Athletics of To-Day 1929

--- - ~-- - - -------- -- --- -~ Relay Racing jump of 6 ft. 3 ins., defeated R. Landon, U.S.A. by an inch, the American having taken the Olympic title at 6 ft. 4! ins. In the British team that day were Englishmen, Irishmen, Scotchmen, and Welchmen, Australians, Canadians, South Africans, and New Zealanders, and every one of them gave of his best for the sake of the Empire. The second meeting between the great rival forces in athletics took place at Stamford Bridge, London, on Septemb r 25th, r924, after the eighth Olympiad at Paris and was witnessed by 22,000 people. Upon this occasion all the races were £ the relay order and all the field events w re t am comp titions in which the aggregates of the contestants suppli d th scores of each side. The Empire lo t by elev n ev nts to thr e vents, because our field events men were complet ly outclassed and our runners had not practised the passing of the baton. ut for the latter piece of bad staff work we might have won five or six events in tead of only three. The third meeting took place, again in ondon, on August rrth, r928, following th ninth Olympiad at Am terdam. This time our field vents men showed marked improv m nt and our hurdlers should have b en qual to theta k set th m, but a rough track and over-anxiety brought them to gri f, and bad baton changing in the flat races was again the major fault which brought us to disaster, America winning by igl t vents to six events. ~ orty-one thousand people, the second larg st crowd ever seen at an athletic m eting in England, witn s d th match. In the Mile Relay, America r turned 3 mins. I3~ s CS. and the Empire 3 mins. rs s CS., both times b ating the pr ious world's record. In the 400 metre Relay, the Am ri– can t am, which only won by inch s, quailed th world's r cord of 37 s c ., and in the Mile l\iedl y lay (440, 220, 220 and 88o yards) the ritish Empire t am mad an w r cord of 3 mins. 22! ecs. ew ritish r cord were stablish d in the Long Jump by E. B. Ham, U..A., 25ft. r in., and in the Pole Vault by L. Barnes, U. .A., I3 ft. 9 in . Perhaps the greatest triumph ver achi v d by a riti h relay team, not excluding our two Olympic wins, was the