Rowing and Track Athletics (extract)

300 Track Athletics tick determines whether or not a man shall be athletically famous, it seems only right and proper to recall the fact that our rigidly meas– ured distances are somewhat arbitrary, and to remember, in saluting the champion, the vast army of plucky chaps who have eaten their hearts out and been forgotten because, by a hand's breadth, perhaps, they were fated to be classed among those who also ran. The crouching start which distinguishes mod– ern sprinting form from that of the early days did not come into vogue until the early nineties. It is now universally used. There had been up to that time two variations of the standing start - the so-called "theoretical " and the " Sheffield " or pro– fessional start. In the "theoretical" start the run– ner put either the right or left foot on the mark, but always the opposite arm was thrust forward. In the " Sheffield" start either the right foot and the right arm, or the left foot and the left arm, were put forward. It was asserted by the advocates of each of these starts that it brought the arms and legs into the best position for most easily and speedily falling into the motion used in running, and there are men to-day, who used these starts when they were in college years ago, who cannot be convinced that they were not faster than the now universal crouching start. That the crouch– ing start is faster, however, there is no longer any