In considering the performances of celebrated sprinters we have seen that it is hard to say whether those of the present or the past day are better, but in coming to the quarter-mile and longer distances there can be no doubt that the runners of the last few years have done better times over these courses. The reason is not only that the men are better trained, and that out of the larger number of competitors there is more chance of finding a veritable champion, but there is this further consideration, that it is only by slow degrees that athletes have discovered of what amount of speed and stay the human body is capable.

In the early days of athletics a quarter-mile was often treated by good runners as a waiting race, and the times of good races were accordingly very slow. For the first two years after the establishment of the championship in 1866 the quarter-mile race was won by Ridley, an Eton boy, who certainly must have been a phenomenon, as in 1867, while still at school, he won the 1 kindred Yardsand Quarter-mile Championships in the sameday. The times, however, can show nothing of his real ability, as they were as follows: in 1866, 55 seconds; in 1867, 52 3/4 seconds. In the following year, when Ridley was at Cambridge, he showed something of his true powers, for in the Inter-University meeting of that year he won the Quarter-mile in 51 seconds, winning with some ease. That year, however, he was not destined to be champion, for it was then that E. J. Colbeck appeared in his best form. Colbeck is one of the first great figures that stand out in the history of amateur athletics. Few could beat him at 100 yards, while from 220 yards to half a mile no one was in the hunt with him. He was a tall, strongly-built man, with a tremendous natural stride, to which and to his strength he owed his remarkable success.

Unfortunately, he, too, like W. P. Phillips, whose performances in some sense recall those of Colbeck, was doomed to find an early grave. The tale of Colbeck's celebrated quarter-mile at the championship meeting at the old Beaufort House grounds in 1868 is one that has been often told. Coming along at a great pace, he led all the way round the ground, and was winning easily when a wandering sheep found its way upon the path and stopped still there, being presumably amazed at the remarkable performance which the runner was accomplishing. The athlete cannoned against the sheep, broke its leg, and then went on and finished his quarter in 50 2/5 seconds. This time was never equalled until J. Shearman in 1877 covered the distance in exactly the same time at Lillie Bridge, and was never surpassed in England by an amateur until Myers paid his first visit to England in 1881. Since that time Myers has shown what can be done by running a Quarter-mile handicap at Lillie Bridge in 48 4/5 seconds, and since 1881 several English amateurs have shown themselves capable of beating 50 seconds.

Probably, what might have been learnt from Colbeck, and what was not really learnt by English amateurs until Myers put the Englishmen to shame, was that it is possible for an amateur to make a sprint of a quarter-mile and rush at full speed over the whole distance. However, none of the subsequent times can take away from Colbeck the honour of having made a record (and certainly under unfavourable circumstances) which stood its ground for thirteen years during times when every other record made by Colbeck's contemporaries had been long since surpassed and forgotten. Furthermore, it is evident that Colbeck was by no means rendered hors de combat by his wonderful performance, for upon the same afternoon he won the Half-Mile Championship in 2 min. 2 sec, then a record and at all times a fine performance, and made a good show in the Hundred Yards against the winner, W. M. Tennant. If there ever was an English amateur able to hold his own with Myers, Colbeck was probably the man.1

The next pre-eminent performer at a quarter-mile after Colbeck was R. Philpot, of Cambridge. Curiously enough, while Oxford was for so long famous for her sprinters, Cambridge produced a long line of famous quarter-milers. Pitman, Ridley, Philpot, Churchill, and Macaulay all came near to Colbeck's time, but could never quite approach it. Of this line, as far as it is possible to judge between men who were not contemporaries, Philpot, by general consent, was the best; indeed he was credited with having beaten 50 seconds at Cambridge, although the sporting authorities could never be induced to accept the record. At his first appearance at Lillie Bridge he was beaten by R. V. Somers-Smith, of Oxford, as well as by his colleague, A. R. Upcher, the winning time being 50 4/5 seconds under exceptionally favourable conditions. However, in the Inter-University meeting of 1871, Philpot, upon a cold and windy day, covered his quarter in 50 3/5 seconds, running Colbeck's time very close, and in 1872 he won the same race again as well as the championship. Philpot, though not so tall as Colbeck, was of the same style, tall and strong, and was a good enough sprinter to run J. G. Wilson to a yard in 1871, but he was par excellence a quarter-miler, that distance being his real forte.

Philpot, however, at that time would have found no mean opponent in J. C. Clegg, of Sheffield, who during the summer season in the provinces could almost count on sweeping the board at any meeting of all events from 100 to 600 yards. Clegg was a very tall man, hardly so thickly built as Colbeck or Philpot, whose pace, as with Colbeck, came from his stride, but as most of his performances were over grass, the times show nothing of his merits. In 1874 another of the great figures of athletic history, F. T. Elborough, appeared upon the scene, and before his appearance another provincial runner, W. L. Clague, of Burslem, somewhat unexpectedly displayed in London an extraordinary performance at a quarter-mile. Starting in a handicap at Lillie Bridge in 1873, in which he was unable to get nearer than third, he undoubtedly covered his distance, untimed, in something well under 50 seconds. Clague originally made his appearance as a hurdler, and, as a rule, in sprints and quarters used to be unable to beat J. C. Clegg, but at the time of which we speak, when he appeared in London, he struck us as one of the finest natural runners we ever saw.