Athletics of To-Day 1929

-- ------ ----------------- Athletics of To-day ter that a 6 ft. man should be able to hurdle over a 3 ft. 6 ins. hurdle and under a cross-bar raised 5 ft. 9 2 ins. above the ground. With the low hurdles the case is different, and the low hurdler should cut out the body dip and tend to raise his body 2! ins. (i.e., the head of a 6 ft. man just grazes a bar set at 6 ft. 2! ins. as he goes over a 3 ft. hurdle) instead of ducking under a bar set at 5 ft. 9! ins. as does the high hurdler. I do not mean that a man should go over a low hurdle with his body perfectly upright, but that, instead of dipping his body, he should maintain it at the true sprinting angle (see Fig. 3, page 52) during the hurdle clearance. A careful study of the pictures illustrating this chapter will reveal most of the finer points of the low hurdler's action. No. r, Plate 2r, depicts the great race at the Pennsylvania Relay M eting in which Johnny Gibson, U.S.A. (leading) defeated T. . Livingstone-Learmonth (nearest camera) and Lord Burghley (the third :figur ). Gibson is going too high, has got his shoulders out of alignm nt, and has turned the lead– ing leg slightly over on to its side, which will make for a bad landing. Livingstone-Learmonth has straightened the leading leg rather too fully at the knee joint, but shows the correct body angle. No. 2 shows Lord Burghley (farthest from the camera) beating S. B. Kieselhorst (Yale) in the 220 yards (2 ft. 6 ins. hurdles) in 24 7 11 secs. at the International Inter-University Match in London, 1927. There is no fault to be found with the form of either man. Burghley's and Kieselhorst's stretch of the straight leading leg and good body angle are especially noteworthy features. No. 31, shewing the Oxford and Cambridge 220 yards Hurdles, 1927, portrays Lord Burghley again in perfect form. His pre– servation of the sprinting body angle and complete running form over the hurdle is remarkably good. Livingstone– Learmonth (farthest from the camera) reveals what happens to the athlete who tries to introduce the high hurdles body-dip into the low hurdles event. The forward dip is shortening his stride over the lower obstacle and has created a tendency to