Which one’s the national relay record? Take your pick

I swear, USATF is trying to drive me wacko. Today I learned of an update in USATF’s masters national records dated 2/21/06. That’s great! New is good! What loosens my screws are the relay records. Instead of a cut-and-dried listing of records by sex and age group, we have to wade through competing pairs of national age-group records. In the men’s 40-49 group, for example, two sets of male runners hold national 4×4 and 4×8 relay records. Same thing in the W40 group.


Say what? Competing records?
OK, make sense of this:
4×400 m Relay 3:33.3
Arthur Gaton
Edward Small
Glen Shane
Mason O’Neal
NY Pioneer Club Syracuse, NY 3/29/80
4×400 m Relay 3:30.83
Kettrell Berry
James Chinn
David Jones
Paul Brown
USA Nampa, ID 3/13/05
Both are listed as national indoor 4×4 records in the M40-49 group. Which one’s the national record?
Or this:
4×800 m Relay 11:46.91
Dave Valles
Ray Stewart
Boyce Jacques
Joe King
WVJS San Jose, CA 8/10/97
4×800 m Relay 11:09.87
Jim Selby
Alfonse Escobar
Gunnar Linde
Avery Bryant
USA Orono, ME 8/2/98
Which one is the M70-79 outdoor national record?
Or this:
4×800 m Relay 11:25.8
Rita Kerr
Jutta McCormick
Vicky Bigelow
Joan Ottaway
USA Eugene, OR 8/14/94
4×800 m Relay 11:33.1
Linda Orlicz
Patricia Watson
Suzanne Leone
Coreen Steinbach Syracuse Ch
Syracuse, NY 7/19/04
Which is the W50-59 outdoor relay record?
How many records are afflicted and/or conflicted?
Ten of the outdoor relay records:
In M40 — the 4×4 and 4×8.
In W40 — the 4×4 and 4×8
In M50 — the 4×4 and 4×8
In W50 — the 4×8
In M60 — the 4×1 and 4×4
In M70 — the 4×8
Nine of the indoor records:
In W30 — the 4×8
In M40 — the 4×4 and 4×8
In M50 — the 4×4 and 4×8
In W50 — the 4×4 and 4×8
In W60 — the 4×4
In M70 — the 4×4
OK, OK — I confess. There’s an easy explanation — one set of records are by teams/clubs, often competing at the USATF masters national championships. The other sets (often repesenting “USA”) are marks made in international or invitational competitions, such as the Penn Relays, Hayward Masters Classic or the WMA world or regional meets.
So, in effect, USATF is listing national championship relay records alongside all-time bests by U.S. citizen teams set in world meets — or meets that don’t enforce rules against “all-star” teams. Adding to the tension is the fact some fully kosher national-championship marks are superior to the “all-star” team marks set in invitational meets. Why list the inferior mark?
Posting dual records on the official USATF Web site is a recipe for “huh?” and embarrassment. Remember — real live sportswriters and editors visit USATF’s records page for illumination and reference. Instead, they now get clear-as-mud confusion.
I notice that USATFs open records have dual relay marks as well — one for clubs and one for national teams.
But hey! Get a clue. Provide some explanation or clarification!
We’re making further inquiries.

Related posts:

  1. Athena TC women set 4×100 national club relay record at Penn
  2. Morioka anchors M60 world indoor record in 4×4 relay
  3. Bum record for relay: last straw for Sandy Pashkin?
  4. Record M70 relay had a little supernatural help
  5. World record relay attempt boasted for Boise

February 23, 2006

2 Responses

  1. Mark Cleary - February 23, 2006

    Ken, the reason there are two records in some cases they list a American Club record( all4 guys or gaals onsame team) and the other record is just a plain US record made by any 4 U.S. citizens–It’s not to tough to figure out–Mark

  2. Mark Cleary - February 23, 2006

    I would agree with you that the team mark if it is superior should be the only one listed–makes perfect sense to me–Mark

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