Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 June 1885 — Hurdle Racing. [ARTICLE]

Hurdle Racing.

In England, the regular hurdle 120 yards, with ten hurdles, three feet six inches high, has been run by two amateurs in sixteen seconds. The fastest amateur record for running 120 yards without the hurdles is 11 4-5 seconds, and neither of the two hurdle companions ever did, or ever could do better than twelve seconds. In other words a good hjirdler can spring from the ground, clear a three-foot six-inch hurdle, alight, and get into his greatest running speed again, with a loss of only one-fifths of a second in time from that in which he could have run the same distance without the hurdles. So in America, our fastest performance for the regulation hurdle race is 16 4-5 seconds, and the maker of this record could not run 120 yard on the flat faster than 12 4-5 seconds, so that in America, as in England, the delay at each hurdle is only two-fifths of a second. The difference between the delays caused by jumping a three-foot six-inch hurdle and a two-foot six-inch hurdle has not been so definitely determined, but is certainly not more than one-third of a second, probably not more (than one-twelfth of a second, in the case of a good hurdler. Politeness is the shadow of civilization. Christianity is the substance.