Athletics of To-Day 1929

The Pole Vault 2JI about every field events record, (( Is another level foot pos– sible ? " was asked again, but was not to be answered for another fifteen years. Meantime other nations were becoming efficient, and by rgo6, when the intermediate series of Games took place at Athens, France was able to find the world's champion in F. Gonder (No. r, Plate 32), who cleared rr ft. 6 ins., and had beaten r2 ft. previously, while B. Soderstrom (No. 2, Plate 32), second at rr ft. rt ins., came from Sweden. E. Glover, U.S.A., third at rr ft., was the only competitor who still used the old– fashioned heavy wood pole, all the Continentals preferring the safer and more pliant bamboo. Gonder, who was a small, light man, vaulted with the lower hand reversed wrongly and went over flat on his back, as shown in No. I, Plate 32. Soderstrom, on the contrary, used the correct grip and had a neat reverse kick, as seen in No. 2, Plate 32, but the hand stand position, or 11 jack-knife" clearance, had not at that time been invented. Gander had won the A.A.A. title, rgo5, at ro ft. 7 ins., and Soderstrom came over to win in rgo7 at ro ft. 6 ins. For the rgo8 Games, Canada sent to England a very good man, E. B. Archibald (No. 3, Plate 32). He raised champion– ship record to r2 ft., but was beaten at the Games by a couple of Americans, who went 2 inches higher. From the scientific point of view it is interesting to note that E. T. Cook, who tied for first place with A. C. Gilbert, was nineteen years of age, weighed ro stone 6 lb. and stood 5 ft. rot ins. Gilbert's particulars were twenty-four years old, ro stone 5lb., 5 ft. 7 ins., and Archibald twenty-five years, I2 stone 7 lb., 6 ft. Great Britain was unable to find a single representative for this event and was unrepresented again at Stockholm, rgr2, and at Antwerp, rg2o. The pole vault at Antwerp I shall remember for many a day. Four Americans, three Swedes, and two Danes qualified for the final by clearing r2 ft., but when it was called on, the rain was coming down in torrents. The men moved about miserably, wrapped in overcoats and rugs, and with their poles protected