Bredin on Running & Training

"ODDS AND ENDS." 97 public are surfeited with athletic meetings in and near London on every Saturday from the beginning of April until the end of September. Unlike Association football, which seems to thrive anywhere and every– where, athletics have comparatively few admirers. I think this want of public patronage at sports is to a very great extent due to the fact that those spectators likely to be interested, and to acquire a love of non– active athletics, are driven away after a few visits to most grounds-such as Stamford Bridge, for instance– where the grand stand is situated in such a position as to prevent its occupants being able to see how a close race progresses and which of the competitors are leading in either straight. A grand stand should be parallel to, and about sixty yards from, the straight. When in such a position, the spectators seated therein can notice in each heat of a sprint, or finish of other races, the smallest variation in distance between the competitors. My earliest experience of such a one was on the old Crewe A.C . grounds, when for the first time it dawned upon me that a sprint race could be of interest to spectators sitting in comfort and under cover. R.T. H