USATF quickly ignores world records at Landover nationals
Scanning yesterday’s results from Landover, I was in jaw-dropping amazed mode. Brooklyn’s Val Barnwell, stamping himself as the fastest over-50 man in the world, won the 60-meter dash in 7.13 seconds — crushing his own M50 world indoor record of 7.18 from Clermont-Ferrand worlds of 2008 — and without Everad Samuels to push him!  In the M65 race, Steve Robbins of Ohio clocked 8.04, beating the American record of 8.05 by Harold Tolson in 2003 and James Paddie in 2006 — and effectively tying the hand-timed WR of 7.8 by Canadian Cecil Paul in 1986. And 58-year-old Bill Collins, the newly crowned USATF Male Masters Athete of the Year, won the M55 race in 7.38 — a foot behind his own M55 world record of 7.34 from Linz worlds in 2006! But when I read USATF’s highlights of Day 2, my jaw dropped to China. No mention of Barnwell or Robbins. No mention of Johnny Watson’s American record in the M40 60-meter hurdles (8.14 seconds). And so many errors that I nearly fainted. Of course, this is nothing new. I also critiqued USATF’s coverage of 2006 Boston indoor nationals.
But mistakes multiply exponentially across the Web if not fixed immediately, so I’ve taken a stab at correcting the Landover record — at least USATF’s version of it.
Here’s the press release of March 21, 2009, with >>>>my comments in boldface:
Ward does it again as four WRs, five ARs fall at USA Masters Indoor Champs
03-21-2009Contact:
Vicky Oddi
Communications Coordinator
USA Track & Field
317-261-0500LANDOVER, Md. – Bob Ward set yet another American record Saturday at the 2009 USA Masters Indoor Track & Field Championships, topping a four-world-record day that also saw five American records at Prince George’s Sports and Learning Center in Landover, Md.
Bob Ward (Dallas, Texas) set his second record of the competition in winning the M75 shot put with a heave of 12.42m/40-9, breaking the previous American record of 12.30m/40-4.25 set in 1990 by Ross Carter. Wayne Sabin of the Oregon Track Club was the runner-up with a throw of 10.33m/33-10.75.
>>>>Yes, the listed M75 AR is Ross Carter’s 12.30 in 1990, but 76-year-old Scott Herrman threw 12.67 (41-7) on February 11, 1996, according to both Pete Mundle’s Masters Age Records and the authoritative European site mastersathletics.net.
At 94-years young, Grace Foster (Tabernacle, N.J.) set a W90 world record in the 60 meters, crossing the finish line in 31.22 seconds. The previous record of 31.82 was set by Ida Keeling in 2008.
>>>>Nope, not a record. Grace herself ran the 60 in 26.95 three weeks ago, as I noted on this blog (with video coverage as well). But her slower time yesterday is understandable given the fact she aged three years since February. Dozens of news accounts call her 91.
The oldest competitor entered this weekend, Leland McPhie set an age-division world record in winning the M95 shot put with a toss of 6.90 meters/22 feet 7.25 inches.
>>>>Oh, c’mon. Give Leland proper credit! His 6.90 meters converts to 22 feet, 7 3/4 inches.
So Cal Strider Myrle Mensey demolished the existing American record in the W60 weight throw with her winning heave of 15.47m/50-9.25. The previous record of 14.04m/46-0 was set in 2002 by Carol Young.
>>>>Nope, Myrle fell almost 4 feet short of the American record — the one she set a couple weeks ago in Kenosha: 16.64 meters (54-7 1/4).
In the women’s 400m, Sumi Onodera-Leonard of the So Cal Track Club destroyed the W80 world record, crossing the line in 2:03.80. The previous record of 2:15.67 was set by Carol Peebles in 2004. Local favorite Joan Hunter (Purcellville, Va.) won the W45 400m in an American-record 1:02.09. Her time broke the thirteen-year old record of 1:02.55 set by DeeDee Grafius in 1996.
In the W65 pole vault, Nadine O’Connor broke her own world record with her clearance of 2.90m/9-6.25. Her previous record of 2.89m/9-5.75 was set in 2007.
In the M35 mile, Charlie Klein (Elmhurst, Ill.) won his second event of the competition in style, leading the race wire-to-wire to finish in an American age-division record 4:18.89. It was Klein’s second record thus far this weekend and broke Chad Newton’s previous record of 4:25.27 from 2008.
