The Athletes and Athletic Sports of Scotland

THE CHAMPIONSHIP—RIVALCLAIMANTS. 113 neither M'Hardy nor Ross could take athird prize at present against the home athletes. At wrestling D. Dinnie is till well ahead of all other Scottish athletes. The foregoing facts, based on actual performances, show that no Scottish athlete abroad has any right to claim championship honours for any of the five feats of strength practised at Scottish games, exceptD. Dinnie at wrestling. The seasonof 1891 has madelittle changein the relative positions of the leadingathletes in Scotland, excepthat G. H. Johnston has not been so often first with the hammer, although he has improved his record with the 16^ lb.hammer at Aboyne, which is now in ft. 3 in., and Donald M'Donald has fairly divided the honours at caber-tossing with K. M'Rae. WHAT CONSTITUTES AN ALL-ROUND CHAMPION?— Coming to the question ofwho is all-round championathlete, that isa sub­ ject much in need of a discussion. Recently D. Dinnie issued the following notice :—" I, Donald Dinnie, having heldthe all- round athletic championship of the worldfor over a quarter of a century, now hand the title over to Charles M'Hardy, of Goul- burn. New South Wales, late of Aberdeenshire, and will back him against any athlete in the world to win a majority of the following events." Now, with all respect to D. Dinnie, this was avery absurd proclamation. In the first place the fact of D. Dinnie saying he has handed over such a title to C. M'Hardy does not give C. M'Hardy the slightest right to hold it. The all-round or any championship can be acquired only by winning it, or proving ability to win it, neither of which M'Hardy has done as yet. In the secondplace, in challenges of the so-called all-round championship class, each challenger names a certain number of feats to suit himself. Now, itis simply the heightof absurdity for any one athleteto say that the listof feats that he picks out, because he thinks hehas the best chance to win a majority of them, are the feats that all other athletes must be bound to perform who aspire to championship honours. Every civilised nation haschampion athletes at different athletic feats. Alist of feats to excel in which would entitle anathlete to style