Guatemalan Olympian claims M55 deca WR, but whose got beat?

For the fifth year in a row, the German multi-event festival in the Berlin suburb of Stendal has produced a masters world record. This time it’s an M55 deca WR for Guatemalan Olympian Angel Estuardo Diaz Granillo, who scored 8031 points, reports Stendaler Hanse Cup maven Dieter Massin and hometown media. ( The listed WR is American Bill Murray’s 7773 from 2009 Lahti worlds. But the listed European record is 8487 by Germany’s Rolf Geese in 1999.) Dieter, the former Eurovets president, and German blogger Axel Hermanns are upset with WMA record czar Sandy Pashkin. (Results will be here eventually.)

M70 Rolf Geese (left) congratulated new WR man Angel Diaz at Stendal meet.

First is Dieter’s report (apologies for rough translations):

About 50 masters athletes competed (31 decathlon, 18 heptathlon), coming from Germany, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Hungary, Norway, Switzerland, Guatemala, Poland and Sweden, unfortunately Christa Bortignon (CAN) could not come, she already was registered; a great atmosphere, always orientated to the athletes, best athletics weather (a little bit too hot), friendly and helping judges. In one word => fantastic.

Last year the Stendal LOC waited 285 days, yes two hundred eighty five days, before Sandy Pashkin accepted the record of Rolf Geese in M70; she found after 285 days a mistake. NO COMMENT, the year before Wolfgang Ritte waited for the recognition of his world record more than a half year. Again NO COMMENT!

Stendal used (firstly) the record list of Sandy Pashkin in the case of Angel Diaz (M55), it means Stendal LOC orientated to the record of W. Murray = 7773 points; in the course of the competition Stendal LOC changed and took the record list of EMA and DLV = 8488 points (= record of Rolf Geese).

At least Stendal LOC decided the “golden middle way” and took the Top Ten of Bernd Rehpenning (see=> http://european-masters-athletics.org/files/records/DECATHLON%20-%2014.11.2016.pdf) What a chaos!

Unfortunately this chaos had to be borne and sustained by a very committed and competent organiser like Stendal. A real pity and a real disaster!

Axel’s comments on lampis.net:

An extinction of value from the outside by the inability of the national and international statisticians was still to be swallowed up in the edgy cup of pleasure. The ghosts, whether Angel Estuardo Diaz Granillo (* 1961) from Guatemela, with those 8,011 points, were separated by an hour-long distraction and an arduous search, which took place with the participation of the chronicler, New world record in the M55.

After all, what has been gathered on mosaic stones and the fact that predecessor Rolf Geese (* 1944) congratulated the man from Central America yesterday afternoon at the convincing victory with “cheerleaders” to the global best, we are assuming that it is so , It also shows what an impeccable sportsman, even more gentleman, is the Lower Saxony from Göttingen. This will become even clearer in the further course.

WMA leads a world record that was never one

But that can not be the case for the organizer, nor for the rapporteur, that the source can not be used without doubt and absolutely reliably, the world record list of the global senior citizens’ umbrella organization World Masters Athletics (WMA).

But now Sandy “Pushkin” Pashkin from Eugene (USA) is swinging her ominous scepter. It is widely known for its incapacity, and it pretends that they are most reluctant to remove their American countrymen from the “books” with a miserably long time delay of up to more than nine months. Even before the beginning of the unfortunate presidency of US president Donald “Duck” Trump, she created the term “America first.”

The coronation of her unauthorized and unsuccessful action, however, she provides in the M55. For her, she leads William Murray (* 1954) from the USA with 7,773 points from the Senior World Cup 2009 in Lahti (Finland). This was not a world record at any moment, and one now asks what false result they have removed.

Failure of electronic timekeeping as game spoilers

Since 1999, ten years before, the name of Rolf Geese would have had to appear. The achieved on 03./04. July 1999 in his hometown Göttingen fabulous 8,487 points, which are also listed by the European Masters Athletics (EMA) with the addition WR (for world record). But this performance is to be affected by the flaw of the hand time name with the 100 m hurdles, therefore can not be led as a record according to international regulations (IWR).

This is also nationally binding. However, the DLV seniors statistician sees a damp rubbish, which leads to the same individual performance with a point more, thus 8,488 points, as a German record (they call it best performance). For Geese it remains a huge annoyance. Finally, he can not (1) have the electrical timing in one of the four running competitions failed, and (2) it was no advantage, since the calculation of the points was 0.24 seconds.

Do not trust any statistics that were not falsified by yourself

Even all this in the bill and agreement, the now 73-year-old four weeks later at the senior world championships on 28./29. July 1999 in Gateshead (Great Britain) reached a regular 8,005 points in all respects. Although still as an obstacle was added that at that time with 800-gram-spear (meanwhile 700 grams) was thrown and because of the smaller width a lot of points. This has since been the correct benchmark for the M-55-W

The meet site reported:

There were many exciting moments, it was spoiled and spurred. The athletes also drew the last energy out of themselves and showed once more, at which world class level they denied the individual disciplines in the competition.

