STILL THEY COME

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 30 September 1933, Page 8

STILL THEY COME

ATHLETIC CHAMPIONS \ FREQUENCY OF RECORDS. SOMEI OB 1 THE FACTORS. Feats ol’ endurance and speed on the running track are achieved cy-cli month, almost each week, which better the previous best and would appal even the greatest runners; of twenty-five years- ago. . From America, and Finland, indeed, we are almost disappointed if we do not hear of some new record every few days, writes Guy jVI. Butler in an English paper. One of the latest of these j,s the time record for two- hours, in which space the Finn Ivromonen (at Toronto) covered 20 miles' 1150 yards Personally, I have not heard of Broinonen before, but it never surprises me in the least when a runner from Finland beats- a distance record. Nor am I especially astonished when I read cf amazing sprint times from Amei ca THE FINEST ATHLETE.

Not long ago I was talking to a man who is one of the most knowledgeable critics of athletics in America, and he told me he had definitely come to the conclusion that the Negro was the finest athlete in the world. He gave me as an example the all-round performance of a young negro who, in the same afternoon, ran 100 yards flat in 9 3 -ssec, was second hi the 120 yawls hurdles, in which the winner recorded 14 l-10sec, a new '••arid record, wen the long jump at well over 23ft and was second in the high jump at over 6ft 2in. Another negro, by name of Gwens, has lately achieved anjtxir brilliant treble win also in the sun a afternoon. He ■won the 100 yaidv in 0 2-5 see-—a world’s record —the 2TO in 20 7*Jose< , and the long jump at a shade under 25ft. Why should the negroes show .such brilliance as jumpers and sprinters ? And again, why should the Finns carry all before them as distance runners' Is there'- any fundamental reason why the American can put up such a marvellous all-round show as they invariably do in tbeir championships? TRADITION A FACTOR.

This problem has always appealed to me as one of the greatest interest, rich with possibilities of research for scientists and doctors. Some time agoI was talking on this subject to an eminent physiologist, and I asked him to what reason he attributed the fact of tho Finn’s superiority in the 1911ger races, and the wonderful succession of brilliant middle-distance runners produced by this country. He replied that he thought that ex-ample-and tradition played the biggest part in this country. He suggested that the long line of brilliant halfmilers produced by Oxford and. Cambridge owed much to the inspiration of Professor P. J. Noei-Baker, who was president at Cambridge from 1910 to 1912.

Certainly one can pi'oduce an amazing array of names. H. B. Stallard D. G. A. Lowe, T. Hampson, J. F. Oornes: and J. E. Lovelock would be among them, and all these have been, or are, potential world-beaters. The Finn, H. Bolehmainen, winner of the A.A.A. four miles in 1911, and hero of the 1912 Olympiad at Stockholm, has been cited as the founder of the great distance-running tradition in Finland. DISTANCE RUNNERS.

111 Finland, for example-, there arc many things in favour of producing great athletes. This is a nation which has always- been hardy, and lias lived the 'simpie life. Although Nurmi js a motor engineer, he and the great majority of the youth of his country have been accustomed to use their legs is their main means of transport, and in filie winter they are continually t u skis.

During the past couple of decades an intense enthusiasm for athletics has broken over the country. There is. no doubt that the -success of Bolehmainen at Stockholm did much to enhance this. Personally, I am inclined also to attribute a good deal of the Finns’ success as distance runners to their temperament. To be successful in this form of athletics, it is essential that a man should be brimful of vitality, it is true, but lie must not be of the highly strung type. BEST PRODUCTS. In this country it is the exception rather than the rule for us to have a really first-class long-distance runner, and practically invariably our best men come from the hardy liorth, being drawn from a class who are used to vigorous manual labour. I am inclined to the opinion that- as motor transport becomes more and more widespread distance running will decline in quality, because the great distance runner must be accustomed to travel on his own feet far and wide in order to develop his heart, lungs, and legs to stand the strain of this form of athletics.

It- is a queer thing that we have In this country now three of the best Marathon runners in the world. I refer to Sam Ferris. D. McLeod Wright, and D. McNab Robertson. And yet, what I might call our short-distance runners are definitely poor. This is a matter which, frankly, defeats me, though I 'should not be surprised if example were not at work here, with Sam Ferris in the south and Wright 11 Scotland. Roth are wonderful veterans- with a real love for the game, which I know each js capable of passing on to others. Tt is characteristic of the Americans that when they take up a thing they apply themselves' intensely to acquire a perfection which will enable them to beat their opponents. Hence we find their athletes being taught by coaches who are themselves educated men and receive high salaries. 'When you get a- country with a huge population drawn from every nationality under the sun well coached and riding -on a wave of athletic enthusiasm, it is hardly surprising that the results are striking. Probably the best sprinters in the world are drawn from the Englishspeaking nations, tlie. Germans, the Negroes, and the Japanese, though Germany also produced a record-break-ing lialf-miler in Dr. Peltzer. SPRINTER’S QUALITIES.

To excel as a sprinter, it is necessary, among other things, to be. endowed with a colossal reserve of nervous energy. How far this is true of the types above named I hardly feel competent to say. I rather wonder whether the extreme emotionalism of the Negro which finds vent in his folk-songs, has anything to do with his success as a track athlete, and I am inclined to think it has. I have heard it said, also, that the construction of a Negro’s foot is peculiarly adapted to help him in jumping. To summarise: The production of a tip-top athlete depends on a vast num-

her of coincidences, as it were, just coming right in his mental, physical, land nervous make-up. I am inclined to agree that tradition and example play a very big part in bringing out qualities of athletic greatness, but there is no doubt that geography, breeding, and above all, temperament, are fundamentals which, taken together, will decide whether a man will excel in an allout dash over a hundred yards or shine as a prodigy of stamina, capable of covering more than twenty miles 111 two hours.