Athletics of To-Day 1929

88 Athletics of To-day I have said in the preceding chapter on page 76 as to the way to avoid being shut in. In the fourth lap hold to your schedule pace until you know you are near enough to the tape to risk a sprint, or until your opponents force you to make your effort. Do not forget you have to fight your own growing fatigue as well as your com– petitors. Do not let your head come back for that will bring your hands and knees up, and there will be a general tying up through the breathing being interfered with. The thing to aim at is to know how to distribute your own energy to the best advantage throughout the whole race. The pictures which illustrate this and the preceding chapter are a good guide to the middle distance runner's style, and the remarks on the half-miler's action should be studied. The miler runs perhaps a trifle mor r et and a little further back on the ball of the foot. His eyes are directed to a spot ten yards ahead of him on the track, and he must not run with a kick up of the heel behind. Observe Nurmi's long tt hang" of the back heel in Nos. I and 2, Plate II. Paavo Nurmi, the great Finnish runner, who holds, among many world's records, those of I,5oo metres (I, 40 yards, I ft.) in 3 mins. 52! secs., and I mile in 4 mins. IO{ secs., has many points in style which are peculiarly his own. To begin with, he has a peculiarly high hand carriage combined with the twist of the upper arm backwards, which do s not, howev r, alter the squareness of the houldcrs. He runs every event with shoulders well back and head up, as if to give his heart, which beats slower than the average, and his unusually large lungs plenty of air; he has a long bounding stride, which shoots th foot well forward at the end of a leg only slightly flexed at th knee, and he never lets the h el rise above the height of the knee as the 1 g goes back just b fore the front foot is put down (see No. I, Plate II). His f t seem to pull rather than t pu h him along. Note the upright carriage of the body above slender hips and the unusual carriage of his arms. These points are well shown in the illustrations, and his action should be compared with that of Lloyd Hahn, who is following him in