Clueless writing about our sport

[El Toro]

Anyone who has to use Google to understand a metric distance. if you google 8.83 meters, the response asks what units you'd like, and if you click on feet you get 28.96982 feet. He rounded it off. As you say . . . no clue.

Well, the UK Parliamentary Select Committee on Weights and Measures of 1862 noted the existing use "for a considerable time" of "the decimal measuring-chain". Given that the original classic 440 yard track is a chain multiple and could easily have been laid out using decimal equipment, you could say it's a reasonable approach if you must persist with the imperial system.

[Atticus]

Who on earth refers to field event distances in feet and decimals of feet? What reader would relate to that?

Anyone who has to use Google to understand a metric distance. if you google 8.83 meters, the response asks what units you'd like, and if you click on feet you get 28.96982 feet. He rounded it off. As you say . . . no clue.

[tandfman]

How about this, from Runner's World:

>>Juan Miguel Echevarria, 19, stole the show at the Diamond League event on Sunday with an absolutely incredible 8.83 meter (28.97 feet) jump, the longest one recorded since 1995.<<

https://www.runnersworld.com/news/a2...ng-jump-video/

Who on earth refers to field event distances in feet and decimals of feet? What reader would relate to that?

Runner's World should stick to running.

[lonewolf]

Surfed across "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" today.. thirty something guy flying though the question without resorting to lifelines. I cringed when he hit the $20,000 question.
Question: "In track and field, Javier Sotomayer broke a barrier which has not been duplicated."
A. 3 minute mile
B. 8 foot HJ
C. 20 foot PV
D. 30 foot LJ.
He yammered awhile before exhausting all his life lines.
Clueless audience guessed about 22-27 % across the board
50/50 elimination left choice of LJ or HJ
Called in his equally clueless Plus One backup..
They dithered about it until the host got restless.. finally correctly chose HJ, reasoning that if someone had jumped 30 feet surely people would have heard about it.
Won the $20 K, end of show.. to be continued

[lonewolf]

Now, there's an idea.. I can see that running my birthday age/quarter mile is becoming more challenging.. I may reduce it to 400 meters.

[Atticus]

In the quarter-mile race, Boris Berian

Well, he WILL run a quarter-mile, it's just that the timer will give him a time at his 400m 'split'.

[br]

The USATF press release for tonight's Distance Classic at Occidental College lists the entrants for the men's 800m.

"Centrowitz, the first American to win a 1500m Olympic gold medal since 1908, is currently slated to run both the 800m and 1500m. In the quarter-mile race, Boris Berian, a 2016 Olympian and 2017 World Indoor Champion, will toe the line with Rio Olympian Charles Jock and 2018 IAAF World Indoors team member Craig Engles."

[wineturtle]

tried to search AAU Junior Olympics but it does not seem to have a working results archive that far back
http://www.aaujrogames.org/Results/ResultArchives.aspx

To the clueless the Junior part can be insignificant

The label I like is "training for the Olympics'
My pre-teen mind was indeed training for the OGs. The reality of my 23.5 220 HS PB indicates the folly of that dream.

[br]

Not writing but MLB broadcasting: Delino DeShields Jr. is the son of Delino DeShields and Tisha (Michelle) Milligan (Elliot) who competed for Tennessee in the early 1990's in the Pentathlon. I can't say I'm all that familiar with her but it was mentioned during the broadcast that she competed in the Olympics for the US.

Best I could see from her in a championship was an 8th place finish in the 1991 NCAA Heptathlon (5228).

[wamego relays champ]

Not writing but MLB broadcasting: Delino DeShields Jr. is the son of Delino DeShields and Tisha (Michelle) Milligan (Elliot) who competed for Tennessee in the early 1990's in the Pentathlon. I can't say I'm all that familiar with her but it was mentioned during the broadcast that she competed in the Olympics for the US.
...

I'm not sure she even competed in the US Trials in any year (the great T&FN link of US Trials results has not been activated yet) but we see this from time to time when it is said or written of anyone who put a track uniform on was an Olympian or almost an Olympian.

The Richard Hymans work on the history of the USOT can still be accessed on the USATF site, and Milligan is not found.
https://www.usatf.org/statistics/cha...mpicTrials.pdf

[br]

I think it's great that the IAAF is celebrating Global Running Day on June 6, more so since one of the runs will be in my hometown, Los Angeles. What isn't so great is that the photo associated with the Los Angeles link is of the city of Dallas: IAAF Run 24-1 Los Angeles.

Dallas skyline.jpg

Here is L.A.

LA skyline.JPG

[NotDutra5]

Not writing but MLB broadcasting: Delino DeShields Jr. is the son of Delino DeShields and Tisha (Michelle) Milligan (Elliot) who competed for Tennessee in the early 1990's in the Pentathlon. I can't say I'm all that familiar with her but it was mentioned during the broadcast that she competed in the Olympics for the US.

I don't blame the broadcaster, who was either Sean McDonough or Dan Schulman who sound alike to me, but the researcher.

I'm not sure she even competed in the US Trials in any year (the great T&FN link of US Trials results has not been activated yet) but we see this from time to time when it is said or written of anyone who put a track uniform on was an Olympian or almost an Olympian.

[jeremyp]

From today's NY Times.
"Russia remains one of track and field’s powerhouse nations; only the United States and Kenya have won more world championship medals."

That was then this is now.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/20/s...T.nav=top-news

[DrJay]

But I agree. The Louisville Courier Journal was a stellar paper when I was growing up in the 1970s. Gannett bought it in the 1980s and it's gone steadily downhill ever since. I get it that declining circulation and (probably) declining advertising revenue have led to cost-cutting measures at newspapers, hence smaller and maybe lower quality staffs. It's just another sign of the times.

[DrJay]

To show that is endemic, especially with copy editors, I saw an obituary this AM of a US Olympian (swimmer), noting that "Paul Bearers included her brother, ... "

Well,..... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Bearer