>>>>Oh please! Charlie ran a tremendous time, but it’s nowhere near an American M35 indoor mile best. Forget the USATF masters records site (last updated 3/15/2009). It’s hopeless. Instead, turn to page 202 of “The Miler” and read Steve Scott’s account of his 136th (and final) sub-4 mile on February 20, 1993, at the Sunkist indoor meet. (See clip below.) Steve was 36 when he ran a 3:59.8 indoors on that regulation track in Los Angeles.Â
The Greater Philadelphia Track Club’s W50 4x800m team of Cheryl Bellaire, Wendi Glassman, Mimi Newcomer and Alison Suckling set an age-division American record with their finishing time of 11:13.84. Their winning time decimated the previous record of 12:49.94 set by Liberty AC in 2001.
>>>>Nope, the previous American club record (a crucial distinction) was their own 11:37.15, set by a slightly different GBTC team (Wendi Glassman, Mimi Newcomer, Cheryl Bellaire and Phyllis Yester) two weeks ago in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. USATF would have known that if it had asked any of the team members.
Alisa Harvey, the world record holder in the W40 mile, won the event in 5:04.02. Harvey went out slow, going through 800m in 2:39.64, in an effort to conserve her energy for the 400m. But made up for it in the second half of the race, with her negative-split 2:24.72 over the final half of the race. Two hours later, Harvey came back and won the W40 400m in 59.05.
>>>>Now here I have to admit my own error. In recent years, I’ve trumpeted Alisa as the W40 indoor mile world record holder. Well, she’s the listed record holder but not the fastest on record. Six years ago, I noted a 4:29.72 indoor mile by Russia’s Kremlyova Lyubov, when she was 41. (The IAAF lists it here.) That’s a tad faster than Alisa’s W40 best of 4:47.26. In fact, Kremlyova also ran a 4:31.65 indoor mile in 2004, at age 42. (The IAAF lists it here.) Both marks were made at the Armory track in New York City — not some all-comers meet in Siberia.
For more information and complete results from the 2009 USA Masters Indoor Track & Field Championships, visit http://www.usatf.org/events/2009/USAMastersIndoorTFChampionships/. Pictures will be posted in the week following the meet.
Who knows what the real American M35 indoor mile record is?
I’m not in Landover, so I have no clue how the records are being noted and reported to USATF’s Vicky Oddi. But Sandy Pashkin, our records chair, is supposedly at nationals (as a member of the Games Committee) and probably has a hand in the work.
Meanwhile, mysteries abound:
Why did Henry Rono finish the M55 mile dead last in 7:11.84 — behind even Bob Weiner’s webmaster, Jay Wind?
Why didn’t Everad Samuels compete in the M50 sprints?
How could Bruce McBarnette lose in the M50 high jump? My sources say that when Mark Williamson jumped 1.90 (6-2 3/4) at Landover to beat Bruce’s 1.85 (6-0 3/4), it was Bruce’s first loss since Riccione worlds — and only his second loss since 1998. Williamson is a former University of Maryland jumper whose PR of 2.14 (7-0 1/4) came at age 32.
Where is Olympian Tom Gage? He didn’t compete in the M65 weight throw yesterday.
And how can recordkeeping be improved? I’ll share some thoughts on that in coming days.
20 Responses
Ken, from checking the results yesterday I know that press release was on the USATF website before all the results were available so that may explain why things were left out. But talk about jaw-dropping in the M40 60 hurdles, is this the same Johnny Watson who ran 9.07 for 60H last year and 16.4 for 110H in Spokane? This has to be THE single greatest one season improvement in the History of track and field. For you non hurdlers this would be like a miler improving by a full minute in one season. It is almost, literally unbelievable. I’ll be curious to see what Watson does over the 110 hurdles this year, he should be in the Mt. SAC race in April if he is running this well.
It’s a bit discouraging to read about USATF’s inconsistant and inaccurate results reporting. It makes our hard training insignificant. It also makes it harder and harder each year to pay the membership and event fees.
Also, I have “The Miler” and also video of Scott’s last sub-4min mile!
i don’t know why there’s a surprise about this situation. usa masters athletics gets disrespected all the time. one of my biggest complaints, is having to buy our uniforms for international competitions. i don’t know this for sure but i suspect many of the other country do provide their athletes with uniforms. at ’05 world masters games many of the country had team uniforms which was not a requirement. the stars of usa masters deserve their recognition, but anytime there’s a great performance that person should also be recognized.
Having participated 2 of the 3 days, I would like to commend Landover for its first Indoor National Masters Championships. Having 965 competitors is hard to handle. There were plenty of problems, but seeing world records set is exciting. We shouldn’t throw stones about minor discrepancies in reporting, but celebrate our accomplishments in our sport. Having posted same day results in such short order online is great.
Ken,
A record isn’t a recognized record until it’s ratified. As a result, the only thing the reporters and the officials have to go by is the posted records on the USATF website. Marks set since early December aren’t included and thus we get reported records that don’t exceed currently pending records.
