RECORD BREAKERS

Hokitika Guardian, 23 June 1928, Page 4

RECORD BREAKERS

(By F. A. M Webster, tlie wellknown athletic expert)..

iSeienfcists have set a certain limit to the possibility of human physical achievement. So far 1 some of their expectations have not been fulfilled, while other theories have been upset.

Some mathematicians • have said that it is possible for a man travelling at a speed of 10 yards per second to jump to a distance of over 27ft if there is no check between the run and tho spring. But 30 years ago C. B. Fry’s world’s record of 23ft o.i in at Oxford was regarded as the last word in long jump achievement. Last year de Hart Hubbard, a 34-years-old American Negro, reached 26ft 26in, but had his record disallowed because the take-off was ah inch higher than the surface of th'o sand pit. > That a jump of 26ft is humanly possible has recently been placed beyond doubt by S. J. M. Atkinson, of South* Africa, clearing 26it OJin. It seems possible that the 27ft limit set by scientists may be' reached at the forthcoming ninth Olympiad at Amsterdam. • * * * « *

What is it that makes a record breaker? The causes are mysterious. It might be thought that among jumpers the tall nian would have the better chance, but then de Hart Hubhard stands only oft 6in, wh'oreAs Atkinson is just over 6ft. Or take the great high jumpers. H. M. Osborne, who cleared 6ft BJiii. is tall and heavily built, ns is Howard Baker, wlio jumped 6ft sin. But "W. Byrd Page, M. F. Sweeney, and Dick Landon, all of whom jumped 6 inches more than their own height, were of the sft Gin to sft 81 n class iii stature and very lightly built. ' ;. To be in the record-breaking class among hurdlers a man must (be tall, long of leg, and weigh something over 12 stone. Strength, height and weight are essential in the throwing events.

On the track it is the fire within that tells first, but there are many other factors 'to be considered. Not least of these is environment. Performances are possible to sprinters in the rarefied air of California and South Africa which cannot be accomplished elsewhere; and a perfectly surfaced track, shut in from all the winds like that of (Stockholm, where I saw Nurmi run liis wonderful mill) in 4min 10 2-ssec, is simply built for record-breaking. Men like Nurmi and Newton,'the hero of the Bath and Brighton roads, are, of course, a law unto themselves. Nurmi, for example, has thought nothing of running two or three miles as a means of limbering up for a tenmiles race, to say nothing of eating an apple between events; while Newton never bothers about diet, and has been known to smoke a pipe both before and immediately after one of liis amazing 50-miles runs. There is, however.a point of similarity about the beginnings of both these recordbreakers.

As a youngster Nurmi ran eight miles to and from school daily, doing the journeys on skis in winter ; while Newton, when a boy at Bedford School Was well accustomed to a weekly jaunt of 20 miles. In both cases sucli early training lias made theso men almost immune from exhaustion.

Another important factor is the strength of opposition. Nurmi was forced to beat tho world’s mile record by the repeated challenges of Edvin Wide. H. B. Stallard never raced so fast as lie did when lie ritn A. G. Hill to a close decision in the British record mile of 1021, nor did A. N. S. Jackson ever again reproduce the form which enabled him to beat a. number of American world beaters in the Olympic 1,500 metres at Stockholm in 1912. And, filially, it was tho determined opposition of D. G. A. Lowe which forced the German, Dr O. Peltzcr, to break tlie world’s half-mile record at the A.A.A. championship of 1926.

There is also for the distance runner tlie question of running to a prearranged time schedule. Nurmi lias induced this part of his racing to a fine art, and always knows just' exactly lioiv long it should take, and has tiiken, him to cover each quartermile lap in a contest.