WMA world records ‘updated’ but still full of crap
With no fanfare, except a brief note on the WMA Web site, WMA Records Committee chair Sandy Pashkin has updated the official world indoor and outdoor age-group records. They are now all updated as of “May 19, 2006.” Yeah, right. While the list includes marks from Linz and Boston, many legitimate world records are still unrecognized by WMA. I won’t count records set in the past few months, which haven’t been through the paperwork mill yet.
Just some examples at random:
I count five world indoor records from 2006 Boston listed on the WMA site:
60: W 65 1.31 Kathy Bergen USA 66 26.03.06 Boston
HJ: W 65 1.31 Kathy Bergen USA 66 26.03.06 Boston
TJ: W 80 5.57 Johnnye Valien USA 80 25.03.06 Boston
Indoor weight: W 90 5.23 Betty Jarvis USA 90 24.03.06 Boston
Indoor weight: M 75 13.23 William Garrahan USA 76 24.03.06 Boston
But where’s the M70 world indoor record set by Bobby Whilden at Boston? Bobby’s 27.11 bettered the 27.40 by Britain’s Allan Meddings in 1998.
And where’s the M45 short hurdles world indoor record by Karl Smith at Boston? Karl clocked 8.18 — as even USATF acknowledged. There’s no question about his citizenship, either (He ran in the Olympics for Jamaica), since he’s listed as the U.S. indoor record holder in the M40 indoor hurdles.
WMA? It lists the M45 record in the 60 hurdles as:
M 45 8.22 Dexter McCloud USA 46 19.03.06 Linz
And for crying out loud, where’s the W70 world indoor mile record by Mary Harada, who ran 7:12.59 at Boston. You can see the USATF press note on this.
WMA still lists the W70 indoor mile record as:
W 70 7:19.44 Toshiko D’Elia USA 71 24.03.01
And on we go.
WMA lists the M35 outdoor vault record as:
5.30 K. Papanikolaou GRE 36 09.09.77
But M35s Jeff Hartwig, Pat Manson and perhaps others have gone way higher, including a 5.86 (19-2 3/4) by Jeff in 2004.
WMA lists the M35 indoor vault record as:
5.70 Rodion Gataulain RUS 35 23.02.01 Lievin
But Hartwig tops the 2006 American indoor list at 5.85 (19-2 1/4).
WMA lists the M35 indoor world record in the high jump as:
2.27 Cristian Popescu ROM 35 22.02.98 Piraeus
But Olympic champ Charles Austin of the United States (and perhaps others) have gone higher indoors. Charles was 35 for the entire 2003 season (since he turned 35 in December 2002). He jumped 2.30 (7-6 1/2) to win the national indoor championship in 2003.
And WMA lists the M35 outdoor high jump record as:
2.16 Viktor Bolshov URS 35 20.06.74
Oh, come on! Bolshov’s mark dates back to 1974. Austin topped 2.16 (7-1) in his sleep in 2003, highlighted by a 2.27 (7-5 1/4). And if that mark was unacceptable, how about a mark made in the U.S. Olympic Trials? Charles jumped 2.24 (7-4 1/4) in Sacramento. And what about the 2.25 by Germany’s Carlo Thränhardt in 1993?
WMA lists the W35 outdoor record in the 400 as:
50.56 Aurelia Penton CUB 35 15.07.78
But American Jearl Miles-Clark, who turned 35 in September 2001, ran 50.27 in 2002 and 50.53 in 2003.
Curiosly, WMA lists an M35 world outdoor record for the 200 but not an M35 world outdoor record for the 100. But even there, they screw up.
The WMA lists the M35 record for 200 outdoors as:
20.40 Linford Christie GBR 36 03.07.96
But Linford also ran 20.11 in 1995, when he was 35. And if that mark is questionable, how about the 20.23 by Frank Fredericks of Namibia in 2003, when he was 35 or the 20.14 in 2004 when he was 36? Frank’s 20.14 came in Athens. You may have heard of the meet. The Olympic Games.
And Frank is robbed of the indoor 200 record as well!
WMA lists the M35 indoor world record at 200 as:
20.59 Doug Turner GBR 35 17.07.02 Birmingham
But in February 2003, Frank ran 20.45 at Liévin. Frank turned 35 in October 2002.
An old Swedish site devoted to M35 records hasn’t been updated in several years, but it offers much fodder for questioning the WMA M35 records:
WMA lists the M35 outdoor 1500 record as:
3:33.91 Mike Boit KEN 36 21.08.85
But the Swedish site lists:
3.32.45 William Tanui KEN 640222 3 Athína
WMA lists the M35 decathlon world record as:
7778 Werner Von Moltke GER 35 12.05.72
But what about Kip Janvrin? Born in July 1965, he recorded these best seasonal marks since turning 35 on July 8, 2000:
8057 at the Olympic Trials on July 21, 2000.
8241 on June 22, 2001.
7847 on July 28, 2002.
7918 on June 22, 2003.
7730 on June 16, 2004 (below the listed WMA record, sadly)
In the W50 outdoor high jump, WMA lists:
1.57 Weia Reinboud NED 50 06.08.00 Krommenie
But Weia, the No. 1 world authority on the women’s high jump, herself lists the best W50 outdoor leap as:
1,60 Debbie Brill CAN 10 03 1953 Langley 19 06 2004.
