Coaching and Care of Athletes

COACHING AND CARE OF ATHLETES case have remained_under their charge for no longer than three or possibly four years, one thinks at once of a number of names which in the generation of their owners have been hQusehold words , not only in British but also in international sport. Of Thomas's Oxford stars of the post-War period one re– members Arthur Porritt, who finished third in the Olympic sprint in I924, B. D. G. Rudd _(Plate XII, Fig. 38), Olympic 400 metres champion in I920, E. A. Montague (Plate XIII, Fig. 4I), a finalist in the Olympic 3000 metres steeplechase in 1924, and J. F. Comes, who was runner-up in the Olympic 1500 metres in I932 and a finalist in I936, when J. E. Lovelock, also of Oxford University, won the Olympic championship in world's record time. Of the Oxford hurdlers and field-events men mention should be made ofR. St G. T. Harper (Plate V, Fig. I2), who was an Olym– pic finalist in the I 10 metres high h~rdles at Los Angeles in I932, C. E. W. Mackintosh, placed sixth in the Olympic long jump in 1924, and M . C. Nokes (Plate IV, Fig. Io), the English hammer– throwing record-holder, who, also in I924, .took third place in the Olympic hammer-throwing championship, besides winning the British Empire Games title and establishing a record in I930 and 1934 respectively. Alec Nelson's Olympic men, trained at Fenner's, provide a glorious company. In I920 H. M. Abrahams represented Great ' Britain in the Olympic Games at Antwerp, but did not reach the final of either the IOO or the 200 metres, and was placed twentieth in the broad jump at I9 n: IO! ins. G. M. Butler, however, ran second to B. D. G. Rudd in the 400 metres, in which E. J. Ains– worth-Davis was fifth. Both Ainsworth-Davis and Butler, more– over, were in the British team which won the 4X 400 metres relay event. Nelson, who, incidentally, had acted as coach to the British Olympic team at Stockholm in 1912, had great cause to be proud of his Cambridge pupils when the Olympic Games were held at Paris in 1924. H. M. Abrahams, coached by Nelson before being taken over by Mussabini, won the Olympic IOO metres in ro·6 secs ., thus equalling the Olympic record, and was placed sixth in the 200 metres final. At 400 metres G. M. Butler was placed third, and figured also with G. R. Renwick, of Oxford, in the British I 500 metres relay team which took third place to America and Sweden. Lord Burghley (Plate V, Fig. 14) made his first appearance in Olympic competition at.Paris in that year, 32