Athletics of To-Day 1929

The High Jump into world's record breakers because they are not given the encouragement of competition and training facilities, and even moderately scientific instruction is extraordinarily hard to come by. In the early sixties of the last century, when the Oxford and Cambridge Sports and the English Championships were founded, the English average of winning performances works out at approximately st ft., with 5 ft. 9 ins. the record at both meetings. At first the two Cambridge men, T. G. Little and ]. H. T. Roupell had things very much their own way and in the first English Championship of r866 shared the honours at 5 ft. 9 ins., and that record stood for five years. Two years later, R. ]. C. Mitchell, a wonderful all-round athlete, was discovered in Manchester and came to London to win the English high jump, 5 ft. 8 ins. In r870 and r87r he set up a record which, I think, has not yet been beaten, by winning four events on one afternoon in two consecutive years. Then M. J. Brooks and M. G. Glazebrook app ar d upon the scene. In r873 Brooks, then eighteen years of ag , won the Rugby School high jump at 5 ft. 3 ins. and the long jump at 20ft. 3 ins. His prowe s dated from the opening of the school gymnasium in that year. He was absolutely fearless and would jump a high hedge or a six-barred gate and at Rugby cleared the famous (( Butler's Leap," comprising a stout fence, rs ft. of wat r, and a drop of I2 ft., from a very short approach run. In r874, he went up to Oxford and pro– due d vastly improved form by taking the Inter-University high jump at 5 ft. ro ins., thus disposing of Mitchell's record by half-an-inch, and still further improving matters a week later at Lillie Bridge by winning his first English hampionship at 5 ft. rr ins. A sprain kept him out of competition during r875. In r876 h attained hi twenty-first year, stood 6ft. in height, and weighed just about rr ston . H was cleanly built, but rath r thin; he was, however, long, strong, and springy. This was his big year, for he first won the Oxford high jump at 6 ft. ot in. and the long jump at 2r ft. rr in ., th n the Inter-Varsity high jump at 6 ft. 2! ins., which still stands as