ATHLETICS.

Gisborne Times, Volume V, Issue 57, 8 March 1901, Page 3

ATHLETICS.

RECORDS FOR THE NEW CENTURY TO BEAT.

It is unfortunate, says an English paper, that, while we have the means of testing the.'progress of man during the last century in almost every other field of endeavour, we have practically no records from which to discover how far the athlete of 1901 is ahead of his fellows of a century ago. If we may judge, however, from the slight advance made in athletics during the last generation, it would seem that the records of to-day will compare very well with those of the year 2001. The last year of the century has certainly made very little impression on the utblcs of athletic records. Among amateur runners only one man, M. W. Long, an American athlete, who ran 440yds in 47 4-sths sec., has established a new record; and among professionals, only Lcnllurst has eclipsed his forerunners by covering twenty miles in lhr. 53min. 42] sec. ’ It is instructive and interesting to note

that the 200yds professional record was mado by G. Howard (194 sec.) as long ago as 1847; and the 150yds record of Issec. in 1851, when tho fathers of some of the swiftest runners of to-day wero scarcely born. W. Long’s two miles in 9min. 114sec., run thirty-seven years ago, and J. White’s five miles in 24min. 40sec., still remain unbeaten after tho lapse of more than a generation. The table of walking records has not been disturbed for three years, when W. J. Sturgoss created new times for three, four, and five miles. Among amateurs there lias been no walker for thirty years to put T. Griffith’s record of 2hr 47min. s‘2soc. for twenty miles into tho shade; and the fifty mile time of A. W. Sinclair has withstood the onslaughts of twenty-one years. It is twenty-six years since W. Perkins covered a mile, in fair heel-and-toe walking, in tho wonderful time of 6min. 23scc., and no one since has been able to

rival his feat; whilo the same walker’s rocord of 2hr 89min. 57sec. for twenty miles is still as unshaken as it was in 1877.

Recent years have seen more changes in jumping records than in either running or walking, and some of the feats are certainly astonishing. In 1899 A. C. Kraenzlein, in a running'jump, cleared a distance of 24 feet 44 inches, which, it is interesting to notice, is more than 80 inches more than any professional has covered; and last year Ray Ewry raised the standing high-jump to 5 feet 4] inches. All the amateur jumping records, it is. a little humiliating to observe, are claimed by American athletes.

Bicycling is naturally the most progressive of all forms of athletics, ancl last year witnessed some marvellous performances. At the Crystal Palace A. A. Chase covered a mile in the excellent time of lmin. 38 3-sth sec., or at the rate of 361miles an hour. W. Stinson pedalled twenty-five miles in 37min. 19 4-sth sec; and a French rider, A., Bauge, covered fifty miles in lhr,l4min. 55 3-sth sec., and 100 miles in 2hr 33mi11. 40 4-sth sec. At still longer distances Walters achieved the magnificent record of nearly 350 miles in 12 hours’ riding; and in 24 hours he rode a distance of 634 miles 744 yards, a journey which, in a straight line, would have taken him from the south of England to some distanco beyond the north of Scotland. In July, 1900, A. A. Chase covered 37 miles 196 yards in an hour, thus travelling for over 37 miles at a greater pace than when making a record for a single mile; but even this feat was completely eclipsed by W. Stinson, who, at Brockton, United States, America, last year actually rode 40 miles 327 yards in sixty minutes. It is only right to state that most of these wonderful records were made with motor pacing.