Old British Athletics Videos

[bambam]

From Youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBLAdzWF ... re=related

1901 AAA Championship at Huddersfield

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3J_KGwl ... re=related

You guys should like these.

[kuha]

Thanks! I didn't realize these were on Youtube. I saw this footage several years ago--one of the guys who discovered it is a good friend and a member of the NUTS. Amazing to have footage like this from more than a century ago. And, for all those who think the sport was in the stone age prior to 1950, or 1940, or whatever, it's worth noting that the track is as smooth as silk (I presume it's grass?). The form in the 120HH is rather funny--the guys today don't quite have this "whack-a-mole" style...

[AS]

And the field events seemed to get a lot more coverage back then! :P

[eldrick]

ah yes...

& this is how they played football in those days ( or even "soccer" )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLCZZAheNSU

[paulthefan]

quite impressive.

[BillVol]

Wow, those are fantastic! The quality is much better than I would have thought for 1901 or so. I was thinking it would be similar to Charlie Chaplin silent movies, but to me the quality of the track films is better than man of those silent movies.

[jhc68]

Fabulous! Sort of a hybrid between the Stawell Cup and a Monty Python episode. I thought I saw John Cleese on the infield during the distance race with at least 50 runners.

Great crowds, almost all wearing straw hats, martial music played by uniformed bands, and wonderful warm-up wardrobes: fluffy bathrobes, sports coats, letterman's sweaters. And the steeple chase water barrier replete with bushes fronting the moat, as with the British horse races. Cool stuff.

[Conor Dary]

Amazing quality. Better than a lot of the track footage on youtube.

By the way, I admire the cameramen's faith in the hammer throwers.

[paulthefan]

... And, for all those who think the sport was in the stone age prior to 1950, or 1940, or whatever, it's worth noting that the track is as smooth as silk (I presume it's grass?). The form in the 120HH is rather funny--the guys today don't quite have this "whack-a-mole" style...

I will go out on a limb and say that they had grass even in the stone age.

by the way can anyone imagine, 100years later, an Irishman LJing 24+ ft off of such a surface. Whoever the 100m guy and 110HHer were, they looked ready for any decade.

[Daisy]

I will go out on a limb and say that they had grass even in the stone age.

Not bowling green quality, which was Kuha's main point.

[paulthefan]

I will go out on a limb and say that they had grass even in the stone age.

Not bowling green quality, which was Kuha's main point.

yes, there were no streams, brooks or hills on the course. point well taken. I suspect that you lost a bit running on that soft as silk surface relative to later cinder surfaces and more than a bit relative to the future's synthetic surfaces.

[Daisy]

I suspect that you lost a bit running on that soft as silk surface relative to later cinder surfaces and more than a bit relative to the future's synthetic surfaces.

I'm not so sure. St Andrews University used to have a quality grass track that they used for meets when I used to compete. The surface was surprisingly good. I suspect the variability of performance is is huge depending on the weather though.

[paulthefan]

I'm not so sure. St Andrews University used to have a quality grass track that they used for meets when I used to compete. The surface was surprisingly good. I suspect the variability of performance is is huge depending on the weather though.

I disagree, Ive been on the best grass surfaces and they can not compare to a modern synthetic or a very good clay or hard packed cinder surface. There were however some very poor disaggregated cinder tracks that were much worse than the best grass. The stone age surfaces were not bad, Osaka2007 they were not.

[AS]

A couple of sprinters have managed to run 12.0 for 120m on grass at Stawell over the years, so it can't be that slow a surface... particularly as the race is run slightly uphill!!

[jhc68]

How do they time now days at Stawell? Anyone here ever actually been to the meet? Is it as much fun as it sounds?