Rowing and Track Athletics (extract)

Sprinting and American Sprinters 319 He was a rubber ball at the "trick" distances up to fifty yards, and the high-power machine for the last fifty yards of the hundred. The low, lightning-like scrambling start, such as men like Bloss were masters of, was Duffey's too, and he was able to add to it for the rest of the distance the steady express-locomotive action of the per– fect sprinter. Duffey covered the distance, ,as we have already said, in two bursts, so that he not only finished as strong as he started, but there was in the last twenty or thirty yards an explo– sive rush, corresponding somewhat to the rush away from the mark at the start, which was pecul– iarly effective in beating out his opponents. The limit of speed which the unaided human body, propelled by its own energy, can attain, has, obviously, very nearly, if not completely, been realized. The human body is at best but an awkward machine for producing speed. Any self-respecting hound or rabbit could make all our Duffeys and Weferses look like thirty cents. Every sprinter knows the difficulty of avoiding "climbing stairs" when stretching his stride to the utmost; tho e who overreach themselves and fall merely because the brain's ambitious com– mand cannot be obeyed by the muscles, the tendons that snap now and then at the supreme moment, show how weak are the runner's means compared with his desire. Some one may yet