Last week, we noted how indoor marks attributed to M40 sprinter Steve Bunn were faster than what official results showed. Those false indoor marks on mastersrankings.com have now been corrected, rankings chairman John Seto reports. In addition, a 10.98 time in the 100-meter dash claimed by Steve in 2006 has been changed to 11.0 hand-time, since it wasn’t fully electronic (FAT) to begin with.

I contacted two organizers of the East Alton, Illinois, summer all-comers series where Steve said he ran 10.98. Both the organizers — Russ Colona and Will Summers — told me that the meets were all hand-timed.
Will wrote me a few days ago: “I can tell you with about 100% accuracy that any times at the East Alton summer meets were not FAT. They were definitely hand time.”
And in a phone chat yesterday, Russ said the same. He said he knows Steve and is pretty sure Steve was hand-timed in 10.98, but that stopwatch clockings in the hundredths were recorded only to sort out who should win awards.
According to standard procedure, one adds 0.24 seconds to hand times to get an “equivalent” electronic time. So the best Steve might have run was 11.24 (after 10.98 was rounded to 11.0).
This isn’t trivial, or merely academic. Mastersrankings.com is an official USATF seasonal listings site, and its marks are cited by reporters and statisticians worldwide. A good example is mastersathletics.net, the respected Austrian-based world masters stat site maintained by Martin Gasselsberger.
At the moment, the 2006 world masters rankings list Steven Bunn as having run 10.98 on June 8, 2006. That put him in the top 10 in the world in M40 — behind only Aaron Thigpen and John Simpson on the USA list. But if his mark had properly been reported as 11.0, he would have been no better than 20th on the world list (or not listed at all).
Here’s a screen shot of the 10.98 listing on mastersathletics.net, in case the mark is removed from that site as well.
On April 23, I wrote to Steve:

Another question:
Did you run the 100 in 10.98 in 2006, as indicated here:
http://www.mastersrankings.com/meetresults.php?pseason=Outdoor&cyear=2006&meetno=614
http://www.mastersathletics.net/Masters-Athletics-100-metres.87.0.html
If so, can you please provide confirmation?
If not, what will you do about the discrepancy?

Steve replied on April 24:

The answer is Yes, the meet is correct as well. The Meet directers name is Ross Colona and he is an ISHA for over 20 years. I can get you his home number if you like. You will also find times posted over the 2007 season under the St. Louis Track club in the low 11s. As a 6 year veteran of masters track and field I am aware that most of these times are posted on the net so it is strange that I would fudge any of them. I am not sure why times I run would be referred to as “a discrepency” This seasons indoor times may be a little slower due to the fact that in August at the State games of America I suffered a complete avulsion of my semitendinosis. The surgery was performed on August 9th. So it is great just to be back.

We’re happy to learn that Steve is in good shape. We’re also happy to see his marks accurately reflected on mastersrankings.com.
Steve is fast, no question. I think he’s also wiser to the ways of the digital world. Hand-times should not be submitted as electronic.
Now go kick some butt in East Alton, Steve. Russ Colona says the all-comer series returns as usual — every Thursday in June.