Athletics of To-Day 1929

2JO Athletics of To-day hands and a slow run-up. At the end of the approach run the tripod was planted some 3 ft. in front of the crossbar. The athlete then allowed his body to swing up and began to climb. The upper hand was shifted a foot up the pole and the lower hand brought up to it. The climbing continued until the pole had passed the vertical position. As it began to fall forward the athlete drew up his knees and went over the bar in a sitting position, a last backward push preventing the pole from following through to remove the bar. The Ulverston style obtained until r88g. The American athletes contended that the performances of Ray and Stones were nothing but acrobatic balancing feats, requiring neither strength nor endurance, and a new rule was passed prohibiting the athlete from shifting the grip of the upper hand and from placing the lower hand above the upper hand after the feet have left the ground. About this time too several men suffered death by impalement, through their wooden poles snapping transversely, and the pole vault began to disappear from the programmes of British school sports. The American athletes, meanwhile, had adopted the use of light poles of female bamboo, bound between the joints with medical strapping, the general use of which has contributed in no small measure to the marvellous heights now obtained, since the lightness of such poles allows the athlete to get his hands together for a strong, double-arm pull. The tripod has vanished, the lower end of the pole being now fitted with a wooden plug which is jabbed into a slideway, such as may be seen in Fig. 22 (page 237). Another advantage of the light pole is that it allows the athlete to run much faster, while keeping his shoulders square to the front. The introduction-or should one say the rediscovery ?-of Van Houten's style by R. G. Clapp set the ball of record break– ing rolling; 12 ft. was in sight and in 1904 N. Dole, U.S.A., beat it by r ~ ins. Six years went by with the record gradually creeping up, and L. S. Scott, U.S.A., had reached 12 ft. rot ins. by rgro ; then, in rgr2, M. S. Wright cleared 13ft. 21 ins., and the age-old question, which has been asked