Two indoor sprint questions:

[platinum]

1) Why are they getting rid of the 200m dash as a world championship event indoors? Is it because of the perceived unfairness of the lane assignments?

2) Why do we have a 55m dash AND a 60m dash? It's like having a 400m and 500 meter dash at the same meet (oops, that's what the college meets have)

[tafnut]

Re: Two indoor sprint questions:

1) It IS unfair. The outside lanes actually run downhill (assuming banked track) and on a gentler curve than the inside lanes.

2) There are no major championships that have both.

[No Name]

Re: Two indoor sprint questions:

It's basically impossible to win an indoor 200 from the inside lane.

[kuha]

Re: Two indoor sprint questions:

I think it's a shame that we've dropped nearly all the old indoor distances: 60, 300, 600, 1000, in favor of the tried-and-true (i.e., boringly familiar) outdoor distances. Why not do it differently indoors?

[tafnut]

Re: Two indoor sprint questions:

The reason we SHOULD have stuck to the 'odd' distances is precisely because too many people tend to take indoor too seriously. They look at times for events that are contested outdoors and think they have some correlation to what will happen outdoors. We have seen time and time again that the correlation can be very low. At least with the 300/600/1000 etc., the speculation stays just that: what if.

[kuha]

Re: Two indoor sprint questions:

Agreed. Plus the nice fact that the odd distances allow runners to work on other skills--speed or strength--by moving slightly up or down from their outdoor distances. It's a shame, really, that these odd distances seem to be gone...