One might legitimately complain that pending records aren’t posted quicker but we don’t know if the paperwork on those pending records have been received yet, much less screened to be posted.
So don’t diss the press release writer for that. They can only go on what’s on the USATF website to see what the current records are, just like the officials can only go by that in deciding what paperwork to complete and send to Sandy Pashkin to get records recognized and ratified.
Should there be a better, more communicative records process — undoubtedly. But that’s a different issue than this one.
Today saw some incredible upsets including Bill Collins losing in the 200 for the first time in probably almost forever. Val Barnwell almost getting nipped at the wire in the 200 in the very next race. And of course lots of records in the superweight in a variety of age groups, both male and female, from Neni Lewis in W45 to Betty Jarvis in W90 to Myrle Mensey in W60 to George Mathews in M65 to Bob Ward in M75, and probably some others I’m forgetting at the moment.
Sid Howard’s “Pending” Record in the 800?
1 Sid Howard M70 Nike Central,New Yo 2:33.36
Sorry about that…race result from today, jumped the gun.
Alert: Karl Smith, the Olympian, dazzled everyone in the M45 hurdles at Landover, as I said in my commentary on the meet. I just looked at the official results — Karl Smith is listed as finishing 4th with a time of 12.12.
There is something seriously wrong with some of the results.
I noticed that too after reading your account of the meet, Peter. Is it possible that the results from the M40 and M45 hurdles somehow got mixed up/mixed together? Also for one of the hurdle races, I think M60, all the competitors were given NT. Definitely something wrong.
Regarding Karl’s time . . . .
I believe the M40-49 high hurdle races were combined as one race.
Rod, I talked to Karl Smith after the race. He did not feel that he got his world mark of 8.18 (I thought he might have). I don’t know what happened (don’t know who, if anyone, ran a 12.12 [which was given to Karl]). In the M60 hurdles, Ty Brown won by daylight and is listed as 4th NT. There are, presumably, many other errors. This will have to be investigated.
In any event congrats to Karl, it looks like he’s back in top form. I hope he doesn’t miss a new WR(at the top of his age group no less) because of a goof up. The Mt. SAC race should be hot!
Jerry Bookin-Weiner has a point. Over the weekend, USATF reported a world record in the W 70 800 m (Jeanne Daprano) because the ‘real’ world record (Lydia Ritter in 2009) did not make the books since it still needs ratification. Before yelling WORLD RECORD, all home work should to be done. Since world records state that to our best knowledge nobody in human history ever ran this fast, threw this far and jumped this high, we should be respectful and careful and most of all, not jump the gun!
Hurdle results were not correct. I went to the Meet Managers who was performing the finish times to see a picture and he openly admitted that they did not have a photo and they were a lot of mistakes. I asked where the times came from and no answer, so these were probably hand times or just made up results.
If you do not have a picture of the results, then how do you come up with a time??????
I think that they did not want to admit the problems with the system and it made better sense to just put anything down on paper. Now this is the time for the record committee to look into the legitimacy of the records that were broken. At our own Nationals you should have a photo of all races and if not then they need to be re-run.
Johnny ran a good race, but I think he even knew he did not run that fast.
Rod, I hope you record remains as it was not broken.
The m30, m35, and m40 were all run together as one race.
Records are approved at the annual meeting, so any performances after that point are all pending.
Press releases depend on the results and those results being flaggged / marked to indicate the existing record has been broken.
USATF press folk are using what is fed to them from the organizers. As masters championships are essentially 20+ separate age group meets run at one time, is it really practical for that individual to try to research every mark breaking the existing record since December? Probably can’t find them all. And given the results issues that have come out of MD, that’s why “record” marks are pending til reviewed in detail.
There’s always a spot for Ken at the table any time the meet is in Boston so he can do a flawless job in press releases. Same for those who constantly feel masters are always “dissed”.
Steve Vaitones
Thanks, Steve! What are you paying?
Records can’t be approved if the results are not correct. The official results don’t even have the winner of the 4 x 800 and the 4 x 400 for W40-49, Athena Track Club. The 4 x 400 is an indoor world record but we’ll never know if that will be approved. The meet assured us everything would be taken care of and that we didn’t need to fill out any paperwork or do anything……..
Day 1 press release from USATF said Leland McPhie set a world record in the M95 weight throw. He didn’t. But Leland did set a WR in the M95 shot, beating a mark by Trent Lane. Of course, I’m relying on posted meet results. They could be wrong.
And I just realized that USATF erred in referring to “Charlie Klein.” His name is Charlie Kern.
Good profile here:
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=284046
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