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Show 6 Nw Turk Port. WNU Sarvlo. Earlc Meadows, as Guest Columnist, Cites A. A. U. Needs Hugh Bradley has at his guest columnist col-umnist today, Earla Meadows, tht handsome ttcenty-ne-y ear-old pol vaulter who won the Olympic crown last summer at Berlin and who came within a quarter of an inch of a neta indoor world's record thi$ winter, lla tells of the thrills, problem and disappointments dis-appointments of an athleta on tin wing. By EARLE MEADOWS MY INITIAL take-off Into the realm of sports writing should, of course, concern the possibilities possibili-ties of a 15-foot vault. I think It Is coming, and It's not so very far In the future, either. But the athlete who maker. It and there are many who have the potentiality will need a good Imagination and Just a bit of "what It takes" to make that height. I assume that the rabid track crowd is familiar with the forecast of George Varoff, the world champion, cham-pion, who has predicted a 15-foot leap within the next few years. That prophecy certainly is worthy of notice. But, even though George Is one of mj best friends, and even friends must disagree sometimes, I can hardly fall into line with his theory the vault will come as a result of combining two qualities, namely, his own push and the powerful pow-erful pull of slim Sueo Ohe. My contention Is that It will not come by combining these two phases, for the simple reason that one asset would offset the other. It It quite Impossible to combine such a marvelous pull as his with potent push that the Oriental possesses. The combination would ruin timing In the air. My credo Is that the vault will result from the addition of a new technique entirely from the standpoint of the actual mechanism. mechan-ism. After all, every vaulter will agree that working for form, rather A y n than maneuvering through the air without with-out a parachute, is his aim, especially at the above height Varoff will agree, too, that when he made his world indoor in-door record of 14 feet 4 inches at Boston last month, his off-balance in the : air threw him down Earle head first proving Meadows that it makes the downward fall dangerous dan-gerous to the pole vaulter. Get busy, coaches, the pole vault is not yet mastered as far as technique tech-nique is concerned. Another point I would like to bring out Is that with the present system of measurement sucb as cost me a world record at the Garden In the New York A. C. games a 15-foot vault Is Impossible. Impossi-ble. It would take all night or day to measure the bar and the athlete would lose bis edge. I'm not complaining or criticizing the officials. I'm only asking that they remember this point An athlete ath-lete trains for 13 years to achieve the honor of lifting his body to a height previously unreached by man. To achieve this record, a tremendous tre-mendous amount of energy must be expended. It would seem, therefore, there-fore, that the measurement should be checked carefully and announced before the record is attempted. I thought that winning the Olympic Olym-pic vault in the rain at F.eilin was th greatest thrill I had ever known, ant., that night at the Garden, when I cleared what I thought and everybody every-body else, too was a record height. I can't express how I felt because It was such an unusual feeling to be so happy. And than . . . the IctdovTn, when they told me it was one-quarter of an Inch short. And all because of inaccurate measuring instruments. I admit that I didn't want the officials to check with a steel tape before my attempt that night because they would have been standing there gabbing gab-bing yet probably, figuring out the ways and means, talking this over and thrt hot air that would thoroughly thor-oughly have warmed an unheated Garden. By the time they finished I would have lost my edge. At the age of ten I measured the crossbar by my own stature, the most accurate means. I'll never forget bow I started to vault with an old worn-out rug cane and a clothes-line. And what a thrill I got out of it Finally, the old cane broke, and then cfme greater competitive desire de-sire to go higher than the other fel-'ow. fel-'ow. My first ambition to become an Olympic champion came when 1 iras thirteen. It grew and grew r.ilhin me. Then, like a dream, I w in Berlin, competing as one of three representing the Stars and Stripes. |