THE FASTEST SPRINT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8002, 4 May 1904, Page 1

THE FASTEST SPRINT.

HOW ARTHUR F. DUFFE?* MADE A NEW WORLDS RECORD. (Outing.) To understand the meaning of ft record re- ; quires the mind of an astronomer ■whicli j seizes upon exact instants out of eternity, or j that of the surgeon -which measures ihe difference between life and death in haira' breadths, or to the photographer to whom tihe hundredth part of a second mean, aaoces. or failure. j To th. uninitiated _i__*._e. in. the giaaidstand, who knows not the value of instants, | a second seems a very small space o. time, i and a paltry fraction thereof something «> be j neglected. Surely, thinks this one, if a* man can run a hundred yards in ten aeoonas be can throw an extra effort into his running and ! make it a fraction- of a eecond less. I If such a one will reach ac high as he oan above his head, stand on his tiptoes and reach higher still, then stretch every muscle j to reach his very highest, and, having done so, try to reach one inch more, he will grasp the j f act that there are human, limdtwfcions and, j perhwps, appreciate something of th*. diffionlI tiea of the man wlho would make bursts of j speed at tihe end of his run. Alter the stop watch came into being it i seemed for very many years that no human machine had been or would be made that could cover one hundred yards in less than ten seconds; and tihe man who could run in tlhat time was looked upon as a wonder ; which, in truth, he was. Trained men hurled themselves against* the record; they 'spurted and fought ; they broke tendons aiid. strained muscles; but the record stood, an 'intangible something beyond which the human .mindpower could nio't drive its human machine. Then one day, come dozen years ago, there appeared at an* athletic meet in Washington a •riigihtiy-buill" fellow from the West, entered to two. tlhe hundred. There were other mem there who had don*** ten seconds, and some one of thorn waa counted on* to win. The strange athlete waa frightened, as the nran j fresh from the "West is likely to be when he ] meets for the first^ time the "great men" of V the imposing East He yawned ana trembled, J and wished the race was oyer. But wifiien the' final heat came his nervous fear all turned to energy, and away he went, like, some automatic thing. When he had broken the tape the timers' wafches read nino. and f cur-fifths eeoonds; and John Owen, jun., had. passed ihe line which men declared" to mark the limit of human power. ' Then thiey said the limit wa® surely reached. Only one or two men laid claim to. time aa , fast ; but there wa® always a wind m th^ir ! favouT, or unreliable timer**, or both; and j whea condition© were such as to give indi3- I puvable measurements the effort Was not re* ! peated. So those who know came to b.-Jisve tihat in all tiie ages no man had ever run me hundred yards in less than, that time, a^d .rat in all the aces to came nonwrn would do to. The bleachers were empty and the grandstands only half full when the Intercollreiate Championship games were called on. There were young fellows wi-tih brothers at college, who oa_ie. out of l*oya,l*% ; there were' young alumni, who h.**d not lived down their hunger for things., athletic; there were old alumni, _les*?'_*.e_il of the precious few who enthuse more aa the years go by. ... Some men weaken when frightened; some grow stronger and more desperate. It seems to \e a characteristic of athletes that the very ht.-it-, those whose nervous organisation is of the toa-k-'tri^ger sort, haye vivid imaginations and ! suffer froii nervousness. Perhaps it ' is enly the .man of high strung- nerves whose muscles will respond instantly to -Dhe pistol's crack and whose mind and ,work in the harmony that cotavts fractions of seconds. Arthur F. Duffey, w__ was to answerytflie prayers of the alumni, ie one of these inetk . of nerves, who feel and think and imagine and euffer. He is a boy, only twelve monfli-s past his majorit-f. He ha® a* round, good-natured face, and light „air that parts scrupulously in the yery middle. He has the .on*, of disregard for things dramatic th.t makes, him wish-the 1 papeas would leave off printing his pictures- in ruanSnc obskime^and^puljlisih one now and' then. to show that' he l_as other'.gar- | ments* than t_«*Se <A tlhetTaok, arid does not j always wear th_>. fabial eatpiession whidh ac"comwanzes supreme! effort. "I was more afraid iiian ever at the Intercollegiates this year," «ays Duffey. "You see, when a man begins athletios as young as I did, lhe usually finds himself worn out after a few years of -training. According "tio the general average, I was just about due to fail this season. One reason* I held on, I think, was that my traiping haa always been of the very lightest character. 'v In the. opening of a season I have begun with a .iftt^ jogging, only a little to limber up my muscles and get ihexn into .*__*._ c, and not enough to make my movements slow. Then I have practised .starts in' >an easy way, with now and then a run of about thirty or forty yards. "I felt fine last Saturday. I thought I could do as well aa I __d ever done; but I did not expect to make a new record, because I did not believe it possible. So far aa I know, only one man* thought of such a thing, He waa the coloured. rubber. "Wihen* I went to my -dressing-room after the' semi-final, he said: 'Misiaih Duffey, youse runnin' to-day de way youse never run befoah. I believes youse goin' to bust diat reoord.' "I went to tlhe mark all in a tremble. When we drew for 'positions, I got a bad lane. The man who had used it in the semi-final had dug holes like graves. I filled them up, but that made loose cinders under my feet, and was virorse than ever. * "I dp not remember much about; the start; I never do. I set set, and think of nothing but the pistol. I suppose I must be in a sort of hypnotic state. The next thing I pememiber ia that weTtre going down the t*aek, probably twenty yards norn t_e start, and? Scnick was leading. I haye known S<_m__ for a long time. We ran against each, other iii High School, and I 'had always beaten him V off. Now I saw he had beaten me. I thought I must* have got a bad ' sfart, and it came over me that if he 'beat' mo at the start ne jnagnt win at the finish," too. " Every runner has a different way of covering the course. Schick: seems to go : like a ■steam engine from start to finriisl*... I go in two bursts, or, beats. When I felt tihat my first burst was over,. l could still hear Schick at my side. I thoujaht at the time he must be about ia foot ahead, and I was never scared so badly before. *._ let out haa-desr, and worked aa I tad never done in any other race. When a man is frightened, and loses his senses, he forgets form, throws back his* 'head, and pumps with his arms high in tlhe air. I felt just .likg _oing tlhiat. . It seemed as though something was pulling my head back and my arms up ; but I knew I must hold myself and not l«t that happen. So I gripped my palms and shoved my head forward and tried to run* harder than ever.* Theh" I pulled away; y . "I knew the last' fifty yiard« were covered in very fast time, but I tndnght my bad start' must liave 'held the tim. down t6 nine arid four-fifths' at best. When they told: .me I had broken the record, I. thongiht.tjh^re must be some mistake. So v far as I can. see, tjhe fiest time, was due to t__ fact -thjat Schick soared me and drove me into a burst I- had n«ver thought Tin,^pS,ble."