EIGHT MILES FAIRLY WALKED WITHIN THE HOUR.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 454, 27 November 1875, Page 3

EIGHT MILES FAIRLY WALKED WITHIN THE HOUR.

(From the Field, Sept, loth.)

During the present days of rapid improvement in athletic exercises of all kinds scarcely a week passes without our having to chronicle a fastest performance on record in some branch or another of sport, and, although it is against our usual practice to notice professional pedestrian) sm, the accomplishment of the above unparalleled feat at Lillie Bridge last Monday evening deserves a short notice.

W. Spooner has been credited with walking eight miles in 58min 40sec, on July 10th, 1865; G. Topley in 3sec less, on March 12th, 1866 ; and again in 59min 39sec, on July 30th, 1866. On none of these three occasions, however, were the matches genuine, and, although the stakes were paid over, it was tacitly understood that the referees should not be appealed to, the men being allowed to get over the ground in a style about which the less said the better. Since he defeated Stockwell, in June last year, W. Perkins, of the Old Kent road, has justly been our acknowledged professional champion. Although he has previously achieved seven and a half miles in the hour, he has failed to do four in 29min and eight in the hour at Lillie Bridge last December, when the bitterly cold weather not only interfered with his training but contracted the muscles seriously on the day. Last Monday was most favourable for the attempt, as a few light showers had laid the dust on the path, and the sky was overcast, without a breath of wind. The stake was £IOO to £SO on time. Mr J. Yandy was chosen referee, but his services were not called into requisition for a single moment, and a fairer piece of walking from start to finish it has seldom been our lot to witness. Perkins was twenty-three j ears and five days old, scaled 9st 61b in walking costume, and was sft Gin in height when he started. Perkins won with 54 and 3 sths of a second to spare, and achieved the fastest times from four to eight miles that have ever been fairly walked by any human being. We need hardly add that he was in splendid condition, and his success may be chiefly attributed to this fact and the steady pace he went at throughout, without being unduly hustled at any period of the match. The arrangements were admirable and straightforward on the part of all concerned. A few more such well conducted events would tend far to relieve professional pedestrianism from its present low ebb in the metropolis.