Athletics of To-Day 1929

The Marathon Race 121 ever returned for the full Marathon journey is that of J. C. Mills, of Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia, who returned 2 hours 25 mins. 40! secs. in the Boston Marathon of Igz6, beating Albin Stenroos, Olympic victor of I924, by nearly four minutes. The best Olympic time is that of Hannes Kolehmainen, Finland, who, in Igzo, covered the Marathon course at Antwerp in z hours 32 mins. 35 secs. In Plate IS, No. 4 is a portrait of Kolehmainen, whose road work may also be seen in No. I, Plate I2, while No. 6, Plate IS, is of Albin Stenroos. It is the standardising of the course from Windsor Castle to Stamford Bridge, however, that gives us the best chance of assessing the improvement that has taken place in Marathon running. In Igog, Barrett made the journey in 2 hours 42 mins. 3I secs., as stated above, but in Igz8, H. Payne, an old cross-country runner (No. I, Plate IS), made a new record for this particular course of 2 hours 34 mins. 34 secs. Since then, orporal . Ferri , R.A.F. (No. z, Plate IS) has won the Liver– pool tt Civic Week" Marathon in 2 hours 33 mins., but the race, although of the standard distance, was run over a different route and in a diff rent part of the country. In Igzo and I924 the performanc s of the young Boston farmer, A. . Mills, who won the Polytechnic event in I92 , I92I, and I922, finishing second in I923 and third in I924, D. McLeod-Wright, cotland, Ist, I924, and S. Ferris, who made hi debut in reaching second place to the Scotsman, gave Great Britain every right to hope for Olympic victories at Antwerp and Paris, for the qualities of Kolehmainen and Stenroos were not well known beforehand, but Mills wore himself out with too much racing before the Igzo Games, and at Paris neither he nor Wright finished the course, the latter having trouble with his foot bandages. Ferris, although still lacking in exp rience, was placed fifth, immediately ahead of M. Plaza, a bigly built hilean, and A. El uafi, a diminutive French-Arab, who had se n service in Morocco against the force of Abd-el-Krim, thus improving his distance work in a very hard school as a despatch runner to the French Army. Ferris's time was 2 hours 52 mins. 26 secs., that of laza,