Athletics of To-Day 1929

Athletics of To-day British record of r4t secs., but the English High Hurdles title has steadily eluded him. That Lord Burghley owes much to Alec Nelson there is no doubt, but he owes even more to his own fighting spirit and his genius for patient perseverance. Many an hour he has spent practising over a couple of hurdles in his garden, but an accident in early life has impaired his high hurdling style a trifle, in that he is compelled to throw his leg across a bit instead of getting the full stride, step-over action. This circumstance has not, however, bothered him at the longer distance and over the lower fences. F. R. Gaby, Polytechnic A.C., is something of at( wonder" athlete, for at thirty-three years of age he was still winning English Open hampionships and equalling British r cord of 14 secs. I well remember him in the early days after the War, when I came home from East Africa and, with \V. E . B. Henderson, used to put in an evening or two a week coaching the olytechnic field events m n and hurdlers in the Regent Street Gymnasium during th winter months. Gaby was in France as an airman from rgr4 to rgrg and had won several sprint races from roo to 440 yards. He ' as tall and spare and somehow did not look like shaping as a r ally great sprinter, although he had acquired Mu abini's style to p rfection. I think (( am" saw him hurdling in the gym. one night; anyway, he took him in hand and created him as a hurdler. Gaby, of course, was a ke n, painstaking, and in– t llig nt pupil, and had he pos essed a little more height and weight would have been a world-b ater, but it takes all of twelv stone to make a world's r cord-breaker, and I hould say Gaby tipp the cale at n ar r t n ton . ut, still, he put in an enormous amount f time at sp cial ex rcises, studying form and training to schedule. In rgzo-zr h won some big events, but f 11 at the last hurdle in th A.A.A. Championships. He gained the title in rgzz in rsi secs. ; I923, I5t secs.; 1925, I5t secs.; 1926, I5/~r SeCS; and 1927, 14 ~secs., probably one of the finest collections of champion– ships the world has ever seen.