The Athletes and Athletic Sports of Scotland

RUNNING. 71 inducing competitors not to try their best, but to conceal their realabilities. When a runner seesan athletethat he knows can beat the world ata certain distance get nothing, and sees acon­ temptible "duffer" that hundreds and thousands could run right away from lifting a valuable first prize, he becomes careful of showing good form ;he sees that bad running pays best. HANDICAPS DUE TO BETTING .—How did such an absurd system originate, andwhy is it kept up ? Simply on account of betting. After afew races atany particulardistance the runners who will be almost certain to come in first, second, andthird, come to be known, andnone willbet againstthem, and there is no excitement about a race. But by observing by how much those behind are beaten, andgiving them aproportionate start from the best runners, instead of the issuebeing confinedto two or three, the chances of so many become equalised, that it is impossible to spot the real winner with anycertainty, and this element of uncertainty gives full scope to betting. This is the main reason why handicap races continueto flourish at Sheffield, Edinburgh, and other centres ;and did handicaps serve no better purpose than to afford means for betting they might be stamped out with benefit to the community. But where only five or six runners would come forward to run a given distance on level terms, hundreds may enter when they get a start pro­ portioned to their real or supposed form. When one witha long start wins, his start is reduced, but if a likely ladhe may improve so as to win again, whenhis start is again reduced; and so on reducing and improving till he may at length start from scratch as acknowledgedchampion. ADVANTAGES OF HANDICAPPING .—Meantimeother likely lads continue to come forward to fill up the long start marks, andin this way handicaps foster a love ofathletics that wouldother­ wise lie dormant, and so they become nurseries for rearing athletes. But were there nothingbut handicaps there wouldbe little inducement for any one to become champion, for as soon as he did sohis chances of prize money wouldbecome hopeless.