1967 US Mile Championship

[Cottonshirt]

According to this list, the last two in the final of the US Mile Championship at Bakersfield on 23rd June 1967 were as follows:

5. Roscoe Devine 3:57.2
6. Sam Bair 3:58.7

But according to this list, Sam Bair of Kent State finished 5th.

Does anyone have any idea which is correct?

Martin

[dukehjsteve]

Just checked T&FN July '67 issue: 1 Ryun 3:51.1 wr, 2 Grelle 3:56.1, 3 Wilborn 3:56.2, 4 VonRuden 3:56.9, 5 Devine 3:57.2, 6 Bair 3:58.7, 7 Liquori 3:59.8, 8 Danielson 4:00.6, 9 McCalla 4:00.8, 10 Dean 4:04.5

[Cottonshirt]

Thanks you for getting your magazine out and having a look, I really do appreciate that, but I'm afraid that does not really answer my question.

Suppose, for example:

A) In the heats, Sam Bair runs 3:58.7 in 5th place. Then in the final he runs the same time but finishes 6th behind Devine. In this scenario both lists are right. His first sub-4 was in 5th place but in the Championship final he finished 6th.

...or...

B) The result of the race was as per your magazine. The magazine gets printed and everyone goes away happy. Then something happens - I don't know what - say, someone discovers that Devine didn't sign his entry form or something. So he's excluded from the Championship and Bair is "promoted" to 5th place. So the list of members of the US sub-4 club shows him in the amended position. Or something.

I'm sorry if this sounds a little too far fetched, but I don't like making assumptions. I do appreciate the fact that you went and looked it up, but simply saying "this is what it says in my magazine" doesn't really answer the question.

Does anyone know what the correct result is?

Martin

[dj]

Re: 1967 US Mile Championship

ut according to this list, Sam Bair of Kent State finished 5th.

Does anyone have any idea which is correct?

Martin

The above list has two typos: Bair (5), Liquori (6). They should be (6) and (7). The correct 5th-placer was Divine, who first broke 4:00 the year before, in 1966.

Various sources (IAAF Record Progressions, T&FN, TN and LA Times) confirm the finish order and times for the first seven. After that, the officials confused the finish order, and the official order and times as reported in the LA Times differs from the corrected order and times as given in T&FN, TN and the IAAF.

[Cottonshirt]

Thank you very much, I really appreciate that.

And to dukehjsteve if you're still reading this, I also appreciate you posting the Liquori result which I did not previously have. I had not realised that he was only a few months older than Ryun (was) when he joined the sub-4 club.


Martin