Rowing and Track Athletics (extract)

330 Track Athletz'cs runs, smashing conclusively the record in the longer event; he won the senior individual cross– country championship in 1892, and the ten-mile championship in 1891, 1893, and 1894. It was at these long events that the "Little Boy in Pink" was best. Many of the records which he made during the latter eighties still hold for various distances, from five miles, which he did in 25 minutes 23-f seconds, to nine and one-half miles, which he ran in 50 minutes 25-g- seconds. In speaking of cross-country running we shall have more to say of Carter. "Tommy" Conneff, the greatest of our adopted runners, came from Ireland soon after Carter. He already had a reputation as a fast man at the long distances in his native land, and he soon established his position as the fastest man at all but the longest distances on this side of the water. Conneff was an excellent example of the stocky, solidly built long-distance runner. Men of his type rarely seem to excel at the middle distances, where a certain amount of speed and great length of stride are necessary; but in the longer dis– tances, where endurance is the most potent factor, they often perform better than tall, slender men of great length of limb. Thus, while slender, long– legged Meyers might run at one hundred twelve pounds, Conneff was a short, chunky chap, scarcely more than five feet in height, and built like a