Page:The Strand Magazine (Volume 3).djvu/530

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CHAMPIONS.
533

burgh University, the 100 yards, the 440 yards, and the long jump were his. Fighting for his own hospital at the United Hospital sports, he won for it the 100 yards, the 220 yards, the quarter-mile and the 120 yards hurdles in 1890, and at the same meeting next year he gave "Bart's" the 100 yards, 220 yards, the hurdles, and the long jump. This last measured 21 ft. 10 in.—a hospital record. Fighting for the L.A.C. against Oxford University in 1890, he defeated both the Oxford representatives in the hurdle race. In the competition between the L.A.C. and Cambridge last year again he won the hurdles, beating Mr. W. Fleming, who shortly after won the Inter-'Varsity race of the same kind. In the match with Dublin University last year he dead-heated with Mr. Bulger. On his own private account he won, in 1890, the L.A.C. 250 yards Challenge Cup, and the same club's Challenge Cup for 440 yards over hurdles; the long jump at three L.A.C. meetings last year, on one occasion beating Mr. M. W. Ford, the American representative; and the 100 yards, long jump, and hurdle championships of Scotland, at Glasgow again last year. In the English 120 yards hurdle championship he had the misfortune to fall.


Thomas Jennings.


Thomas Jennings.
From a Photo. by Stearn, Cambridge.

Mr. Jennings is our high-jump amateur champion. He was born in Cork on January 21, 1869, and is Irish by descent. He went to Cambridge in 1888, and not only took his "blue" in his first year, but won the English high-jump championship and tied for the Irish. At the next English championship, in 1889, he had to be content with second place; but last year, in his third Cambridge year, he regained the title, holding at the time the additional distinction of the presidency of the Cambridge University Athletic Club. He has, of course, won many prizes besides the championships, but, like a good amateur, holds them in comparatively cheap estimation. Physically Mr. Jennings is a model athlete, standing full 6 feet high, measuring 42 inches round the chest, and weighing, normally, 14 stone 4 lbs., and when trained a stone less. He has won many prizes in first-rate company in many sports besides the high jump—notably in hurdle events, hammer throwing and weight putting, the long jump, the quarter-mile on the flat, and throwing the cricket ball. He is a first-flight man behind the hounds in winter, and owns a pack of otter hounds which he hunts in the summer—thus following a branch of sport in which few can now indulge in this country, since otters have become so scarce.


James Smart.


James Smart.
From a Photo. by John Hennerell, Wisbech.

Notwithstanding the general unpleasantness of our climate, we rarely find it cold enough to provide anything like good skating for long together, wherefore we may, with justice, be the more proud of the many fine skaters which the country has