Coaching and Care of Athletes

COACHING AND CARE OF ATHLETES In I92 I Mussabini sent Hill into the English A.A. A. Champion– ships with the idea of running each lap of the mile in exactly 62 secs. Hill drew the second station from the pole, and went straight into the lead, no doubt with the idea of controlling the race. Stallard and his fellow-Blue W. R. Seagrove pushed him hard, however, and then W. C. A. Findley, of the Herne Hill Harriers, rushed up to Hill's shoulder and forced him along, so that the initial 440 yds. lap was run in 59·6 secs.; and although Hill got back to his schedule by running the first 88o yds. in exactly 2 mins. 4 secs., those initial 440 yds. had so drained his resources that he fell away to 67·2 secs. in the third 440 yds., covering the second half-mile in 2 mins. 9·8 secs. Hill, however, returned 4 mins. I3·8 secs. for a new British amateur record, Stallard's time of 4 mins. I4'2 secs. also beating the previous British amateur record. Paavo Nurmi and his coachJaakko Mikkola held views similar to those put forward by Mussabini, and Nurmi had a 4 mins. 4 secs. mile in mind when he ran against Erling Wide, of Sweden, at Stockholm in I923. Wide, however, led at 440 yds. in 58·5 secs., with Nurmi at his shoulder, showing 58 ·6 secs. At 88o yds. they were level in 2 mins. I ·8 secs., but that fateful fast first lap had drained Nurmi's resources as much as those of Hill had been drained on a previous occasion, or the great Finn might well have achieved his object. Nurmi's lap times were 58·6, -63·2, 64·9, and 63·7 secs. respectively, but the second half-mile was 6·8 secs. slower than the first. · S. C. Wooderson, ofGreat Britain (Plate XXV, Fig. 7<:?), showed somewhat similar defects in I937, when he made his world's record of 4 mins. 6·4 secs., returning 58 ·6, 64, 64·6, and 59'4 secs. respec– tively for his 440 yds. laps. (See .page 2 I.) The lack of balance between Cunningham's first and second quarter when he made the indoor record of 4 mins. 4'4 secs. sug– gests that he may yet achieve the 4 mins. mile. His times were 58·5, 64, 6I ·7, and 6o·2 secs. He paid in the second quarter-mile for the excessive speed he used in the first. From the table opposite it will be seen that W. R. Bonthron, U.S.A., and J. E. Lovelock, New Zealand, were both caught out in the third lap of the epic world's record mile which they ran in I933, and that, apart from Conneff, Jules Ladoumegue, France, perhaps got nearer than any other mile record-breaker to level-pace track running, his second half-mile being only ·8 sec. 240