WMA lists the W35 world outdoor record in the 5000 as:
15:11.28 Lynn Jennings USA 35 10.07.95
But one of the foremost track statisticians in the world, Peter Matthews of Britain, editor of International Athletics Annual, lists this W35 record:
5000m 14:42.64 Edith Masai (4/4/67) KEN Brussels 9/3/04 And American Regina Jacobs ran 14.45.35 at the 2000 Olympic Trials.
WMA lists the W35 world outdoor record for the 100 hurdles as:
12.47 Ludmila Engquist SWE 35 21.08.99
But American Gail Devers, who turned 35 in November 2001, has these marks in succeeding seasons:
12.40 on July 2, 2002, in Lausanne.
12.45 on Sept. 14, 2003, in Monaco.
12.50 on May 7, 2004, in Kingston (OK, she slipped.)
I’m tired. Been searching the web for better-than-WMA records for a couple hours, But I’m even more tired of WMA’s outrageous excuse for a record book.
Check out the events you know about, and add your own howlers.
Botom line on WMA records: It’s time for a change.
7 Responses
Hey Ken how about this one…(in regard to FULL OF CRAP!!) Bill Collins/Jesse Norman/Bob Bowen/Ed Gonera win the M 50..4 x100 in the WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS..Carolina Puerto Rico 2003..in a WORLD RECORD time of 44.99 FAT and still do NOT get credit for this RECORD!!! Astounding???? Wait there is even more to this story…Gonera has ATTEMPTED to find out “why” and Sandy Pashkin has not even responded…….hows that for incredible???? iS THAT EVEN BELEIVABLE??? WHY DO WE TREAT OUR OWN ATHLETES WITH CONTEMPT???This record was set at a WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP event..FAT timing etc etc etc why have these fine athletes been denied what they HONESTLY earned????? This is sickening to me…….. Francis A Schiro
I understand that the paperwork from the National Masters Meet in Boston has yet to be submitted to Sandy Paskin. I spoke with Steve Vaitones last week to confirm this. He told me that it is on his “to do” list. Well lemme tell you – I hope that my world record mile time gets posted on the WMA site before next winter when someone is likely to break it.
It is frustrating for all concerned when more than 2 months after a meet, the paperwork has not been submitted. On the other hand, many records were broken at the Boston Meet, and the paperwork required is not simple. Perhaps there is some way to simplify this process or allow for electronic submissions, even on the spot so that the stuff does not need to be copied, lost, found again, mailed, or whatever happens to it. However I am not holding my breath, given how “quickly” the WMA website is updated – ha ha – how many months passed before the Linz results were posted there!
World record results will continue to be a mess as long as the track and field community continues to live in the age of paper and pen, and snail mail.
In this day and age ‘paperwork’ becomes more and more outdated. Surely many of the meets have results that are produced electronically and often as not available on the web.
If confirmation is needed for the M35 and W35 records I suggest that a look at http://www.gbrathletics.com/wrecm.htm will produce the facts.
Martin Rix is up there with the Peter Matthews of this world when it comes to stats and if anyone knows of a better site…lead me to it.
I just noticed that my M65 600g javelin record (55.02m) is missing off the new WMA list in favor of a lessor mark. A spec change was made on this javelin in 1999 which had some effect at the distances open women were throwing, but no significant effect at masters distances. I’m sorry to see my old record go. I still remember that throw and the difficulty I had getting it ratified in the first place.
A sadder thing is the disappearance of Larry Stewart’s M55 800g record of 65.74 (over 215 ft.). That was certainly the greatest masters javelin throw of all time, and perhaps the greatest masters performance in any event. Most throwers are able to throw the 700g javelin (currently used for the M50-59 age group) about 5% farther than the 800g javelin, which means that somebody is going to have to throw the 700g javelin over 69m (over 226 ft) to surpass Stewart’s record. The current listed record is 64.17.
These old records were listed last year, but now they have just quietly disappeared.
Bud Held
The WMA records committee should get busy and clean out those old pole vault records. Some of those records have been there too long. Herb Schmidt has had the M60 record since 1971 and Boo Morcom has had the M65 record since 1986. The crossbar support pins were shortened a couple of years ago so that current jumpers are at a disadvantage. All the records made before this spec change should be wiped out. This applied to the IAAF as well which should get rid of Bubka’s 20 ft. vault.
Not sure if it is true, but I have been told that the reason Hartwig’s and Manson’s vaults are not listed as records is that they are considered “open” athletes because they have never provided USATF with documents to verify there age. Proof of age is not a requirement as an open athlete.
I am sure that their performances haven’t been submitted either, but think the proof of age thing could have some legs.
1. In the past, the excuse was usually that the “paper work” was not submitted for a record. Well, what ever is wrong with the “paper work” process needs to be changed.
2. It is understandable that many M/W30- M/W35 marks are set at open meets and never submitted for “masters” records even if they are world age-group marks. So it is not surprising that someone can find some eighth place finish somewhere that might be an age-group record. Seems like IAAF should be the organization responsible for tracking open athlete ages and reporting to WMA any M/W30- M/W35 marks for record purposes. After all, we’re all suppose to be supporting the same sport, right?
3. The World Masters Lists still lists two 400m Hurdle handtime marks. These should be taken down or listed as “World Bests.” Same thing for all hand-timed U.S. records 400m or lower.
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