Athletics of To-Day 1929

Throwing the Javelin 2 55 The years of evolution up to the outbreak of War were full of amusing incidents. On one occasion the late A. E. Flaxman and I were walking through Leeds on our way to a sports meeting at Roundhay, each carrying a javelin, when we heard our purpose, thus armed, discussed by two street arabs, who decided we were going et eel-sticking." With us the et free style'' obtained for some further years and nearly led to more than one case of manslaughter. I think it was an Irishman named Cremin, or it may have been Eustace, who hit upon the notion of grasping the 8! ft. spear by the extreme tip of the tail, whirling it around his head, and letting it fly. One afternoon he performed his famous et wheel feat'' at the Crystal Palace and landed the steel-headed weapon clean through the big drum, whereupon the indignant drummer instantly broke the offending missile, and I heard W. E. B. Henderson remark, et Extraordinary thing-the antipathy all these javelin throwers seem to have to music." In 1913 we all got down to the orthodox et Held in the Middle '' style and the late F. 0. Kitching (No. 2, Plate 38) put the British national record up to 143 ft. 3 ins., while Oswald Pirow, South Africa, won the last English Championship held under the auspices of the A.F.E.A. at 142ft. 3t ins. The next year, the A.A.A. took over the event, and N. Koczan came over from Hungary and won it at 195 ft. II ins., and I think that Kornerup Bang, a magnificent Dane, who fell fighting for England in France, was second. America, meanwhile, had taken up the event. The late Ralph Rose, who h ld the world's shot putting record for many years, took the first A.A.U. Javelin Throwing title, rgog, at 141 ft. 7 ins., and by rgr6, G. A. Bronder, Jr., Irish-American A. C., had improved the American record to rgo ft. 6 ins. Neither Great Britain nor America was represented by javelin throwers at the fifth Olympiad at Stockholm in rgrz, when two types of contest were again included, because the Swedes are very keen on developing both sides of the body equally. Throwing in both events, however, was in the orthodox style. Eric Lemming took the best hand throw at