Athletics of To-Day 1929

Athletics of To-day In-1879, J. Van Houten, another member of the Scottish– American A.C., became American Champion at ro ft. 4! ins. He is mentioned especially, because he used much the same style as is employed by the record breakers of to-day, except that he knew nothing of the u hand shift," or vertical lift, and some of the other finer points of technique which have since developed. He was, however, a very light weight, and, as he needed only a light pole, was able to get his hands close together and thus got the advantage of a double instead of a single arm pull. Unlike the case of A. C. M. Croome's hurdling, referred to in Chapter X, the Americans, usually so quick to grasp any possibility of improved technique, saw nothing particularly meritorious in Van Houten's method. In r883, he was defeated by that great athlete, H. H. Baxter, N.Y.A.C., who four years later took the record up to rr ft. 5 ins. After that defeat Van Houten was seen in competition no more, and for best part of fifteen years his style also was lost sight of. I do not believe, however, that any good thing can be entirely lost, and in r8g8, R. G. Clapp, of Yale, re-introduced the style, which only the old hands, who had known Van Houten, remembered, and Clapp raised the record yet again to rr ft. rot ins. In the years between, men had b en vaulting with the hands widely separated and thumbs turned outwards, so that the lower hand had no pulling power, but merely used its grasp of the pole as a prop to the rising body. In England much the same ((method" was in vogue, and no one succeeded in b ating rr ft. in the first fourteen champion– ship years. But in r874, E. Woodburn, of the Ulverston Cricket lub, came south and improved Mitchell' champion– ship r cord by half-an-inch. rom that day onwards the lads of Ulverston might be se n any summer evening after their day's work vaulting among th cind r heaps of th Lan a hire town. Els wh r , I fancy, the event was pretty well confin d to sports meetings in country places. From ol new pap r files one learns that on August gth, 1873, one Woody v ult d 9 ft. 6 ins. at Alexandra Park Sports; in r875, at Nuneaton,