Rowing and Track Athletics (extract)

Sprinting and American Sprinters 311 of men divide the records for these, so to speak, "trick" distances, but the most typical and con~ sistent performer was, perhaps, Edward B. Bloss of Harvard, '94. Bloss was essentially a short– distance sprinter. In his day he held the records for all the short distances up to seventy-five yards, and they were as follows: fifteen yards in 2t sec– onds; twenty yard in 2f seconds; thirty yards in Jt seconds; forty yards in 4-i seconds; fifty yards in sf seconds; and seventy-five yards in 7-g– seconds. These were absolutely authentic records, a thing which cannot be said positively of the perform– ances of some of the quick starters who have sub– sequently claimed to have shaved one-fifth of a second of Bloss's time. When Bloss first began to run he used the standing start, but he later adopted the surer and faster crouching one, and his style had the individuality of planting the rear foot unusually far back. From this brace he would leap away as though shot out of a gun and the way he would swarm away from the line for thirty or forty yards seemed to the men beside him as almost magical. Bloss, as might be expected, was a small, stocky runner with plenty of compact muscle. Duffey and vVefers both share with other less notable sprinters records in the short distances, and somewhat over a dozen printers are credited with 4f seconds for