Athletics of To-Day 1929

CHAPTER XIV THE WALKS THE sport of walking has enjoyed a longer and a greater popularity in England than elsewhere, although of late years Italy and Denmark have produced some really great exponents of the (t heel and toe" code of foot racing. Foster Powell, mentioned in Chapter IX, probably gave modern athletics their general impetus towards standardized organisation and practice, but he was really neither walker nor runner, since his forte took the nature of (t go-as-you-please "contests over gr at distances. It is from aptain Barclay Allardice, whose triumphs have been mentioned in hapter I, that modern race walking may be said to derive. He was, by all accounts, a fine character, as well as a great athlete, and he inspir d the writing of the fir t book on Pedestriani m, which was published in Aberdeen by Mr. Waiter Thorn in r8r3. Needless to say, the f ats of aptain Barclay created an enormous amount of public interest in athletics and brought him a host of imitators, and in r864, when the xford and Cambridge Sports were started, walking was popular at both Universities, although no walking event has ever be n included in the Inter-Varsity Sports programme. At that period, seven miles was considered the prop r distance at which to test a man's walking speed and enduranc , and that was th distance of the walking vent included in the first English hampionship Meeting of r866. The first English champion was]. G. hamb rs, .U.A.C., a fine, tall athlete, who was opposed by three other University men. His winning time of 59 mins. 32 s cs. do s not strike one as anything remarkable, but he could certainly walk his seven 176