Rowing and Track Athletics (extract)

Track Athletics - to acquire an initial momentum, so to speak, which he can maintain through the other one hundred five yards. There are only fifteen yards in which to work up this head of steam, and it is not an easy thing to do; but if the runner is going slowly when he reaches the first of the high hurdles he will be pretty sure to be slow all the way through. In the low hurdles the mere taking of the obstacle does not require t~e same sort of perfected skill to negotiate the high fences, but the mere fact that the race is pretty much a sprint makes the acquirement of perfect ease and rhythm in hurdling an essential. The spacing of the strides and the choice of take-off foot are matters of technique, which vary more or less with individual athletes, but are of equal impor– tance in both events. It was not until the early nineties that Ameri· can amateurs attained anything like good average form in the hurdles. The average time in which each of the hurdle events was run during the eighties was anywhere from 1 to 2t seconds slower than is now considered first-class hurdling. A. A. Jordan of the Manhattan Athletic Club was one of the first of our athletes really to per· form at the hurdles with distinction. Jordan won the high-hurdle national championship four years in succession, in 1885, 1886, 1887, and 1888- the latter year in 16f seconds. Ducharme of the