USATF posts latest ‘corrected’ results from Landover nats
Today, USATF shows this May 8 update to the late-March USATF national masters indoor meet in Landover, Maryland. Despite all our complaints, errors remain, especially in the men’s short hurdles. M40 Johnny Watson is still credited with an American record 8.14 in the 60-meter hurdles. (Even National Masters News reported that time as a record.) Johnny didn’t run that time, we’re told, and who knows what it really was. But now Karl Smith is given an 8.39 for the M45 hurdles, instead of the 12.12 he had until today. Karl was 49 at Landover, and the M50 record is 8.47 by Walt Butler in 1993. Karl should get it next year. I haven’t inspected all the results yet. Check out your event and let us know what still is messed up. We may be stuck with these “official results.” Cripes!
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Right after many of the races in Landover, an apparent winning time would post on the big board at the end of the track. But, some races never had a result shown on the board. Is it possible that these may be the same races that there are no photos either? In events like the pentathlon, it’s not just the placing that matters. On the contrary, placing does not matter, time always does. How can results become official without a photo time? All the points are wrong. Records cannot be accepted. This is just a farce. I don’t know the nature of the malfunctions in Landover but I have been to many competitions in which the runners are called back to the start when the timing device malfunctions. The decision not to start a race over when the timing device doesn’t start is the start of the problem. It gets compounded when people start to guess what someone’s time is.
The problems with Landover timing, lap counts and published results have certainly well articulated many times. Now in the process of importing the results into the rankings for the 3rd time makes this even more personally painful.
I trust that all of the appropriate negative focus does not overshadow two more important parts of the meet: athletes having the opportunity to compete and be active and the officials, meet staff and volunteers who do so much for us athletes. One example I witnessed was an AMAZING job by officials during the super weight competitions. These officials were barraged by the burden of due diligence while several records were being broken. The officials performed all the record certification steps without interrupting the flow of the competition. They steel tape measured the distance, verified the weight and length of the weight and returned the weight to the competition circle not delaying the next thrower for a second!! Awesome job by the officials. All of us athletes have witnessed so many great jobs by the officials and meet staffs through the years.
Thanks to all the officials and meet staff for giving us athletes the opportunity. We really appreciate all you do and the timing, lap count and results debacle does not overshadow that.
Ummmm. The Landover results page still does not have correct results for the M55 High Jump. And the PDF version was not updated at all.
Would like to add my expression of appreciation to the Landover organizers, officials and all meet personnel. Everyone we encountered was very congenial and helpful. Too bad the timing fiasco soiled it. Glad to see the M60 hurdles results(places) finally posted. However, accurate times apparently will never be known. Too bad since Ty Brown’s time could have been WR!
I knew this was going to be a thankless and, ultimately, an impossible job. Following up on Joe Johnston’s comment above, I see that M60 winner Ty Brown has indeed been given a time — 5.01 seconds. This is rather remarkable, as the M60 American record is 8.85 by Courtland Gray.
As I said facetiously almost 2 months ago, the field of “young men” (M30, M35, and M40) was apparently the greatest group of hurdlers ever assembled on this earth. The American record for M40 is 8.22 by G. Patterson and Rod Jett, and yet the entire field was given a time of 8.32 or better. Wow. That would be like the entire M40 100 field this summer at Oshkosh being given times of 10.75 or better (even 9th place).
I see that Karla Del Grande’s 400 time remains 69.0 seconds hand, even though that time has already been the subject of a confession (one of the people on the FAT crew made it up). I am sure there are many other errors. Oh, well, as I said at the top, this was destined to be an impossible job. My thanks to those who undertook it.
Yeah, I doubt the race was this close either:
M60 60 M Hurdles
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Name Age Team Finals
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1 Ty Brown M64 Unattached,Washingt 5.01
2 Randall Olson M61 Unattached,Carroll, 5.02
3 Curtis Simpson M61 Pony Express,Richmo 5.03
4 Tom Waite M60 Unattached,Elizabet 5.04
5 Lawrence Nolly M60 Unattached,Wilmingt 5.05
— Frederick Johnston M63 Unattached,Pleasant DNF
Certainly Ty Brown (m60 hh) ran an outstanding race and an outstanding time. I was interested in the time since Joe suggested it might have been a WR (mine). I timed it manually several times, and it surely was below 9.00. Of course, it is difficult to see the smoke from the starter, and difficult to gauge the finish line from the camera’s position, but there is no question it was fast. Congrats to Ty for a terrific race. It looked flawless, unlike the two flattened hurdles (heavy!) I left on the track in the M65.
Where can I learn the results of the 3K Masters Racewalk event conducted at Landover in 2009?
Please help.
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