Coaching and Care of Athletes

COACHING AND CARE OF ATHLETES the British Empire Games in London on August 7, 1934. A beauti– fully compact runner standing just under 6 ft., Rampling was creditea in an international match with running his leg of a relay in 46 secs., and probably showed even faster time than that in the final of the 4 X 400 metres relay at the Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936. Rampling has been succeeded in the British ranks by A. G. K. Brown, Cambridge University (Plate XXIII, Figs. 66-69), and W. Roberts, of Salford Harriers. It is hard to say which is the greater quarter::miler, but each represents a distinct type. Roberts, whose best time is 47·1 secs. for 440 yds. and 46·8 secs. for 400 metres, has enjoyed distinction at distances from roo yds. to the quarter-mile, but not beyond that distance. Brown, on the other hand, is extremely versatile. At Cambridge he established three undergraduate records-i.e., roo yds . .in 9'7 secs., 440 yds. in 48·r secs., and 88o yds. in I min. ss·6 secs. He is the holder also of the Oxford and Cambridge Sports 440 yds. record of 48·4 secs., and at the Olympic Games in 1936 was narrowly beaten for first place in the 400 metres by A. Williams, U.S.A., ' who returned 46·5 secs. Brown's time was 46·7 secs. It says much for modem quarter-miling that at the Olympic Games in 1936 the four men occupying the premier positions in the '400 metres final all returned times better than 47 secs. B. G. D. Rudd, Oxford University and South Mrica, who won the Olympic 400 metres at Antwerp in 1920, was as versatile as Brown. He repre– sented Oxford against Cambridge in the roo yds., 440 yds., 88o yds., and long jump, with brilliant success, and also South Mrica in the Olympic Games at 400 metres, which he won, and at 8oo metres, in which race he was third. The men I have mentioned represent the great -quarter-milers of all time. They range from thickset individuals of medium height, like Liddell, Rudd, and Meredith, to such upstanding quarter-milers as A. G. K. Brown, Guy Butler, of Cambridge University and Great Britain, and W. E. Stevens, of Oxford University and America. Yet a third type is represented by the thin, lightly built athlete, to which class belong Lon Myers, Ben Eastman, and H. C. L. Tindall. Style in the quarter-mile varies but little, especially in these days, when the distance is run as a race of exhaustion, with the runner going practically flat out from pistol-flash to finishing– post. 210