1. Eric Smart - January 27, 2012

   Can i ask why do you in the U.S.A have a 55m sprint.
   When everywhere in the World has a 60m sprint.
   Then you would not need to try and work out what you have done for a 60m sprint.

2. Ken Stone - January 27, 2012

   Possibly the indoor track layout didn’t accommodate 60 meters. Some meets have 50-meter dashes.

   I used to run 50-yard dash in junior high. My masters-age coach Mike Cummins would challenge his sprinters to a race, with the winner getting an Orange Julius. Coach never lost.

3. Jerry Smartt - January 28, 2012

   Eric, here’s one even better. How stupid is it to run races at 1,600 and 3,200 meters? High school track coaches voted for this so that the start/finish lines would be “convenient.” BALLS. Smartty

4. Eric Smart - January 28, 2012

   Cheers Ken-Love your comment Jerry-your a smart guy !

5. Kenneth Effler - January 28, 2012

   Before the USA joined the rest of the world using metric distances, the most common short sprint distance was 60 yards which is almost equal to 55m. Many indoor tracks built before the switch to metrics (mostly located in the eastern part of the US), only had to adjust their sprint finish line to make it 5.35 inches longer. Since 55m is almost equal to 60y, past performances at 60y could also be measured against new performances at 55m.

6. Eric Smart - January 28, 2012

   Thanks for that kenneth -very interesting

7. Oscar Peyton - January 28, 2012

   For Jerry: The 1600 and the 3200 meter contests as you know are equivalent to one and two miles in the USA. Fans could relate the the distances easier also, as one complete lap is equal to a quarter-mile. The mile(1600) was the most popular long distance track competition here before we went metric(1500). The 1600 is still very popular here. We calculated and communicated long distances here in miles as we still do. Our automobiles here still count miles(not kilometers). We are not fully metric here at this point. Hope this helps.

8. Jerry Smartt - January 29, 2012

   Oscar, the point is that THE WORLD RUNS 1,500 and 3,000 meter races. It would be nice for a highschool runner to be able to compare his 1,500 time with someone FROM THE REST OF THE PLANET. In addition, “one complete lap is NOT equal to a quarter mile.” It’s SHORT of a quarter mile. Smartty

9. bob - January 29, 2012

   Smarty
   most US high school runners are more interested in how they match up against previous generations of american high schoolers. And on my old track one complete lap IS a quarter of a mile(it is an imperial track smarty pants)

10. Jerry Smartt - January 29, 2012

    Correct. An old 440 yard track IS a quarter mile. A 400 meter track is NOT. That’s Smartty with two tees.

11. Texas Tornado - January 29, 2012

    Boys, messin’ with Smartty is a bad move. Don’t try it.

12. Fidel - January 29, 2012

    We run 55m because it’s like a baseball 60 yard dash…you know…from home to 2nd base.

13. Oscar Peyton - January 30, 2012

    You guys can be technical (SmarTT) all you want. In the end, you got Bob’s and my point. There “was” and “is” two separate systems for whateveer reasons. To call one stupid is to look at it one-sided with obvious bias. It would have been stupid to run 330 yards around a track that was 440 yards or run three and a half laps versus four.

14. Oscar Peyton - January 30, 2012

    As far as I know, High School Americans run 1500 meter races and 3000 meter races. Americans run one and two miles as well. The rest of the world can compare there 1500 and 3000 to ours. What’s the PROBLEM? This is my final comment on this.

15. bob - January 30, 2012

    Oscar is correct
    Smartty is only looking at the situation from one perspective, he was indeed wrong(an admitted it) that in not every instance is one lap “short” of a quarter mile.He also is wrong to only look in one direction as far as time/distance comparison. People are often compared to their predecessors who ran in the same locale. Such as the meet record holder, school record holder, the best runner last year,etc etc. As you get better you compare your time to a wider and wider sample. So for all but the most elite comparing their times to someone half way around the world running in who knows what conditions or situation holds little interest.
    Can u imagine the 3rd best miler on a small high school team running home to check his latest pr
    OMG! I now have the 14,342 best performance among 15 year olds in the world this year!!!!
    I rule!!
    Seriously Smartty not much value in that,
    MOST runners want something more relevant to their environment,and personal experience
    the better runners to which their is more value in international comparison can find ways to compare.

16. Ron Pate - January 28, 2013

    For several years now, the high schools in Hawaii run the 1500 and the 3000 meters.

    Normally, Hawaii was considered behind the rest of the nation, but, they dropped the 1600 and 3200 years ago and are aligned with the rest of the world.

17. robert zimmermann - January 29, 2013

    I know its confusing for somebody like me coming from Europe and run in Canada (which is metric) for 10 years as a master but it would be nice if one day the USA would join the rest of the world. I hate watching track meets where everything in the throw events and the jump events are in feet so I have to convert to metric so I can understand or visualized the performance . As for the sprints ,I thought they are in metric for quite some time now only some indoors from time to time but you compare apples with apples . Those yard events are not in international events , except the mile which I can enjoy watching. Bob z

18. Ron Pate - January 30, 2013

    All of the meets I have watched and competed in over the past 15 years had both metric and imperial marks for the field events.

    Other than the mile and a rare two mile race, all the races (other than some mainland high schools)are now metric.

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