Sporting and Athletic Records

I N T R O D U C T I O N THE tables which follow hardly need an introduction, but it may not be amiss to take one brief glance at the field of Athletic achievement spread out before us. It did not want the setting out of World's Records toprove the overwhelming superiority of Englishmen in almost everybranch ofAthletics. Practically they are the World's Record-holders, thoughere and there, notably in long distance cycling and at short sharp bursts of speed or in feats denoting nimbleness and spring rather than strength and endurance, they,have to acknowledge for the present the superiority of others. This point therefore need not detain us. But it is worth while to make a comparison between the different modes of progression known to man in relation to one or two standard tests of time and distance. In the following comparisons are included only those modes of pro­ gression in which man gets over the ground by great and special muscular effort of his own exerted atthe time. The standards selected are, for distance, the quarter-mile and the mile, and for time, the hour, day and week. The former are tests of speed and the latter of endurance. With regard to the first table it should be noted that for a hundred yards or so a man can run at the rate of about 11 yards a second (when going) or at a rate of 22 Va miles an hour. Over the same distance swimming he can move through the water at the rate of about 3^4 miles an hour.