Athletics of To-Day 1929

32 Athletics of To-day but the entries for the three events numbered less than forty. The following year a number of members presented still more new cups, in commemoration of the late Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, and the number of events was increased to eight. By rgz8 the total had reached a dozen events, and there were 541 entries, representative of over half-a-hundred schools. In 1929, Throwing the Javelin and Throwing the Discus, events at which English athletes have proved extraordinarily inept, were added to the programme, in the hope that their practice at the schools will produce better results from British throwing men of the next adult athletic generation. The fact that the L.A.. kept this important meeting going throughout the War period has, undoubtedly, had much to do with the production of the fine teams of athletes we were able to send as the representatives of Great Britain to the post-war celebrations of the Olympic Games at Antwerp, rgzo, Paris, 1924, and Amsterdam, rgz8. At these three Olympiads, incidentally, Great Britain and the Dominions have done far better than did their forebears of the pre-War period. Another factor which must be held largely accountable for the improved position of Great Britain in international ath– letics is the much more prominent part taken nowadays in athletics by the University type of athlete. In rgrg there was constituted the Inter-University Athletic Board of Great Britain and Ireland, on which were represented the provincial Universi– ties of Aberystwyth, Bangor, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Durham, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham and Sheffield. This led to the tilling of a field, hitherto almost untouched. In due course, London and other institutions rallied to the movement, which included the holding of annual I.V.A.B. Championships, and a high standard of performance has now been reached. Here we may pause to remark that it was through this particular medium that the sprinting ability of J. E. London (L.U.A.C.), who finished s cond in the lympic roo metres, 1928, was first discovered. In the spring of 1925, J. E. London was picked to represent his University in the High Jump