Athletics of To-Day 1929

CHAPTER XII THE STEEPLECHASE-I,320 YARDS, 3,000 METRES, AND 2 MILES STEEPLECHASING at sports meetings, as distinct from cross– country running, paper-chasing, and the old-time game of hare and hounds, is a fairly modern and somewhat artificial sport. This is not written disparagingly, for there are few, if any, contests that call for greater grit, staying power, pace judgment, and physical clev mess. It is a sport, moreover, at which a smart man over th hurdles and water jump will often beat a runner who can give him yards on the fiat. This was well prov din the early seventies, when the ivil Service runner, C. J. Michod, who might have b n a great distance man, had he not lacked finishing speed, took up steeplechasing and became so really expert in negotiating the hurdles and water jump that he ran the great W. Slade, L.A.C., clean out of a steeplechase contest in which they met. The advantage Michod gained from his excellent technique may be judged by the fact that lade took the A.A.A. 4 miles flat champion– ship of r874 in zo mins. 52 secs., and held the I mile titl from r873 to r877 inclusive, returning as his best time 4 mins. 29 secs. te plechasing and hurdling both derive from the same sourc . In the earliest days of organized athletics steeple– chasing stood as a test of distance running C'U?n jumping, while hurdling provided a field for the sprinter who fanci d himself also as a jumper. This theory is supported by the circumstance that at the first Oxford and ambridge Sports Meeting in r864, there were included a 2 miles teeplechas , in which R. arnett beat his f llow ambridge lue, . E. Webster, by 6 yards in ro mins., and two hurdl rac s at rzo and zoo yards r6r M