Athletics of To-Day 1929

PART li-The Track Events CHAPTER II THE SPRINTS- lOO TO 300 YARDS RuNNING, considered as a sport, provides the most primitive form of exercise and has been in vogue from the earliest times. An event in the Olympic pentathlon of the ancient Greeks was the simple foot race (op6f-Lo ) , a little over 200 yards in distance, one length of the stadium course, and was run straight from start to finish. No record of the times returned by the Greek runners has come dmvn to us. "Sprinting" is the generic term applied to the running of such short distances as a man can cover at top speed in one continuous effort. The distances and conditions of running are now stereotyped, and 300 yards has been determined as the limit of sprinting distance. For many years the belief prevailed that no special set of physical attributes distinguished the sprinter from any other type of athlete. By the early eighties of the last century however, athletic authorities had come to recognize as characteristic of men capable of producing great speed for a short distance such attributes as large muscular thighs and a broad back, and as long as a man" stripped big" nothlng else was held to matter. It was, however, understood that the front muscles of the thigh, which bring the leg forward, were the more important to the sprinter, since speed depends upon the rapid repetition of the stride. In 1903 Dr. Phillips, of Amherst, U.S.A., made an exhaustive study of the physical make-up of seventy-four first class sprinters in an attempt to ascertain from what source sprinting power is derived. His observations, combined with the measurements he took, suggest the following combination of qualities as typical of the ideal sprinter : I. A skeleton rather lighter and taller than the average. 2. A brachycephalic head, i.e. a skull that is short and broad. 38