Sunday, January 4, 2015

Sorting through the muck

T&F is supposed to be a simple sport.
Whoever runs faster, jumps higher, or throws farther wins.
Then those damn orgs enter the picture---you know, IAAF, USATF, NCAA, NHSF (??  National High School Federation?).
Then the question becomes, When is a record a RECORD?

This is going to be a cornucopia of material for your enlightenment and entertainment.
But I'll begin with a couple of examples possibly illustrating what I said above.

Rita Jeptoo will soon find out when her ban begins, and which races will be expunged from her record.
It SEEMS fairly certain that her 2:18:57 is out of here.
If that's the case, my T&F Record Book will need to be revised.
In fact, I'm sure it will need revision, whatever her punishment is.
BUT I won't revise my Book until WADA (or whomever) gives us the particulars of her ban.
So until then, her PR remains on the books!

It seems Shawn Barber Pole Vaulted a great 19-3 today in a PV-only meet in Texas.
IF everything is legal, that would be a Collegiate Record (INdoors of course!), the Junior Class record, the Canadian National record, and the Age 20 record!
BUT was everything "legal"?

Supposedly, the meet was certified by USATF.
But PoleVaultPower questions whether it can be a CR, because the meet apparently doesn't meet NCAA specifications!
Also, I'm not sure if Barber has turned Pro, or if he's still a student at Akron!
And if he IS a student there, is he redshirting?
Until all those questions are answered, I can't revise my Record Book to show all those "Records" he apparently broke!!

Well, I have a few other things to report.

Did I mention the following in another post?  (Too lazy to research it!  LOL)
Speaking of orgs messing things up, I still don't know if that Falmouth Mile from August 10, 2012 was "legal"
T&FN lists Brenda Martinez's 4:26.78 and Gabe Grunewald's 4:27.94 as legit, even though there supposedly were no cones on the curves, thus replicating what happened at 2013's Re-RUN meet, where all the marks were negated because of no cones.
But I'm accepting T&FN's "ruling" on this, so their times are good!
BTW, Martinez's mark gives her 16th A-T US, while Gabe's mark leaves her 24th A-T US!

A couple of notable HS marks to report.

Virij Devkar ran 3000 in 8:29.68.
This makes him 19th A-T HS.

And Marcellus Fletcher TJ'ed 50-1.50, but that falls about 2 inches shy of my DDD list.
It is the best HS mark so far, however.

In China's Xiamen Marathon, Mare Dibaba matched her PR of 2:19:52, first run in 2012.
But until the Rita Jeptoo matter is finalized, we won't know whether Dibaba's mark improves her placement on my DDD!

The Russian Winter Meet (February 1) is looking like another great one.
Set to compete in the Men's 1500 are Silas Kiplagat, Aman Wote, and Bethwell Birgen.
Maria Kuchina will HJ.
Nijel Amos will run, but not sure if it's in the 800 or 1000.
Mike Rodgers will do the 60, and Pascal Martinot-Lagarde will run the 60H.

Every so often, I do an inventory of all the marks in my T&F Record Book.
This means I count all the marks that have a year attached to it.
This is done so I can find out how fast T&F marks are progressing, from decade to decade.

I count all my categories (Miscellaneous, Age, Meet, National records, and all my DDD lists!).
I divide the count as follows:

2000-present (I decided to NOT do the decade of 2000-2009 separately!)
1990-1999
1980-1989
to 1979 (Includes all marks up to and including 1979!)

Of course, I do separate counts for INdoors and OUTdoors, as well as for Men and Women.
The last time I'd done a count was January 1, 2012.
Thus, my latest count (done December 31st) is 3 years later!
Note that since then, I've expanded my Record Book quite a bit, all in the past year!
I've added several events to my DDD lists, and done away with the strict standards I was using for my Meet and National records, thus greatly increasing their numbers!

Following are the new numbers.
OUTdoors is first, then INdoors, then the TOTALS (for IN and OUT combined).

