RECORD-BREAKERS.

Putaruru Press, Volume VI, Issue 237, 17 May 1928, Page 3

RECORD-BREAKERS.

Scientists have set a certain limit to the possibility of human physical achievement. So far some of their ; expectations have not been fulfilled, while other theories have been upset j {writes F. A. M. Webster, the well- ! known athletic expert, in the London 1 Daily Mail). Some mathematicians ; have said that it is possible for a man i travelling at a speed of 10 yards a second to jump to a distance of over 27ft if there is no check between the run and the spring. But thirty years ago C. B. Fry’s world’s record of 23ft 61in. at Oxford was regarded as the last word in long jump achievement. Last year de Hart Hubbard, a thirty four year old American negro, reached 26ft 2iin, but had his record disallowed because the take-off was an inch higher than the surface of the sandpit. That a jump of 26ft is human ly possible has recently been placed beyond doubt by S. J. M. Atkinson, of South Africe, clearing 26ft oiin. 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 man would have the better chance, but de Hart Hubbard stands only sft 6in, whereas Atkinson is just over 6ft. 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 anywhere else, and a perfectly surfaced

track shut in from all the winds, like that at Stockholm, where I saw Nurmi run his wonderful mile in 4min. 10 2-5 secs., is simply built for recordbreaking. 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 10-mile race, to say nothing of eating an apple between events; while Newton never bothers about diet, and has been know to smoke a pipe both before and after one of his amazing 50-mile 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 journey on skis in winter; while Newton, when a boy at Bedford School was w’ell accustomed to a weekly jaunt of 20 miles. In both cases such early training has made these men almost immune from exhaustion.