Since Sweeney's time a number of jumpers have appeared who could do over 6 feet with considerable consistency, and compared with other events, the standard of the high jump has been high. J. D. Winsor, Jr., of Pennsylvania, won at Mott Haven in 1896 and 1897 with a six foot-one and a six-foot-three. J. K. Baxter, also of Pennsylvania, won in 1899 with a six-foot-two, and in addition to that this industrious performer won at the national amateur championships in 1897, 1898, 1899, 1900, and 1902 ; and at the English championships in 1900 and 1901. Bax ter's best record at these meets was in 1897, when he cleared 6 feet 21 inches. S. S. Jones of New York University won at Mott Haven in 1900, at Mott Haven and the national championships in 1901, at the English championships in 1902, and at the national championships again in 1903. Of his winning jumps the best was the one of 6 feet 2 inches, at the national champion ships in 1901. Kernan of Harvard, who has already been mentioned, won at Mott Haven with a jump of 6 feet I inch, in 1903.
The standing high jump has gone out of vogue as a regular event, keen as the interest in it used to be in the early days of track athletics in this country. It has not been contested at intercolle giates since 1881, and after a desultory existence it was dropped from the national amateur programme in 1899. Walter Soren of Harvard was the best college performer at the standing high jump, and he excelled also in the standing broad. In the former event he cleared the really unusual height of 5 feet i 4 inches, in 188o, and in 188i he jumped m feet II- inches in the standing broad. Of the club athletes, Malcolm Ford was one of the most successful performers at these events, and his io feet 91 inches stood for a time as the amateur record for the horizontal distance. All of these records of the eighties were eclipsed by the performances of Ray C. Ewry of Purdue, who cleared 5 feet 54 inches at the Pan American games in 19m, and II feet 3 inches in the standing broad jump at Syracuse in 1900. The standing broad jump is probably the most search ing test of a man's mere ability to spring, unaided by the " science " of any perfected style. The hop step and jump and its variations, such as the jump step and jump, is another of those events in which a great deal of interest was taken during the early nineties, but which has since gone out of vogue. E. B. Bloss's record of 48 feet 6 inches for the running hop step and jump, made in 1893, at Chicago, still stands. Ford and J. B. Connolly are others who used to excel at these somewhat artificial events.
The running broad jump, like the running high jump, is one of those natural events which have been more or less consciously practised from the time the first prehistoric man took a flying leap over a prehistoric brook to escape the bill of the pursuing dinosaurus. There is something appeal ingly practical about these events. Whatever skill we acquire we feel is presently going to be of use. To-day it is a solid take-off block and a stretch of spaded loam ; to-morrow it may be a ditch or a hedge with no take-off at all and a drop into a mud-hole if one misses. The run ning broad jump is an event that depends rather more on speed and spring than it does on the finesse of a jumping style. Half the game is in
getting a good run and a clear, strong take-off, and the man who is not in a condition to sprint, who cannot approach the take-off time after time at top speed easily, is in no shape to do strong and consistent jumping. On the other hand, the broad jump does not consist, as it is often thought to consist, merely in a spring and a perfunctory lift ing of the legs when the runner reaches the take off joist. Almost any good sprinter can clear 19 or 20 feet with a little practice, but really to do anything worth while, according to present-day standards, requires not only a great deal of " spring " but a great deal of skill in the manage ment of the body as well. What with properly spacing one's strides, getting a clear, sure take-off, gathering the feet in mid-air and falling forward when one strikes the earth, there is plenty of opportunity for cleverness and developed skill. Loosely speaking, good broad jumpers start their run some 8o to ioo feet behind the take-off, get into their stride at a point 5o or 6o feet back of the string-piece, aim to reach the take-off at top speed and to strike it squarely, and then trust to their lucky stars. While in the air the broad jumper draws his knees as high up as he can and holds them there until just before he is about to land, when the legs are thrust out as far as possible. It is this movement which often gives the jumper the appearance, toward the end of his flight, of having taken a fresh start.
The record jumps of recent years make the jumping of the eighties and early nineties look rather small. The amateur record in this coun try from 1881 until 1886 was held by J. S. Voor hees of the Manhattan Athletic Club, at 22 feet 7* inches, and during these years the national amateur championships were annually won with jumps of from one to two feet shorter, while at Mott Haven the best record up to 1887 was 21 feet 3z inches. In that year, T. S. Shearman, Jr., of Yale won with a jump of 21 feet ti inches, a victory which he repeated in the two succeeding seasons, winning in 1889, with a leap of 22 feet 6 inches. Victor Mapes of Columbia, E. B. Bloss of Harvard, and L. P. Sheldon of Yale, all kept the figures well up toward 23 feet, and, finally, in 1898, Meyer Prinstein of Syracuse University smashed all previous Mott Haven records with a jump of 23 feet 71 inches. At the national cham pionships W. Halpin, A. T. Copeland, and C. S. Reber had all cleared over 23 feet, but none of them had equalled the 23 feet 7 inches with which Prinstein won the national championship in this same year. That human kangaroo, - Kranzlein of Pennsylvania, entered the game in the following spring with his Mott Haven leap of 24 feet 42 inches and established the present intercollegiate record. This seemed a pretty safe record, but as a non-collegiate amateur Prinstein managed, at Philadelphia, on April 28, i9oo, to surpass even this extraordinary leap, and with a jump of 24 feet 74 inches set a new record for the world. This record has since been surpassed by the Irish jumper, P. J. O'Connor, with his 24 feet i r 4 inches.