Athletics of To-Day 1929

The Short Middle Distances 69 championship in 2 mins. I6l secs. In I8go, H. L. Dadman, Manhattan A.C., became national champion in I min. 591 secs., and W. C. Dohm, Princeton, Inter-Collegiate title holder in I min. 57i secs. J. E. Meredith, of Pennsylvania, in I9I6, set up the American national record of I min. 52! secs. and also, the Inter-Collegiate record of I min. 53 secs. One imagines that the improvement that has tak n, and is still taking, place in middle distance running is not due entirely to better tracks and a better appreciation of pace and the manner in which a race should be run. There must b b tter physical qualiti s about the athletes thems lves, I fancy, for boys at school get little or no coaching, and they run on the same rough grass tracks as served the needs of their fore– fathers. ~or the sake of comparison it may be remarked that the first Engli h title (I866) was acquired in 2 mins. 5 secs., that of America (I876) in 2 mins. IO secs., wher as the first English Public Schools Championship (I89o) was won by G. E. Barry, St. Paul's, in 2 mins. 6! secs., while in I927, H. . Townend, St. Edmund's, anterbury (Picture o. 2, Plate IO), brought the Public chools record down to 2 mins. Ii secs., and it will not be long before "even" time is beaten by a schoolboy. ince Townend went up to Oxford in I928 h has shown remarkable promise and may, in my opinion, d v lop into one of the world's greatest middl -distance runn r , with, perhaps, the best prosp cts at one mile. Improv m nt has been accomplished by mor intensive comp tition, b tter track surfaces, and bett r-fi.tting running sho , but mainly through two other circum tanc s- first, the appreciation of th principle that th initial quarter mile lap should b run at 1 ast 3 s s. faster than the econd and last lap ; and, s condly, the taking up of half mile running by m n \i h have more initial aptitud f r a quart r mile than a mile. It is, of cours , true that :M lvin h ppard, U..A., who how d I min. 53! s cs. for half a roil in the tat and won th I90 lympic 8 o mctr s in I min. 52t secs., won also the lympic I,soo m tr (I,64o yards IS ins.) in 4 mins. 2i secs., and that A. ill, Gr at Britain, British record holder for