Rowing and Track Athletics (extract)

420 Track Athletics Brighton in comparatively bracing sea air. Instead of attempting to acclimate themselves in England, they did their hard training in this country, tried to keep in fair shape while on board ship, and only took a few days for preparation and for getting the feel of the Queen's Club track. As a result the team was in better shape than any other team that had been sent abroad, and had not one man been actually ill, it would almost certainly have won. The acknowledged superiority of English distance runners would suggest that in the long run the English climate assists in producing stay– ing power. Certainly the Englishmen have that quality, and in the acquiring of it an atmosphere which discourages speed and conserves rather than excites nervous activity may well be assumed to play a part. One cannot go far in the consideration of in– ternational games and the lessons to be learned from them without becoming entangled in the eternal question of the relative merits of the English and American attitudes toward sport. The lament over the seriousness with which we take our college contests has long ceased to be original, and the charm of English outdoor sports is something that we all have got into the habit of admitting with a sigh. That we have taken, and do take, our sports too painfully goes without saying, and it is not strange that an undergradu-