Athletics of To-Day 1929

I IO Athletics of To-day world's record of 7 mins. sot secs. for z miles (4 x 88o yards) made at Franklin Field, Philadelphia, on May Ist, Igzo, by the combined Oxford and Cambridge Team (W. G. Tatham and H. B. Stallard, C.U.A.C., and W. R. Milligan and B. G. D. Rudd, O.U.A.C.) when they went to America to compete at the University of Pennsylvania Relay Meet. In the main, our Empire teams, both club and national, do not do so well as they should through insufficient training as teams. \Ve had a shocking example of this in the I,6oo metres relay event at Amsterdam in Igz8. Individually our m n are good enough at their own distances, but they se m to lack the genius for judging the finishing power of an incoming runner, and they do not put in nearly enough time in perfecting the standing start and that all-important feature of the game, the passing of the baton. The Polytechnic Harri rs are, p rhaps, an exception to this opinion, and, no doubt, things have improved a good deal since the Oxford and Cambridge Relay Meeting, which takes place annually in the hristmas Term, was instituted in Igzo. With the training of the men for running their individual distances, it is unnecessary for me to deal, since each event is di cussed separately in other parts of this book. Two things the captain of a relay team must know (I) th exact abilities of his own team, and (z) as much as he can find out about the quality of the teams by which his own will be oppos d. With that knowl dge to guide him he has then to decide the order in which his team is to run. And, ven so, h may have to change his plans at th last mom nt, the b tter to combat the arrang m nt of an oppon nt's t am. For thi r ason I am not in favour of th plan, som tim recomm nded, of training a team to run in a definite order and to come up on alt rnate sid s of the outgoing runner to save the troubl of hanging the baton from one hand to the oth r. (Se o. 4, late I3, where the incoming runn r of the 1 ading pair has handed ov r from the left side of the outgoing relay.) When this plan is adopted, No. I never practises the standing start, o. 4 practises receiv– ing the baton but do s not learn how to hand it over, and No . I,