Men's PLACE in History (Place Records)

My blog covers Records of all kinds--World, US, Collegiate, HS, National, Meet, Age, Class.
And Place records.
They are the records for best-ever finish in a certain Place in an event, such as best-ever 5th Place mark in the SP or 400H.
However, they've not gotten as much attention in this blog as the other Records--partly because of the nature of the beast.
It takes perfect conditions--great weather, every athlete pushing to their limits, depth of field, and all those tangible INtangibles--desire, motivation, heart---all coming together in one event in one meet at one time!
The greatest example, perhaps, was the London Olympic Games Men's 800 final--when Place Records were broken for ALL 7 of the Places behind the winner, David Rudisha!
And that leads to a question--Why does Track and Field News list the FIRST Place person in their lists of Best Place marks??
Isn't it obvious that the Winner in an event would be the WR holder??
What better FIRST Place mark can there be??
So it's redundant to list the First Placers!!
And that brings me to my Guidelines for this (and the Women's) post.

1. My T&F Record Book has only OUTdoor Records for Place.  These posts are thus all about OUTdoor marks ONLY!!
2. The Number of Place Records I have vary by event.  They are as follows:
Places 2 through 6 for the Walks!
Places 2 through 8 for the 100, 200, 400, 800, 1000, 100H or 110H, 400H, HJ, LJ, TJ, PV, SP, DT, JT, HT, 4X100 and 4X400 Relays!
Places 2 through 10 for the 1500, 1 Mile, 3000, and 2 Mile.
Places 2 through 12 for the 5000, 10000, Marathon, 3000SC, and the Heptathlon & Decathlon!
3. Place Records can happen in ANY meet, even in the Heats or Semis or Qualifying!
4. NO wind-aided marks allowed!

The Olympic Games--and secondarily, the World Championships--normally provide MANY new Place Records!
Diamond League events offer some also.
They rarely come in meets outside of the above listed, but CAN!!

Following is my overview of MEN's Place Records.
I'll cover ALL of the events, but my focus is on those events on the Olympic Games schedule!!
I will comment on whether I see the potential for SEVERAL Place Records to be broken in an event in Rio!
I won't list all of the Records, but will mention some of the more amazing!

100
7th Place is 9.98!!
5th is 9.88!!
Best 2nd is Tyson Gay's 9.71!
Best chances are in Places 6, 7, and 8.

200
5th is 19.98!!
Not enough 200 depth this year, but 7th & 8th are vulnerable--20.25 & 20.33.

400
3rd is 43.78!
8th is 44.92.
This event is LOADED!!  In the right conditions, this could be a repeat of that London 800!!

800
That London race is MILES apart from Rio's---figuratively & literally!
Would be amazing if even ONE Place record went down!!

1000, 1 Mile, 3000, 2 Mile
NOT on the Olympic program!
But 2:15.00 for 5th in the 1K!!
ALL of the 1000 Place bests come from 1999!!
SIX at 3:49.56 or faster in the Mile!!
Tenth is 3:51.12.
5th in the 3000 is 7:29.95.
8th is 7:30.84!
Third in the Two Mile is 8:07.07!
Ninth is 8:19.11.
Matt Tegenkamp holds THREE Place records in the Deuce--3rd, 5th, and 6th!!

1500
Bernard Lagat--before he became a US citizen--got the best 2nd & 3rd Place marks!!
Mo Farah has the best 4th Place mark!
Seventh is 3:29.91!!
Tenth is Centro's 3:30.40!!
Will take a Post-Rio rabbited DL race for any of these to fall!!

5000
Ken Bekele, the WR holder, also has the Best 9th Place mark!!
Eleventh Place is 12:59.21.
Oh how I WISH the Rio final would be faster than that---for Eleventh Place!!!

10000
All 11 Place marks I have are by Africans!!
Nine at 26:55.28 or faster!!
12th Place is 27:12.24.
(See my 5000 comment!)

Marathon
2:07:45 for 12th Place!!
2:06:29 for 10th!
2:04:53 for Fifth!!
(My Records here include Boston Marathon marks!!)
The Rio conditions don't call for a super fast race!

3000SC
7:57.32 for Third!!
8:05.96 for 6th!
8:12.27 for 10th, and 8:15.51 for 12th Place!!
If the pace is fast from the gun, I could see a Place or 3 or 4 going down!

