Bredin on Running & Training

24 RUNNING AND TRAINING. run good quarters, though they can hardly be classed as sprinters proper, the best of whom was undoubtedly Hutchins. He would probably have been able (both at their best) to give Myers, who I take as represent– ing the fmest strider, twelve yards start in 300, and it is difficult to believe that the American, fine finisher though he was, would not have been many yards behind when the worsted was broken at the end of a 440 yards race between them. However, to leaye surmises and return to facts. B. J. Wefers, one of the finest American amateur sprinters of late years, and very fast at 300 yards, was defeated by T. E. Burke in a level quarter, the latter being a striding man and capable of running well up to half a mile. I am informed that on this occasion Wefers laid himself out to win by his method of training, and was only beaten by a yard in about forty-nine seconds, so that with these two men, at any rate, this distance brought them well together. Pace– making, in vogue principally at the Universities, and especially during the Inter- 'Varsity sports, where men are started with no other object than that of pulling the "crack" along, may be certainly a help to either class of guarter-miler, but it IS ruinous to the sprinter's chance of success should he be meeting a long-striding man about his equal, and the pace-maker fail to travel fast enough. Its best points, however, are that the air is broken by the front men, who also act as a shield in facing a wind, and owing to the fact that it is certainly much easier to hang on behind, with someone to lead the way, than to precede the field, perhaps with the unpleasant consciousness that the strain is beginning .II I!