Monday, Jul. 14, 1930

Uphill Hundred

Short-legged runners often have trouble getting started. A poor start was what beat Eddie Tolan of Michigan, holder of the official world's 100-yd. dash record (9.5 sec.) in the intercollegiate championships at Cambridge last month. Last week on a hard clay horserace track at Vancouver, B. C., Tolan tensed his little black body beside the big white frames of George Simpson (Ohio State) and Percy Williams of Canada, the Olympic champion. When the gun cracked it was Tolan who sprang away fastest. He led all the way to the tape, 100 metres away, arriving there in 10.2 sec., another world record.

Doubt arose whether this record would be officially accepted, not because any wind was blowing but because the racetrack sloped slightly upward, the finish being 30 in. higher than the start. Official objection might be simply that such a track is not absolutely standard, but students of physics found fine food for debate in this proposition: the gravity factor being negligible, it may be that one can run faster up a slight incline since, at each stride, one's feet would strike upsloping ground more quickly than level.

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