Coaching and Care of Athletes

CHAPTER XVI THE QUARTER-MILE AND 400. METRES J N dealing with all racing distances from 4.40 yds. to a mile author and coach alike are bound to find themselves in something of a quandary at the moment, since we are in the midst of a transition period which is likely to produce even more staggering world's records than those at which we have marvelled during the last twenty years. Looking back, one realizes that it has taken the world of ath– letics an amazingly long time to understand the significance of the trend of modern evolution in middle-distance running. Up to the present it has been the conventional practice to place quarter-milers in two categories-( I) the men who combine sprinting and quarter-miling successfully and (2) those -who show equal merit at 440 yds. and 88o yds. Yet a third class, perhaps the most aptly styled middle-distance runners, are the men who combine the 88o yds. with the mile. While these tenets were unchallenged the 440 yds: remained an event sui generis, but, with the 400 yds. run nowadays as a race of exhaustion, the half-miler completing the distance with no more than ·6 sec. difference in the time of his two '440 yds. laps, and even the miler aiming to run each of the four 440 yds. laps in 6o secs. dead, it becomes increasingly difficult to deter– mine where sprinting ends and middle-distance running begins. If these statements seem puzzling you have only to turn to the records for confirmation and enlightenment. In I936 the United States negro A. F. Williams made a 400 metres (437 yds. I ft. 4l ins.) world's record of 46.·I secs., covering Ioo metres (I 09 yds. I ft. I in.) in I I· I secs., and 200 metres (2I8 yds. 2 ft. 2 ins.) in 2I·5 secs. When T. Hampson, Oxford University and Great Britain, in I932 won the Olympic titl-e at 8oo metres (874·89 yds.) in the world's record time of I min. 49·8 secs. he returned 54·8 secs. for the first 400 metres and 55 secs. for the second 400 metres. Finally, when S. C. Wooderson in I937 reduced the world's mile record to 4 mins. 6·4 secs. his times for each of the four laps of 440 yds. were 58·6 secs., 64 secs., 64·4 secs., 206 .