Earlier, the report from Angel Estuardo Diaz Granillo (Amaguate, Guatemala) came out in the M55. He has been preparing for the Stendaler-Hanse-Cup since November, because his goal in Altmarkstadt was to break the world record.

As a former Olympic competitor, he always remained faithful to the ten-fight at the ten-fight, and traveled as a reigning world champion. Angel will probably be remembered as the jumper of the three attempts.

Both at the bar and at the jump he crossed the heights clean – but always whipped again from the pressure of the third attempt (jump: 1.76 m, pole vault: 3.60 m). The ball he lifted to 10.75 m and the spear struck just over 40 m into the lawn.

The last discipline, the 1,500 m run, should bring the decision. Angel had to be under 5.20 min. to run, To crack the current world record. He got help from Timo Ritte and Christian Herbst (both LAV Bayer Uerdingen / Dormagen), who had already agreed to take him with the very strong wind. And that’s exactly how it was. An international fairplay without equal.

Angel made it with a time of 5: 15.49 min. To the goal and was immediately celebrated by all. Congratulations Angel. Still to be mentioned is that he has cracked the old record of Rolf Geese. Rolf, however, has been holding the world record since the last year in the ten-fight of the M70 – which Angel can then again in a few years.

As an icing, Angel also secured the men’s SHC total victory. Who had previously agreed to bring him along with the very strong wind. And that’s exactly how it was. An international fairplay without equal. Angel made it with a time of 5: 15.49 min. To the goal and was immediately celebrated by all. Congratulations Angel. Still to be mentioned is that he has cracked the old record of Rolf Geese. Rolf has been holding the world record since the last year in the M70’s fight against the M70, which Angel can then try again in a few years. As an icing, Angel also secured the men’s SHC total victory. Who had already agreed in advance to bring him along with the very strong wind. And that’s exactly how it was. An international fairplay without equal.

Angel made it with a time of 5:15.49 min. To the goal and was immediately celebrated by all. Congratulations Angel. Still to be mentioned is that he has cracked the old record of Rolf Geese. Rolf has been holding the world record since the last year in the M70 fight against the M70, which Angel can then try again in a few years. As an icing, Angel also secured the men’s SHC total victory.

Still to be mentioned is that he has cracked the old record of Rolf Geese. Rolf has been holding the world record since the last year in the M70’s fight against the M70, which Angel can then try again in a few years. As an icing, Angel also secured the men’s SHC total victory.

Still to be mentioned is that he has cracked the old record of Rolf Geese. Rolf has been holding the world record since the last year in the M70’s fight against the M70, which Angel can then revisit in a few years. As an icing, Angel also secured the men’s SHC total victory.

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May 29, 2017

11 Responses

  1. tb - May 29, 2017

    Congratulations, Angel. If you scroll down the page to the third article, there is some coverage of your achievement.

    Ken, is there a link to the meet site so we can read it how that article ends?

  2. Ken Stone - May 30, 2017

    More meet info:
    https://www.slv92.de/shc/teilnehmerlisten-und-ergebnisse/

  3. Christa Bortignon - May 30, 2017

    To get the results for the heptathlon and decathlon you have to click on NEWS SLV’92 on the top of the page, once you get to the above website. Then scroll down to Gesamtergebnisse (results).

  4. David E. Ortman (M64) Seattle, WA - May 31, 2017

    Bravo on the above translation! It deserves a gold round-thingy.

  5. ventsi - May 31, 2017

    Congrats to Angel Diaz for the fantastic result.
    Since the problem with the incompetence of WMA statisticians was concerned, I’d like to remind at least two WRs which are still not included in WMA record lists:
    – High Jump W40 outdoor – 190 cm – Venelina Veneva, 12 July 2014 (results: http://www.bfla.org/2014/2014/19_vulpev/women/hijump.htm ); Romary Rifka achieved the same result – 190 com – even earlier, in 2011 ( http://www.mastersathletics.net/fileadmin/html/Rankings/All_Time/highjumpwomen.htm ).
    – Long Jump M35 indoor – 8.23 m – Kafetien Gomis, 28 Feb. 2016 (https://www.iaaf.org/athletes/france/kafetien-gomis-193352).
    Official competitions, official results, no wind factor, etc., i.e. nothing to prevent these records from being recognized.
    I wrote several times to WMA and EMA – no reaction.
    We can add the WRs in 100 and 200m M55 of Willie Gault, etc.
    Because of these nerve-breaking experiences, I am dreaming about replacing these “officials” with more competent, adequate and quickly reacting statisticians in these major institutions. This seems the only way to get proper statistics database.

