Athletics of To-Day 1929

Putting the Shot 323 There was an amusing incident in connection with the shot putting on the same day, and I have often wondered since if the local it bobby" was more erudite than the rest of us, although we had a couple of rising barristers in the competition. Any– way, we beat up the local talent in the eliminating round, and I know I scraped into the final-thanks to a most generous handicap allowance. There never was a final, however, for an official was nearly brained through getting in the way of the shot, which the policeman promptly impounded, so perhaps, after all, he had heard of Edward Ill's statute. To revert, however, to early history. R. J. C. Mitchell, of Manchester, was a whale of an all-rounder. His championships are: Long Jump. High Jump. Pole Vault. Shot Put. -- I868 Igft. 8!ins. 5 ft. 8 ins. IO ft. 6! ins. -- I870 I9 ft. II! ins. 5 ft. 9 ins. IO ft. 3 ins. 33ft. o ins. I87I 20ft. 4ins. 5 ft. 6 ins. IO ft. I in. 38 ft. 8! ins. A wonderful list of performances which indicates that a good jumper may often make a fine shot putter and vice versa. This has been often proved and especially in the latest instance of A. I. Wahlstedt, who in I928 won the Finnish high jump championship at 6ft. I in. and took the shot putting title at 47ft. 6 in. From Bor's time, up to I882 no athlete succeeded in beating 40ft. in the English Championships, but that year a Northern policeman, G. Ross, from Patricroft, returned 42ft. 4 ins. His record was beaten in I885 by D. J. Mackinnon, a very hefty forward of the London Scottish R.F.C., at 43 ft. ot ins. Ross, I am told, had a style of his own which often troubled the judges, for the rule required that it the weight shall be put from the shoulder," but Ross, who was neither big nor quick, had an enormously strong arm and took full advantage of it. His action led the onlookers to believe that he was about to