Miscellaneous              M          W                  DDD-HS          M          W
2000-present              262        287                                        273        342
1990-1999                 110        45                                          76          55
1980-1989                 63          87                                          97          69
to 1979                      29          15                                          91          51

Age                            M           W                   DDD-Coll.     M           W
2000-present             339         307                                       296         380
1990-1999                145         129                                       98           105
1980-1989                65           114                                       108         94
to 1979                     9              12                                         57           5

Meet                          M            W                   DDD-World  M            W
2000-present             501          639                                      346          336
1990-1999                172          92                                        185          140
1980-1989                90            97                                        90            144
to 1979                     21            8                                          12             19

National                    M             W                    DDD-US     M              W
2000-present            252           238                                     277            380
1990-1999               123           93                                       132            114
1980-1989               47             66                                       136            82
to 1979                    11             8                                          43              11

TOTALS-OUTdoors       M          W
2000-present                   2546      2909  
1990-1999                      1041      773
1980-1989                      696        753
to 1979                           273        129

Miscellaneous             M          W                  DDD-HS         M              W
2000-present             160        180                                       310            338
1990-1999                37          22                                         62              50
1980-1989                16          12                                         56              53
to 1979                      2            10                                        34               27

Age                            M           W                  DDD-Coll      M               W
2000-present             278         272                                     341              393
1990-1999                79           68                                       71                58
1980-1989                28           47                                       55                37
to 1979                     3             10                                       16                 1

Meet                         M            W                   DDD-World M                 W
2000-present            120          129                                     347               335
1990-1999               24            24                                       122               94
1980-1989               22            17                                       48                 81
to 1979                    2               1                                         7                   10

National                   M              W                   DDD-US      M                 W
2000-present           154            123                                     280               345
1990-1999              87              46                                       98                 72
1980-1989              40              22                                       72                 57
to 1979                   5                3                                         22                 6

TOTALS-INdoors           M               W
2000-present                   1990           2115
1990-1999                      580             434
1980-1989                      337             326
to 1979                           92               68

TOTALS (IN and OUT Combined)      M                    W                     ALL
2000-present                                        4536                5024                9560
1990-1999                                           1621                1207                2828
1980-1989                                           1033                1079                2112
to 1979                                                 365                  197                  562

If numbers for Men and Women don't match within a certain category, it means I have more events listed for the Men, or vice versa.
The Miscellaneous OUTdoors category includes Place Records, whereas the INdoors does not!

On the OUTdoors numbers, note how many more Meet Records were set by Women this century than by Men!
In the OUTdoors DDD lists, note that Women have greatly outperformed Men in the HS, Collegiate, and US lists, but are fairly even on the World DDD in the 2000's.
Note the big numbers for the "to 1979" department in the HS DDD's for both Men and Women!
This is partly because some events aren't held as often in this century as they were in the 70's and 80's.
Also because of the change to the 1600 and 3200, which I don't include!
Thus, many of the Mile and Two Mile marks come from that older era.
And of course, all those Eastern European Throws marks OUTdoors dominate the lists from the 70's and 80's!

On the INdoors side, look at how even ALL the marks are for Meet Record category between Men and Women!
Fairly even in the Miscellaneous category too.
Ditto with the Age marks!
The INdoors DDD numbers are MUCH more in tandem between the sexes than they were for OUTdoors!
But the Women still are pretty dominant in this century in the Collegiate and US lists
Only ONE Women's Collegiate mark dates from 1979 or earlier!
This of course is because Women's Collegiate action only really started in the very late 70's, and then it was the AIAW, not the NCAA, though the AIAW marks are included on my lists, if they qualify!

When you get to final Totals, Women outdo the Men this century both IN and OUTdoors!
You can't say the 2000's have been dry!
Not when this century totals 9560, and the 20th century totals 5502.
Sure, the numbers for the 2000's could, and should, be much higher, but the last 15 years have seen TONS of marks make my Book!!

How much will 2015 add to that 9560 total?

Next post will be my predictions of which INdoor records might fall in 2015 in the World, US, Collegiate, and HS categories.
                                   


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