Athletics of To-Day 1929

134 Athletics of To-day Another axiom of the great Oxonian was that "only in the rzo yards high hurdles do we find eleven winning posts in one race." He has laid it down also that the hurdler needs a higher average of intelligence than most other types of athlete. In support of this it may be stated that in the persons of the four starters in the r886 Oxford and Cambridge race which Croome won in r6i secs., there were combined one Rowing, one Cricket, one Rugby, two Hammer Throwing, and four Hurdling Blues, the presidents of both athletic clubs, two county cricketers, one champion figure skater, two holders of N.S.A. badges, two scratch golfers, four superb waltzers, one fellow of a most exclusive college, one University prizeman, four holders of scholarships or exhibitions, while the names of the quartette had appeared on seven occasions in some first class honours list. Mr. Croome's new theory of hurdling was that in taking the fence the leading leg should be kept practically straight, instead of being curled up, as shown in No. 4, Plate rg, in which the leading figure is the late Kenneth Powell, C.U.A.C., since this new action brought the seat of the athlete's shorts closer to the top rail of the hurdle, or, in oth r words, he did not have to lift his body so high as in the older method. Added to this, the straight-legger gets a margin of safety for his front foot, while the bent-legger, if he hits the hurdle with his knee or ankle-bone usually goes straight over. He decid d also that the opposite arm should go forward with the 1 ding 1 g (i.e., right leg, left arm and vice versa) and that the body should be sharply dipped to meet the rising thigh of the leading leg, so that the front foot might the more quickly g t to ground on the far side of the fence. In short, A. . M. Croome evolved the modern very fast hurdling form, to which various points of greater perfection have b n added in the years between to bring the record down to its present low figure. The five-figure sketch, given on the next page, illustrates the style roome used when he made his record of rsi secs. A. C. Kraenzlein, the great American hurdler of the beginning of the present century, I have been told, saw Croome's style