Italians wrongly claim WR in M50 400 relay at Diamond League

relay-errs-WRHere’s what happens when typos creep into the record books. The Eurovets website is reporting that an Italian M50 relay team lowered the world record in the 4-by-100 to 44.65. (The mark came June 4 at the IAAF Golden Gala in Rome, part of the Diamond League series.) However, World Masters Athletics erringly lists a WR of 44.77 by Frey, James, Fulton and Barnwell. In fact, Randy Frey, Ben James, Tony Fulton and Val Barnwell clocked 44.47 at the 2009 Penn Relays. USATF records and even a hobbyist blog confirm this mark. (A year later, after testing positive for PEDs at Lahti worlds, Val was handed a 2-year doping suspension. But the record was never expunged.) Here’s video of the real record:

Just to show that USATF records aren’t immune to mistakes — the 44.47 is credited to Houston Elite. But the Barnwell-anchored team represented Central Park Track Club. (A hobbled Bill Collins anchored Houston Elite at Penn that year.)

BTW, the Rome meet had a half-dozen masters exhibition events — in the 200, 800 and relays (men and women). See the results here.

In any case, methinks someone needs to review WMA and USATF records for other embarrassments.

At Lyon worlds, we have some great teams in the offing that might threaten the records:

The M55 relay pool includes:

Allan Tissenbaum United States of America
Martin Krulee United States of America 11.88
James Chinn United States of America 12.35

The M50 relay pool includes

Francois Boda United States of America 11.80
Brian Coushay United States of America 12.00
Eric Merriweather United States of America 11.51
David Jones United States of America 23.89 (200)
Marcus Shute United States of America 23.90 (200)
David Ashford United States of America 13.90 (hurdles)
Damon Blakemore United States of America 14.49 (hurdles)

Like this post? Dig this site? Please donate. (And here’s why.)

Print Friendly

June 30, 2015

Leave a Reply