Nice Try, IAAF

[gh]

Re: Nice Try, IAAF

<<It would have been highly significant if they had
>changed their normal running order just for the Olympic final (not withstanding
>the fact that, traditionally, the champ runs the anchor>>

Actually, far less true than you might imagine. There have been 21 Olympic 4x4 finals, and the individual gold medalist has run in 17 of them (3 gold medalists had teams in the final but weren't on it; only 1 had a team not in final). Distriubtion of what leg the 20 champions with teams in final ran on:

anchor--10
third leg--4
second leg--3
not on team--3

So as many winners have not anchored as have.

And as a related stat regarding the fate of OT 400 winners and where they ended up on the 4x4: 10 anchored, 9 did not.

[gh]

Re: Nice Try, IAAF

ps--clearly, nobody in the office (including me) thought to actually check those stats before, because I note that in a sidebar with our Olympic coverage it says, "Nobody says you have to do it that way, but when you have the individual gold medalist, he usually gets to anchor the relay."

[Daisy]

Re: Nice Try, IAAF

>>"So tell me how you accurately time a second leg."

> Easy enough, just time the baton from the middle of the 4x400m exchange zone (aka the 800m start line) to the start/
>finish line - calculated easily with good camera coverage and a program such as Dartfish.

This was my point. You are not timing the athlete you are timing the baton.

Would you agree the athlete can receive the baton while in front of the 800m line but pass off the baton while behind the line? That's just one example of why the time is meaningless.

I agree the article was written with a hook but the reader gets a soar taste when they discover the reasoning. A case of the fish that got away and will be harder to catch in the future.

[slowcoach]

Re: Nice Try, IAAF

>>A case of the fish that got away and will be harder to catch in the future.

That would be a dartfish.

;-)

[lurkmeister]

Re: Nice Try, IAAF

Confused about what a "soar" taste is (honestly, not just making fun of a misspelled word). Did you mean "sour" taste, or "sore" taste?

[Daisy]

Re: Nice Try, IAAF

>Confused about what a "soar" taste is (honestly, not just making fun of a
>misspelled word). Did you mean "sour" taste, or "sore" taste?

Sour taste, however, 'sore mouth' would seem to fit the analogy quite well. You may well ask why I was trying to eat the monitor.