Athletics of To-Day 1929

The Growth of Modern Athletics s Windsor in an hour and three-quarters. The absurdity of this is proved by comparison with the time of that other Italian, Pietri Dorando, in the Olympic Marathon race of Igo8. He covered the course from Windsor to Shepherd's Bush, some miles less than the distance to Hyde Park, in 2 hours 54 mins. 46! secs., and almost died at the end of the race, which he did not win, as he collapsed completely a few yards short of the winning post. . The system of training by which the pedestrians of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries prepared themselves for their matches was rigorous enough to kill any of our modern day young athletes, and those who are prone to kick against the pricks of th present day system may learn a lesson from Walter Thorn's book on Pedestrianism, published in I8I3. "\ccording to Mr. Thorn's advice on training, the athl te's diet should consist of beef, mutton, stale bread, strong beer, and lauber salts. Fish, butt r, eh e e, vegetables, and eggs were forbidden. Constant purging with medicines, the administration of an occa ional metic, and the inducement of. profuse sw ating by walking under a load of clothes and by lymg between feather beds are all recommended as being bene– ficial to the athlete in training. No wonder the poor fellow ne ded a certain quantity of strong beer I How compl tely s~ch a system is oppos d to our modern principles of training will app ar in a subsequ nt chapter. aptain Barclay Allardice, who always competed und r the name of arclay, made many sensational wagers and won many qually sensational match s, walking, for instance, I,ooo miles in I,ooo hours at Newmark t, and at the age of twenty-one years walking go miles in zr! hours for a wag r of £s,ooo. His p rformances at mor standardised distances will not strike the reader of to-day as remarkable. To the best of my knowl dge among his f st st times w re 440 yards in 56 s cs., and I mile in 4 mins. so s cs. Thes tim s do not compare favourably with the present world's records of ]. E. Meredith, U.S.A., 440 yards in 47i secs. (Igi6) and Paavo Nurmi, Finland, I mile in 4 mins. Ioi secs. (I923).