Athletics of To-Day for Women

148 Athletics of To-day for Women success by itself. The third essential is striding ability ; the fourth, and perhaps the most important, is pace appreciation. One reason why pace judgment is so essential is the acknowl dged principle that, for the maximum success to be achieved, the first quarter mile of a half mile race must be run at least three seconds faster than the second and final 440 yards. In point of fact, when Frau Radke made her world's Boo metres record at Amsterdam in rgz8 (Picture so) the first 400 metres was covered in 65 ~ secs., and the second lap of 400 metres in 7r 1 sec . To put the theory of Boo metres and half mile running in a nut-shell : the girl should start in the Crouch po ition recom– mended in the chapter which deals with sprinting, and should do her very best to get away fast enough to secur or hold the pole position, as the insi e berth is called, before the first bend is reached. he must, th r fore, start with a fast sprint, drop to a fast run, as soon as the positions of the runners in th rac have adju ted themselve , and endeavour to hold her speed right through the first quarter mile. In this re pect she should so cultivate ace judgment that she will find no iffi.culty in running to a prearranged time schedule. Through– out the majority of the s cond quarter mile the girl should trive still to hold her pac , but may drop to a float on the back straight if he is becoming di tressed. he should ndeavour to take the lead coming to the last b n , and, for this purpos , mu t 1 arn to gather h r fore for th final sprint b fore h becomes too • hau ted. To do this, sh must bring into play a fr h s t of mu cl , which will hav been u saved up " if h has run th race in a emi-relax d condition, pacing along on the r ar h'"lf f the ball of the foot. To start the print, she must lean a littl farth r forward, ri up on the to s, and set th boulders bobbing up and down in a virr rous hrug a the arms are given harder work to do. This action i e. plain d in the h'" pt r on sprinting ( hapt r Nin ). Th length f the finishing sprint will vary with the str ngth of the individual. Speed appreciation will only be acquired by constant