THE ACID TEST

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 725, 26 July 1929, Page 7

THE ACID TEST

THE absurd length to which American sport lias gone is perhaps best illustrated by the story of the gentleman who pushed a peanut up Pike’s Peak or somewhere and promptly claimed the title of the “world’s champion peanut-pusher.” At the same time as this epic of athletic prowess came to light the news reached us that a university sprinter in the States had run 100 yards in 9 2-ssec. This time is six yards better than “evens,” and it takes a very good sprinter to run a hundred in even time. Some of the famous old Botany Handicap runners of the ’eighties were capable of running several yards under “evens,” but neither they nor the famous Donaldson-Postles brigade of pre-war fame ever established such fast time as that. Running men in this part of the world (which has produced sprinters to compare with the world’s best) will be somewhat sceptical of these abnormally fast times. It is said that a hundred yards has been run in 9 3-ssec. or better half a dozen times this summer in America. Often, however, one finds tucked away in an obscure corner a reference to “the air flow,” which is a nice, pleasant way of saying that the runner was assisted by a. breeze. The latest American stipulation is that “the air flow” must not exceed a ratio of four miles an hour. Intensive coaching- and specially prepared tracks are the secret of American success in running. But these phenomenal performances are almost entirely confined to their own country. Against outside competition in a neutral countrv. it is a somewhat different story. At the Olympic Games last year, the muchboomed American cracks secured only one track Victory. Time and again, American athletes have gone overseas with" a string of records to their credit only to go under to lesser known rivals from Britain, the Dominions and the Continent of Europe. Specialisation in sport is an excellent thing, but it is just a question if the Americans have not carried' it too far. Under favourable conditions, their men can break records. But their high-strung and intensively coached athletes are liable to crack up against more determined and adaptable rivals. British athletes may be rather easy-going and casual about records, but when the acid test is applied, they take a lot of beatino;