20K & 50K Walks
1:17:52 for the Silver!!
1:18:07 for the Bronze!
And 1:18:55 for 6th!
NO!  (Not without those Russkies!  LOL)
3:38:55 for 6th in the long race!!
Again, NO!

110H
12.90, and you're just SECOND??!!
13.04 for 4th!
13.15 in 6th.
13.26 in 8th!
If everyone finishes, I could see that 8th Place record falling!
But still doubtful.

400H
47.76---faster than the fastest time run in all of 2015!!--gets you just the Best 5th Place time!!
But then, the times fall off dramatically!
48.38 for 6th, 48.57 in 7th, and 48.78 in 8th!
Despite the lack of super fast times up front, those last 3 Place Records could fall!

HJ
It takes a jump of 7-7, or 2.31, to TIE the Best 8th Place mark!!
For 6th, you better UP your game---literally!!--to 7-8, or 2.34---to tie!
And it takes a 2.38, or 7-9.75, for a tie for 4th Place best!!
Silver remains Mutaz Barshim's 2.42, or 7-11.25, from 2014!!
BTW, Barshim has a hand in THREE Place bests here--2nd & 4th all alone, while he's tied for Best at 7th!

LJ
Remember the Olympic Trials, when 7 Men went 27 feet or longer--though many of the marks were windy?
Well, in NON-windy conditions, the best 7th Place mark is---27-0---I kid you not!!
No one's gonna touch the Best 2nd Place mark--Carl Lewis's 29-1.25!!
And how about Marquis Dendy's 27-7.50 Legal best 4th Placer?
Except for that Silver mark, the rest just MIGHT be up for grabs!!
(Close that wind tunnel door!!)

TJ
It takes a TJ of 57-8.50, or 17.58, to TIE for 4th!!
And it still demands a 56-4 (17.17) to tie for 8th!!
Without Tamgho and Pichardo (?), getting Place Records here will be difficult!

PV
It takes a Vault of 19-0.75 (5.81) to tie for 8th Place!
The Men's PV is TOP-heavy, but lacking in really strong depth!
It needs a 19-2.75 for 6th just to tie!
Sergey Bubka holds ZERO Place bests---too busy WINNING!!

SP
Fifth Place is 70-0.50!!
With all the new 70 footers around, you'd think that mark would be relatively easy!
But this is the Olympics--and Championship marks tend to go DOWN--for any reason(s) you'd want to imagine!!
8th Place is "just" 67-8.25, or 20.63!

DT
Gerd Kanter holds TWO Place records!  (You COULD hold ALL the Place bests---in different meets!!)
His best for 2nd is 232-8, while his best 4th is 225-1.
From there, the drop-off is HUGE---to 220-1 in 5th, and down to 214-11 in 8th!!

JT
290-9 (88.62) gets you just 4th here!
Fifth is 87.13 (285-10).
It takes 275-1 (83.85) to tie for 8th Place!
This event is FLYING (sic!), so we could see a place mark or three being broken in Rio!

HT
281-3 for Silver??!!
OhReally!
But then it drops to 272-11 for bronze, and 267-7 for the dreaded 4th!
It's 261-4 for 8th, but I doubt many (if any!) Records will fall here!

Decathlon
8314 points in 12th Place, folks!!
8443 for 8th, and 8548 for 6th!
That's incredible depth!
With Ashton Eaton's (Meet, World??) record leading the way, we could see a few place bests falling!
Erik Nool has a pair of Place records---for 3rd and 6th!

4X100 Relay
Brazil---!!!---has the best mark for 4th Place--their 37.99 in 2007!
Japan has Place 5 with 38.03.
After that, the times drop some--to 38.31 in 6th, and 38.61 for 8th!
Seven different Nations hold the 7 available Place marks!!
(The USA isn't among them---too busy winning---or DNF'ing!!  LOL)

4X400 Relay
Same as in the sprint Relay (See above!), no one Nation holds more than one Place mark!!
Fifth Place is 2:59.37!!
Australia's 3:00.02 for 6th came in 2008.
Ireland's 3:01.26 is the Best 8th Place mark!!

Overall, expect a good number of Place Records to fall in the Men's events!
There is precedence for this, and I expect the tradition to continue!
Know one thing---EVERY Place Record broken (or tied!) in Rio WILL be reported in my Blog!!

Stick around for my Women's report!!
Coming in a few short hours!