the knees can rise to th nece sary elevation in the pick-up. Short, quick-striding runn rs, therefore, often prefer the new Bullet start, which has th advantag of allowing a quick– striding action out of th hole , an th di advantages that balance in the " et " po ition is weak n d, and that it i liable to produce an upward bolt instead of a forward rush. If the Bull t start is used, th foot positions shown in Fig. I will be aried by th girl shifting her left (front) foot back to a position from I2 to I inches in r ar of th scratch lin . The r ar foot doe not alt r its position. The f t, th r fore, ar not mor than I2 inche apart, an the girl i abl to pu h off from both f et simultan ou ly. In the " n the Marks" position the r ar lpn e is lightly in dvance of the front foot, as shown in Picture 58 of Mi s illiland. In Picture 6z a number has been plac d und r each girl's figure for reference in d scription. The girl number d 2 has a badly bunched position with a t ndency to bow the right arm at the lbow ; h r head is down, and her back is too fiat. Nos. I nd 3 hav th best g neral positions, but o. 3 ( 1i s Ed\ rds, of ngland) ha 1 t h r w ight down on to