MIKKOLA SEES EASTERN SUPREMACY IN JAVELIN

The following article, written by Jacco Mikkola, assistant track coach at the University, is one of a series which is being written by the leading coaches of the country on the events which will be contested in the I. C. A. A. A. A. meet on May 28 and 29.

Mikkola gives the history and present status of the javelin throw, an event which first came to the fore in modern times among Finnish athletes. Although he confines his efforts at the University chiefly to the development of weight throwers, Coach Mikkola is also experienced in the training of runners. He coached the entire Finnish track team which placed second in the 1924 Olympics, and he was also largely responsible for Nurmi's sensational rise. He began to coach Nurmi's in 1918 and continued to work with him for a few years until the world's champion distance runner was competent to train himself.

The American colleges deserve the greatest praise for their marvelous progress in javelin throwing. The event was not added to the Intercollegiate championship program until 1922, but the present record made by C. H. Storrs of Yale is 199 feet, 1 inch, a mark which compares very favorably with the Olympic record of 215 feet 9 3-4 inches which Jonni Myyra of Finished established in 1920.

While the United States is about fifteen years behind the Scandinavian countries in the javelin throw, I firmly believe that the athletes from the different continents will be on even terms within three or four years. Some misguided persons thought that American boys should throw the javelin extremely well because they are such wonderful baseball players. That is all wrong. They are on the wrong road. Javelin throwing is altogether different. Baseball requires fewer muscles than the javelin. The surprising thing is that American athletes improve so fast at the javelin.

U. S. Athletes Show Progress

No other nation has made such progress and America has accomplished in half a dozen years what the Scandinavian countries required 20 years to accomplish. Look back at the 1920 Olympic games. The United States won no place in the javelin throw although the event had been included on the A.A.U. program since 1909. The event gained little popularity until it was added to the I.C.A.A.A.A. program in 1922. The increased interest is reflected in the fact that Oberst won third place for the United States and another American competitor took fifth. By 1928, it is logical to assume that the United States will be making a good fight for first place and possibly for several of the other scoring positions.

Javelin throwing is one of the oldest forms of athletic competition known to man. It traces back to the spear throwing days of the Vikings when javelins were thrown from ship to ship as implements of warfare. Even further back, as long ago as 400 B. C., historians tell us that the Roman armies had special coaches to instruct in the javelin throw. Today the athlete throws a spear which weighs 800 grams or 1 pound 12 1-2 ounces; in the pre-Christian era the spears weighted about 400 grams and were thrown with the aid of a piece of string in order to get greater distance. The javelin was on the original Olympic program and its return to popular usage is backed by notable history.

The long season enjoyed by the Pacific coast college men enables them to perfect the technique of javelin throwing but it is interesting to note that in four I.C.A.A.A.A. meets the title has remained in the east and it will not surprise me if some easterner is victorious again this year. Take the victory of the Leyden of Maine in the Penn Relays as an example. He cleared more than 195 feet, within an arms reach of the present Intercollegiate record. When a man can make such a throw in mid-April it is impossible to estimate what to expect of him when the competition begins in the big meet of the year.