None of the sprint records is older than 193o, and the outstand ing feature of modern sprinting during the period of the last two Olympiads has been the success of U.S.A. negroes. In 193o F. Wykoff, a white American, made a world's zoo yards record of 9.4sec. This was equalled in 1935 by J. Owens, an American negro. The world's record of o.3sec. for Ioo metres is shared by three U.S.A. negroes and two white men from Canada and Hol land. Owens is world's record holder for 200 metres and 220 yards in 20.3 seconds. Japan, however, is showing signs of pro ducing sprinters who will be right in the world's top class by the time the next Games are held in Tokyo in 1940.
Races at 400 metres and 44o yards are almost invariably run on a circular track, each runner being provided with his own lane, to which he must keep throughout the race, the starts being so stag gered that each runner may traverse the full course. Up till the theory was held that quarter-milers could be divided into two categories. It was held that the sprinter-type of runner should endeavour to start fast enough to secure a good position rounding the first bend, and should hold his pace for perhaps a hundred yards, and then get into a "float" with a long swinging stride. He would make his dash for victory about 120 yards from the tape. The middle distance type of quarter-miler, on the other hand, was advised to keep out of the first struggle for position and to hus band his strength for the final dash.
In 1924 Eric Liddell, Great Britain, consciously or otherwise, set a new fashion when he won the Olympic 400 metres in 47.6sec., by going flat out from pistol flash to finishing post in one effort, thus making a new world's record. American athletes were quick to see the value of this innovation and have made it the practice to run the distance as a race of exhaustion from start to finish. The Olympic Games, 1932, showed us an extraordinary runner in W. A. Carr, U.S.A., who made a new 400 metres world's record of 46.2sec., beating his fellow American, B. Eastman. Since then A. Williams, a coloured American, running at Chicago in 1936, has reduced the world's record to 46.1 seconds.
of Ben Eastman brings us to the consideration of middle distances at which he is facile princeps. He holds records of 44o yards (46.4sec.), 600 yards (Imin.9.2sec.), and 88o yards (Imin.49•8sec.). It was, however, T. Hampson, Great Britain, who exploded the theory that there should be a variation of 3sec. in the pace at which the two quarter miles of a half mile should be run. Hampson's theory was that each of the two quarter-miles should be run in as nearly as pos sible the same time. Acting on this principle, he made the present world's 800 metres record of min.49.8sec., which he shares with Eastman, when he won the Olympic title in 1932.
The other most important middle distance, which is regarded as the blue ribbon of athletics in England, is the I mile. At the time
when W. G. George (England) made his still unbroken world's professional record of 4mins.I24sec., in 1886, the theory obtained that the first lap should be fast and that the runner should rest himself as much as possible during the third quarter-mile.
George's quarter-mile times were 58.5sec., 63.25sec., 66sec., and 65sec. Then, in the immediate post-War period, Paavo Nurmi, Finland, evolved the theory of level-pace running and broke al most every world's record from mile in 4-10.4sec., to the one hour record of I'm. 1648yd. It was the opposition of the Swedish runner, E. Wide, which caused Nurmi to depart from his pre arranged schedule of 62sec. per quarter-mile when he made his world's record, above referred to, in 1923. J. Ladoumegue, France, got nearer to the ideal when, in 1931, he reduced the rec ord to 4min. 9.2sec. The year 1933 brought to light a new world's record breaker in J. E. Lovelock, New Zealand, who ran a mile in 4min. 7.6sec., his theory being somewhat in the nature of a reversion to the principles advocated by George, except that it was Lovelock's belief that a man should train to run but one record-breaking race in any given year and to that end all training and preliminary competition should be subordinated.
The last word in the science of mile running had not, however, yet been said. In Lovelock's record-breaking race the second half-mile had been 'sec. slower than the initial half-mile. G. Cun ningham, U.S.A., when he set the world's record at 4min. 6.8sec. in 1934, ran the second half of the race 4.2sec. faster than the initial half-mile. The record was lowered to 4min. 6.6sec. by S. C. Wooderson, Great Britain, in 1937, his second half-mile taking 1.4sec. longer than the first. In 1936 Lovelock won the Olympic 1,500 metres title in the new world's record time of 3min. 47.8sec. which approximates to 4min. 4.4sec. for the full distance of mile. He also ran the second half of the race 'faster than the first. The following schedule sets out the quarter-mile lap times of the four fastest miles run in modern times compared with George's time in 1886: W. G. George was the type of superman runner who appears but rarely, and it is significant that nothing approaching his perform ance of 1886 was produced until 1915, in which year N. S. Taber of Brown University, U.S.A., by means of a specially framed handicap, beat George's record by 3/2osec. The spell of nearly 3o years having been broken, new and progressively better per formances were produced, and during the next 20 years the record for the 1 mile, or its equivalent, 1,50o metres, was broken no less than seven times. Cunningham's mile in 4-o6.7sec. was more than 6sec. better than George's record, while Lovelock's comparative time for 1,500 metres would be 2sec. better than the record made by Cunningham, whom Lovelock beat when he won the Olympic title in 1936.