800 meters: First of series of single-age records online
The king is dead. Long live the king! Well, Pete Mundle isn’t gone. But his successor as master of all masters records has begun his reign. Martin Gasselsberger of mastersathletics.net has begun an online listing of single-age records. His first events are the men’s 800 and the women’s 800. This isn’t a first (since Weia Reinboud has posted single-age high jump records for years), but it’s a sign that our reliance on Pete’s deeply flawed Masters Age Records booklet is about over. Will other events get Martinized? Yes! He says: “I should like to make single age records for all events.”
Of course, this may make my own wiki age-records project moot. So be it. But one can serve as a check on the other, so I won’t pull the plug on the wiki.
More important, Martin’s world-class stat skills will act as a check on Mundle’s mistake-ridden records list.
Here’s the latest men’s 800 list from Mundle’s book. (I noted 10 better marks on Martin’s list — for ages 42, 43, 44, 50, 53, 54, 55, 61, 77 and 93):
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And here’s the Pete Mundle list for women’s 800 (I note even more records wrong. Martin’s list has better marks for 16 ages — 35, 45, 48, 49, 54, 62, 64, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 73, 75, 76 and 85):
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2 Responses
I agree that Martin is doing such a great service for us all. I also agree that it is a good idea to have several lists going – as checks. Because I did find an error in Martin’s list – one that you flagged is indicating an error in Ken’s list. I did not race an 800 – at any speed – when I was 64. You’ll see that the time listed is my 65+ WR – run in ’03.
I will check Martin’s site to see how I can point this out to him. I hope the “real” age 64 runner will contact Martin, too.
WMA keeps separate records of indoor and outdoor times – will Martin do this as well or will he continue to comingle the two. There is a difference between running a time indoors and outdoors – most feel that indoor records are slower –
and how about mile times – I notice that he has ignored this event – hopefully not a sign that WMA is getting ready to deep six world records.
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