Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-01-27
HEAVTNG HAMMER
HAS DRAWBACKS
The Runner Feels That 1t
Should Be Omitted From
Track Program
LIKES JAvEL1N OR DISCUS
BY ]. 4. TED) MEREDITH


DECENT abolition Of the hammer throw
IN by the Rocky Mountain intercollegiate
Association leaves the eastern body the only
real supporter Of This event ir the collegiate
ranks For wears there has been much tIlk
about tho advisabiliiy of doing away with
this event auod there also have been argu-
ments for retaining Il.
There is no doubt but that the hammer
throw Is n dangerous event and 'o most
people an uuinterestinE one Moro acct
dents can he traced to this than To amy
other field event and In some rnw cases
deaths have been marked up TO it IL is
so dangerous that in tho big meets 1t ia
taken off from the regular field Of compcti-
tlon and. held on some field clear Of the
crowd
At tho fntercoIlegiates held AZ Harvard
Stadium last year the hammer throw was
not Witnessed by any one except the Of
fcials the competitors and q few coaches.
All the other events were held out i'm the
regular field, where they could be seen from
any point in tho stands These are not the
only arguments against this event. The
best in my mind is that the hammer Of
fers itself TO only a certain type OF man and
that tyne is q rare specimen.
The hammer thrower must he In the
f1rst place very big and strong man OF
course there have been small men who have
had great success with the hammer, but the
cases are few. Then. again, hammer
thrower must have ~ certain amount Of
speed that Is not a general rule found
among the big fellows. Another bad fea-
ture is the great length OF time 1t takes a
man to learn to throw the weight aCcu-
rately and here comes the point about the
danger again In order 10 become a good
hammer thrower it generally takes a man
from four TO seven years of practice, and
even at tho end Of this time he has Just
become master of the form cur best ham
until they have been at it for years Then
they arc men in their thlrties and ready to
stop.
or course when eliminating any event
there should he some substitute, and IL is
here that the West has put in two events
which have served the purpose and given
more satisfaction than the hammer could
ever be expected to give. They have taken
up the javelin and discus.
Two Good Arguments
The arguments for those events are:
First, they are on both our national and the
international programs. and Tor this reason
should he taken up by the colleges which
are called upon to defend this Comtry's
strength against others i'm athletic games
Secondly, these events require Il man who
might be called light heavyweight. Either
the jayelin or discus events can be taken up
by the ma iorily of the big fellows and will
not eliminate the old hammer thrOwer as
he would be just as good along these lines.
At the present time in the East tue type
of man who could fit in well with the JavcIiu
or discus is left idle in track athletics, He
is too light and not strong enough TO wres-
tie with the big hammer or nut the shot
and he IS too slow to take uB the other
track or field events So he stays out Of
track and field sports and the sport loses
some Of the best kind of competition.
In 1912 Harvard wanted the hammer
eliminated because of the danger of the