Athletics of To-Day 1929

The Growth of Modern Athletics IJ competitions in amateur athletic sport might take place, and to afford as completely as possible to all classes of gentlemen amateurs the means of practising and competing against one another, without being compelled to mix with professional runners.'' At that time there were two classes, the (l gentle– men amateurs" and the (l amateurs" who formed themselves into tradesmen's clubs. Professional handicaps were then becoming more scarce, and many a u pro," unfortunately, found it more profitable to compete disguised as an amateur. From r866, both the Amateur Athletic Club and the London Athletic Club were destined to direct the course which English athletics, and perhaps it might not be too much even to say the course of athletics throughout the whole world, were to follow. For both clubs bore their full share of responsibility in those early days for moulding the English Open Athletic Champion– ships into their present form, although to the public of the early sixties it may have seemed that the two bodies w re working towards different ends. In the spring of they ar of its incep– tion the Amateur Athletic lub promoted the first English hampionship M eting and the events, then as now, were open to bona fide amateurs from all the nds of the earth. That meeting wa a conspicuous success and the first of the long line of Engli h hampionships still carried on successfully und r the gov rnm nt of the Amat ur Athletic Association, and int r– rupted only during the war perio , rgrs-rgr8. The r ults of that first hampionship m eting make inter– esting r ading and are giv n her for comparison with present day performances; ENGLISH CHAMPIONSHIPS, r866. roo yards, T. M. olmore, .U.A.C., rol secs. 440 yar s, J. H. Ridley, Eton oll g , 55 secs. 8o yards, . M. Thornton, .U.A.., 2 min . 5 secs. I mile, . B. Lawes, .U.A. ., 4 min . 39 s cs. 4 miles, R. C. Garnett, C.U.A.C., zr mins. 41 secs.