Why? The Science of Athletics

RECORDS AND RECORD BREAKING 171 of male and female athletes. The subjects of these experi– ments were both Canadians, Percy Williams, who won both the Ioo and 200 metres at the Olympic Games at Amsterdam in I928, and Miss Myrtle Cook, who certainly should have won the Women's IOO metres, but who was disqualified for breaking. She, however, fully retrieved her reputation by magnificent running in the Women's Relay and still, I believe, holds the Canadian sprint record. Upon the occasion of the Canadian experiments the timing was done electrically, each runner wearing a light magnet on the breast, while a series of recording coils were disposed at suitable distances along the track. It was then found that Williams covered 65 yards in 7 secs., reached his maximum speed of approximately I I .42 yards per second in 4 7 yards, which distance he covered in 5·4 secs., but by the time he reached the 6o yards mark had slowed down to just under I I yards per sec. Myrtle Cook, upon the other hand, ran 50 yards in just a shade inside 6.5 secs., thus proving the generally accepted theory that a girl sprinter attains her maximum speed at about 40 yards. In the case of Miss Cook, her maximum speed of I0.5 yards per sec. was attained between the 35 and 40-yards marks. She was then travelling at I9·5 m.p.h., but from that point her speed fell away rapidly to under 9 yards per sec. In actual fact the male sprinter ran 50 yards in 5.65 secs., while the female covered the same distance in 6.53 secs., a total difference of .88 secs. in their times. The figures given below show the extent to which Williams gained upon Miss Cook : TIME GAIN OF MALE OvER FEMALE SPRINTER IN so– YARDS RuN .o I secs in 6 ins. .02 , , I ft. .05 , , 3 yds. . I 2 , , 6 yds. . I 7 , , 9 yds. .30 secs. in 20 yds. .51 , , 30 yds. .65 , , 40 yds . .88 , , 50 yds.