Athletics of To-Day 1929

Athletics of To-day Beeson, of the same University and using the same style, brought Horine's record up to 6ft. 7 1 6 -,; ins. and more recently Harold M. Osborn (see Plate 24) has really brought 7ft. in sight by clearing 6ft. 8! ins. In the same year he set the Olympic record at 6ft. 6 ins., went half an inch higher in Scotland, and equalled the A.A.A. Championship record of 6 ft. 4 ins. made by P. Lewden, France, in 1923. In 1925 he set the world's indoor record at 6ft. 6! in. Osborn, who is of medium height, thick-set and very strong, used much the same H Western Roll " form as Horine and Beeson, but seems almost to have rediscovered it on his own account. As a boy Osborn was keenly interested in athletics, but had a secret ambition to become a Marathon runner. It never entered his head that he might one day become world's record holder for both the decathlon, that severest of all athletic tests, and the running high jump. His decathlon training started in his country home, to and from which he used to run three miles each day to attend school, and where, with his two elder brothers, he stagedmany private athletic m etings. Their hurdles, jump standards, and vaulting poles were all fashioned from hickory cut in the home woods ; they used the head of a broken maul for a shot, and they read every scrap of athletic lit rature they could lay their hands on. At high school young Osborn ran a half mile in 2 mins. 13 secs., a mile in 5 mins. 7 secs., and cleared 5 ft. 3 ins. in the high jump and 20 ft. in the long jump. Th n he happened to read an article in the American Boy, describing how Alva Richards of Utah had won the Olympic high jump at Stockholm. Boy– like,hetriedtoimitate :Uchards'sstyleasdescrib din thearticle. In reality he developed something entirely different. For Richards used to go over the bar rolled up in a ball, whereas Osborn began by pushing his feet well to the left in a real lay-out, which approximated to theW stern oil form. That was in 1917, at which time Osborn's limit in the old H scissors" style had been 5 ft. 3 ins. The new style gave him 5 ft. 7i ins., and th n Gill, the University of Illinois coach, changed him from the straight in front approach to a run from the left side of the