Athletics of To-Day 1929

The High Hurdles IJ7 r6 and rg), instead of letting only the arm opposite to the leading leg go forward. Next he started his hurdle clearance action with a high-pick-up of the front knee before letting the front foot go forward to clear the top of the fence, to make the step-over action more true in character. Finally he added the trick of picking the rear knee right up to the shoulder, as seen in the picture of Weightman-Smith, so that, as the body straightened up from the dip to the sprinting angle (see Fig. 3, Chapter II), the rear leg should be properly disposed for a full and complete stride forward. A week before the Olympic hurdle race at Antwerp in 1920, Thomson pulled a muscle in the front of his leg. He got it patched up, but it went again in the first heat, and y t he qualified second to H.E. Barron, U. . A., who equalled world's record. In the semi-final he got through in IS secs. flat and in the final returned r4t secs for a world's record. On May 29th, 1920, at the I.A.A.A. Meet he set the world's 120 yards High Hurdles mark at I4i secs., and in rg2r, at the first ational Collegiate A.A. hampionships, produced the same tim , with some unofficial timekeepers returning him a fifth of a second faster. Thomson reckoned to allow himself two or thre weeks to get fit; then he put in most of his training time working for form, running a quarter mile once a week and striding through 2so to 300 yards three or four times a week. He used to do a lot of jogging too, and never ran the full distance over ten flights more than once a week. Hurdling progress, however, has not been confined entirely to America, although it was in that country that Thomson, the Canadian, built up his t chnique. w den has produc d two really great hurdles in hristiernsson and Sven Pettersson, the latter credited with I4! secs., while H. Tro s– bach, who holds the G rman record of 14 secs., must be reckoned in the first flight. ew Zealand gave us H. Wilson, a very good man who fini hed fourth in the 1920 Olympic final, while outh Africa has been a power to reckon with ever since V. Duncker came over in rgo8 and won the English Champion-