Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha broke a world record set in 1997, running the fastest indoor mile ever at 3:47.01. Plenty of fast American running at the meet in Boston as well, as John Gregorek ran 3:49.98 in second, followed by Sam Prakel (3:50.94) and Henry Wynne (3:51.26).

Always amuses me that marathons are timed to the hundredth of a second

phatj wrote:Always amuses me that marathons are timed to the hundredth of a second

They are not actually, though getting down to specifics and exceptions would be far too nerdy. But the world record times don't even recognize tenths, much less hundredths, and if anyone gives their time in hundredths you should inform them that they should round up to the next second, which is sure to win you new friends.

The mile times above do though, and they can matter. A few weeks ago at teh Millrose games Kejelcha made another attempt at the world record and missed by one one hundredth of a second. Gregorek missed the american record in the race above by one tenth-3:49.88 to 3:49.98

Oh duh, you did say mile. Not sure how that translated in my brain into marathon

I meant to post this a while ago, but one of my wive's patients is Usain's uncle (and the uncle himself is a physician). From the third-person accounts I get he (Usain) is really quite an incredible guy and really cares about people, especially the less fortunate.

Another Ethiopian Samuel Tefera broke the 1500 world record a few weeks back in 3:31.04.

Swish, what was the deal with the women’s marathon? Winner took off and was up by two minutes like four miles in and nobody ever got close to her. Failed strategy by the chase pack and just total domination by the winner?

ReadingPhilly wrote:Swish, what was the deal with the women’s marathon? Winner took off and was up by two minutes like four miles in and nobody ever got close to her. Failed strategy by the chase pack and just total domination by the winner?

Yeah, just a combination of a bold move and miscalculation. Degefa has run 2:17, (in January) so she was definitely someone who needed to be taken seriously. But the standard Boston race is to just hang on with the pack and then start pushing it when the course gets tougher. The years have seen so many people break out to an early lead and then get rolled, and it's hard to break out of that mindset. If they had to do it over again, I'm sure they would have tried to keep the gap less than 90 seconds, say. But Degefa looked so strong, I'm not certain she would have lost no matter what strategy she used.

Is it possible she's some kind of robot? I guess the battery charge wouldn't last that long, but you have to wonder.

Monkeyboy wrote:Is it possible she's some kind of robot? I guess the battery charge wouldn't last that long, but you have to wonder.

No chance-they have those captcha boxes now on the applications

Monkeyboy wrote:Is it possible she's some kind of robot? I guess the battery charge wouldn't last that long, but you have to wonder.

Or drugs

did they check the surveillance video from the subway stops

Nice

USATF is an incredibly amateurish (when they're not being corrupt) organization at all times, but have outdone themselves recently. Normally, they would pick the team for the Pan Am games from the US Championships-top two athletes in each event, and if they didn't want to go then they'd just move down the list. But this year the US Champs are later since the World champs are also later (because they're in Qatar, which is also stupid, but that's IAAf not USATF) and wouldn't conclude until after the entry deadline. So instead they announced in December that teams would be picked from the 2019 performance lists. Fine.

Then they announced the teams, and they were clearly NOT picked from 2019 lists, but sometimes from 2018-19 lists. Or using completely different criteria. After this was pointed out, they changed some of the runners, and refused comment on how they selected people. And at no time in this process did they contact the runners who were off the team, and then sometimes back on the team. But instead they could follow along at home on social media like the rest of us to find out whether thy ey had made the US team.It's a total shit show, and maybe will force some changes, but probably not.

If you want to know more, read here

USATF is a clown show.

What a shitshow. Track qualifying should be easy and objective... Times don't lie. Major screwup to renege on the contractual time window.

Pretty big.

On Monday night, after a multi-year investigation, the US Anti-Doping Agency announced that Nike Oregon Project head coach Alberto Salazar has been banned from the sport of athletics, effective immediately, for four years for multiple anti-doping rule violations.

https://www.letsrun.com/news/2019/10/ni ... rom-usada/

It felt kind of weird to root for a non-American in the 800 meters, but Marco Arop is my current student. He finished a disappointing 7th today after winning gold (and setting the record) at the Pan American Games. Brazier won the event today.

BatFlipsFTW wrote:Pretty big.

On Monday night, after a multi-year investigation, the US Anti-Doping Agency announced that Nike Oregon Project head coach Alberto Salazar has been banned from the sport of athletics, effective immediately, for four years for multiple anti-doping rule violations.

https://www.letsrun.com/news/2019/10/ni ... rom-usada/

The sport of athletics?

Polar Bear Phan wrote:It felt kind of weird to root for a non-American in the 800 meters, but Marco Arop is my current student. He finished a disappointing 7th today after winning gold (and setting the record) at the Pan American Games. Brazier won the event today.

Brazier what a race!

phatj wrote:The sport of athletics?

What the world calls track.