The usual from the NYT

[tandfman]

The NY Times routinely adds a parenthetical conversion of currency when writing about foreign business transactions because they know that most of their readers will not know the dollar equivalent of the British pounds, Euros, or whatever mentioned in the article. If they cared about readers of stories about track, they'd convert the metric results. Not doing so is just irresponsible journalism.

[tamabi]

How do you convert a metric to a "American" result if it falls in the middle? I personally have no clue, and I'm a (non-American) t&f fan.
So it'd make sense that the NYT wouldn't know because they wouldn't have a resident American t&f expert, and thus choose not to do it instead of messing it up. (And before you say it, no, "asking someone" is not that easy. As long as something is being published, people expect money in return for their services, and I can understand why the NYT is not prepared to go down that road for what is (sorry) a minor sport, as far as the majority of their readers are concerned, and given the current economical situation of printed press.)

[Atticus]

How do you convert a metric to a "American" result if it falls in the middle? I personally have no clue, and I'm a (non-American) t&f fan.

The lazy answer is round down to the nearest quarter-inch, though in the 3 longest throws, it's always an integer. The correct answer is buy the Big Gold Book and look up the accepted conversion. I can see how that's asking too much of the NYT, though they SHOULD have a local track-writer, who could give them the answer gratis in a minute.
We, here, are used to lazy/misinformed journalists (there's a thread on it!), so we barely even care any more.

[tandfman]

The lazy answer is round down to the nearest quarter-inch. . .

That's a contradiction in terms. You either round to the nearest quarter-inch, or your round down to the next lower quarter-inch.

[KDFINE]

But Tamabi, this is a major point of this thread. The Times seems to choose to focus on the PEDs issue, and not all that interested in covering the actual athletics part of the competitions. If it was interested, it would publish results that the majority of its readers could readily understand.

[gh]

Christopher Clarey wrote at least two very good pieces which we linked from "Day's Best Reading" ; one on Felix the night before the 400 and the other on Randy Huntington coaching the Chinese long jumpers.

But as has been true for a couple of decades now, any time you see a Jeré Longman byline, you can be pretty sure it's drug-related.

[KDFINE]

Zero coverage in today's paper of the Diamond League finals yesterday. No Surprise.