Athletics of To-Day 1929

Athletics of To-day bowl the shot, but just before the delivery he snapped his elbow into his side and so got it behind the shot and the hand to the shoulder in the orthodox position. Prior to his day W. G. Winthrope, C.U.A.C. and L.A.C., took three titles and almost reached 40ft. He was a man who loved to use his tremendous strength, and many of his feats are now legendary, such as the uprooting with his bare hands of a flagstaff at a certain seaside resort. ]. S. Mitchell, who succeeded McKinnon, was one of the Irish giants. In r885 he commenced his athletic career as a sprinter of considerable merit, but in r886 turned his attention to the shot and hammer events and took the English titles at 38ft. r in. and rro ft. 4 ins. respectively ; between that year and rgo5 he took five English, seventeen Irish, twenty-five U.S.A. and fourteen Canadian national championships, besides twenty American Metropolitan titles in weight putting, hammer and discus throwing. His best event was the 56 lb. weight, in which his world's record of 35 ft. rot ins. stood from r894 until Matt McGrath, U.S.A., raised it to 40 ft. 6i ins. in rgrr, but Mitchell reached I45 ft. with the r6lb. hammer and was always right in the first flight of shot putters. He was certainly due to win the I4 lb. stone throwing event at the Athenian Olympic celebration in rgo6, in which Georges Georgantas, Greece, at 65ft. 4! ins. beat M. Sheridan, U.S.A., 62 ft. 4t ins., Mitchell having been one of the half-dozen men aboard the Barbarossa who were knocked over by a big wave the second day out from New York, and as his shoulder was dislocated he was unable to compete at Athens. America throughout the eighties had a great shot putting champion in F. L. Lambrecht, Pastime A.C., who took the record up to 43ft. But in r887 George Gray, a medium-sized Canadian of under thirteen stone, whose physique did not appear remarkable, took the American title at 42 ft. 3 ins. In the following year he was again American champion at 42ft. rol ins., and also crossed the Atlantic to win the English title with a new championship record of 43 ft. 7 ins., upon which perfonnance he improved at Dublin in the same month by