Athletics

WALKING. 83 himself good enough to enter acontest. Even ifhe can do about 8 min. 15 sees, hemay try his luck, but with little hope of success; for until he has proved his capabilities he cannot expect a very long start, and if he can only accomplish eight minutes he will require a much longer mark than he is likely to receive at the first time of entering, to be in the hunt with a flyer at scratch. The writerhas won an open mile in as slow time as 8 min.14 sees. If the powers ofthe scratch man are known, a man can easily calculate what chance he has from any mark he may be allotted. By substracting his start (seconds) from his time, the result will show what time the. scratchman will have to accomplish in order to win. Formerly nearly all walking races were handicapped by time—decidedly the best way; but starters and "dockers " made such a sad jumble of despatching the men at their correct intervals of time, that the present writer, in order to obtain tangible results of the men's performances, was compelled to intro­ duce yards start (instead of time allowances) in public handicaps, and his action has been almost universally copied. Not muchneed be said about trainingfor walking. It is very much the same as training for any other sport; but, to repeat our early advice, fast travelling must not be thought of till the athlete has learned io walk, only a man generally goes further in practice, in relation to the dis­ tance, thanwhen running; a mile is the general trial tramp, unless the racebe longer, but for a two miles racea mile or mile and a half is generally sufficient. The pains and penalties tobe endured while breaking in for walking are more severe than for any other sport. The chief of these is shin-soreness, produced by the peculiar flapping action of the feet and unaccustomed movement of

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