  6. Bill Murray - June 2, 2017

    How quickly you criticize the volunteers who devote countless hours to the sport they love. You have no idea of the hours and the process which must be followed. In the USA, to get a WMA record approved, there is a three step process. The record first goes to the USA records chair. If it is approved at that level it then it goes to the WMA regional records chair. If approved at that level it THEN it goes to the WMA records chair. These people have jobs and responsibilities other than approving records. There is no line of volunteers waiting to replace these individuals because it is hard work and subject to unbelievable criticism. When an individual betters an existing world mark, it is not automatic that it becomes a WMA record. There is a process to be followed. That process is set by the IAAF, adopted by WMA and implemented by volunteers. “VOLUNTEER” a person who works for an organization without being paid. Chill out or volunteer!!

  7. Michael D Walker - June 2, 2017

    I agree with Bill Murray. The process to approve records is complicated and there are never enough volunteers.

  8. Stefan Waltermann - June 2, 2017

    I love, love, love the wonderful translation of the German article. It is priceless and should warrant entry into the National Archive. Ten-fight = Zehnkampf, that is so cool. It certainly reminds me of Japanese user’s manuals of the 1950’s. I don’t know if the humor was intended but if so, this comes from a very good comedian.

  9. Peter L. Taylor - June 6, 2017

    Thank you for your contributions, Bill Murray (no. 6). I mean that in both senses of the word: (A) You have contributed thousands of hours of your time to masters T&F at an annual salary of $0.00. (B) You underscore the reality that many people are indeed quite rude when commenting about the people who deal with records.

    Regardless, we know that the issue of record ratification continues to be a major problem. This again brings up the issue of whether our protocols are good enough, especially for major meets such as the Penn Relays and Mt. SAC Relays.

    Allen Woodard is perhaps the uncrowned king among the men when it comes to unratified records. We know that he has the M45 WR of 49.69, set way back in 2015, but we also know that he has multiple times below that.

    One of those was his 49.32 last year at Grand Rapids nationals, which in due course became the M45 American record. It was rejected, however, as a world record, and thus the 49.69 still stands.

    Willie Gault is another superstar who comes to mind. We know that in May 2016 he ran 11.30 in the 100, and in due course that became the official American record for M55. It’s 0.14 seconds faster than the 11.44 run by Bill Collins quite a few years ago, but Willie’s 11.30 was tossed aside, leaving Bill’s 11.44 as the WR for M55.

    Do people remember Aaron Thigpen, who used to be our king of the sprints in the M40 group? In 2006 I announced his winning 10.73 at Charlotte nationals, and that remains the American record for M40.

    The next year, Aaron ran a legal 10.60 at the Mt. SAC Relays, but he couldn’t get enough help from the meet officials, and thus he never got a good application together. Since then, Jeff Laynes (10.50) and Chris Williams (10.57) have run fast times, but neither one ever received ratification.

    Back to Allen Woodard. In April, at the world-famous Penn Relays, Allen anchored his 4 x 400 squad to an apparent world-record time for M45 of 3:22.79, with Allen scorching a 48.27 anchor. I looked today at the website we have for keeping track of these things, which I believe is http://www.usatfmasters.fa_records.htm, but there’s no mention at all of the mark. That is not good news.

    The same site mentions the remarkable 12.33 in the 100 that Bill Collins ran at Penn (listed WR for M65 is 12.37), but that mark is still classified as “reviewing.” More recent marks from other meets are already classified as “approved.”

    Oh, I don’t want to slight the women. All-world Irene Obera, who I understand from a good, albeit unofficial source “lost 9 world records in 2014,” should certainly be mentioned.

    None of us want to have a record “sneak in” without appropriate review, but we do need to address, once again, the issue of whether our methods of operation result in too many legitimate records being tossed aside.

    I have to prepare for a class on Thursday, and thus I must cut this short, but I do feel a great deal of sympathy for those who ran wind-legal times and got nothing.

  10. Peter L. Taylor - June 8, 2017

    Well, here is some good news. I just found out today that Allen Woodard’s sensational 49.09 in the 400 has reached “approved” status as an American record for M45. Wonderful. I hope that it eventually is accorded WR status.

  11. Jerry Bookin-Weiner - June 8, 2017

    I’ve done some checking on why some of the ARs that were set in Grand Rapids haven’t made it onto the WR list. Turns out there’s nothing more sinister involved than an email glitch that was sending some emails into a spam folder that wasn’t being checked. I’m told the issue has been resolved and that any number of WRs (like Allen Woodard’s from Grand Rapids) will appear on an upcoming update to the WR list. I’m told there will be an update next week to the WR list on the WMA site.

    Also, those who check the AR lists on the USATF site regularly will have noticed that Woodard’s 49.09 from April and Doug Torbert’s record in the SP at the end of April from the Hayward Classic are listed there as pending records.

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