February 24, 2003More Dunton omissions for the recordLet's review the sorry situation. Ross Dunton has agreed to produce world seasonal rankings -- a.k.a performance lists -- for World Masters Athletics. The idea is to recognize the best performances in various age groups. Credible sources include national championships and meets sanctioned by national governing bodies. Might I suggest another source? The IAAF Top Lists. We already know about Merlene Ottey's 60. Let's look at some other events. Since IAAF statisticians list not only date and place of performance but also birthdates of the performers, I note a few marks that Coach Ross missed. Today, according to Dunton, the world's top W35 mark in the 800 is 2:25.14 by Dunton sez the world's best indoor 1,000 by W30-plus is 2:54.21 by Jennifer Patruno of the Syracuse Chargers AC. The IAAF lists 2:42.75 by Vriesde. Dunton sez the world's best indoor W35 1500 is 5:01.61 by Becky Heuer, 38, at Dunton sez the world's best indoor W35 mile is Heuer's 5:17.08 at Hartshorne. Dunton lists the world's best indoor W35 3000 as 10:47.17 by Patricia Hillery. The IAAF lists 9:16.25 (on an oversized track) by American Mary Cobb, born January 15, 1968. Dunton lists the world's best indoor W35 60-meter hurdles as 11.31 by Monique Seerden (which he misspells as Momique). The IAAF lists 7.78 (and 7.85) by Gail Devers, born November 19, 1966 Dunton lists the world's best indoor W35 high jump as 1.75 (5-8 3/4) by Sabine Rahn of Germany. The IAAF lists 1.91 (6-3 1/4) by Ukraine's Inga Babakova, born June 27, 1967. Dunton lists the world's best indoor W35 long jump 4.81 (15-9 1/4) by Ilse Dunton lists the world's best indoor W35 triple jump as 10.17 (33-4 1/2) by Many of these marks far surpass listed world WMA records. Will they ever be recognized? Possibly. Will they ever make the WMA's world performance lists? Doubtful if Dunton continues to pretend they never took place. How long will this farce continue? Your guess is as good as mine. Posted by kenstone at February 24, 2003 1:22 AMComments
As we go to press, Coach has pressed on with modifications to the format of the Performance List (not billed as Rankings, though he now claims marks are "ranked" by individual year). One would expect enhancements, albeit incremental ones, given Dunton's adamant refusal to revamp either format or the fundamental ordering (by adopting standard WMA 5 Yr. Age Groups, in place of the confusing back-and-forth see-saw: high-to-low, and back to high, ad nauseum). Not so. After first reverting to the original Age columns, at the far left, including a catchall (Ironically, it was correctly labelled acc. to 5 yr. increments.) for those athletes whose DOB was not yet available, the latter has been dropped, literally, to the bottom of each page, where ALL athletes lacking DOB are lumped. The result? Anyone interested in checking a ranking must first go thru the tedious back-and-forth handcounting I detailed in the eMails; THEN they are obliged to check the block at the bottom of the page to see whom they've missed. This little obsession of the Coach's has gotten out of hand, to the extent that it's the major obstacle to smooth usage of the Website. It's starting to look like Users be Damned (formerly it was just us critics). As of this writing, many more events have been added to the initial 60m and Shotput, so momentum is underway. Furthermore, many events have reached "critical mass", whereby sub-par performances (half the distance of leaders or even runners-up in Shotput) are clogging up the lengthy lists, which are already overly long, thanks to the obsession over exact age. I mean who cares what the Rankings for Age 63 are, anyway? I hope WMA eventually wakes up to the monstrous mass of utterly confusing data being collected in their name. When will the rankings be updated? It seems to be I just read a communication from the WMA regarding Performance Rankings. http://www.world-masters-athletics.org/index.php?id=records According to the head-honcho, only those times and distances achieved in National or International competitions will be recognized. No problem, I have an unlimited expense account...jetting off to meets far and wide is well within my budget. Give me a break.
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