ATHLETIC RECORDS

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 13137, 11 September 1940, Page 7

ATHLETIC RECORDS

MECHANISTIC ATTITUDE IN i TRAINING I I | There is a certain mechanistic attitude being adopted toward athletics lock in London Sporting Life. It euing and in racing, which I have always felt to be antagonistic to the true spirit of sport where our main object is, originally at least, our own pleasure apd relaxation, both physically and mentally, writes J. E. Love- j escent things, dependent on many j ables us to let off our primitive de- | sires for physical effort and for mental and physical competition. To people who have never experienced the sheer joy of physical effort in' any form it is impossible to explain the madness that drives men to be so energetic. Even to those j who have, it is frequently difficult to i explain the real pleasure the average J athlete obtains —the satisfaction of physical perfection and the joy of accomplishment experienced in the grace of what becomes in time al- ' I most an artistic effort. Records are of little real importance as they will soon be broken, no matter how good they are, while eminent scientists have shown that latitude and longitude exercise much more influence of records than has been previously admitted.. To me, records are strangely elusive, evanscent things, dependent on many different factors and doomed to erasure within a few years. But we must face the facts and admit that records will always hold a fascination for the competitor, statistician, and speculator, and even those of us who | take least interest in them follow the careers of such record-makers as Johta Doodruff, the American negro, and Sydney Wooderson, the English star, with more than a passing interest.