Clueless writing about our sport

[Atticus]

a truly fit person should be able to go on either side of the gym and impress us.

I doubt anyone would ever confuse me with a "truly fit" person, but 43 years ago when I reported to my first Navy duty station (Moffett Field, Ca - now largely civilian), my flight surgeon 'ordered' me (Ensigns do what they're told) to hit the weight room 3 times a week for 30 minutes, and run/bike/swim for 20 minutes 3 times a week. Been doing it ever since. I add in hurdles and jumps in the spring when I coach. I am VERY rarely sick and I attribute that to my exercise and vitamin pills! :-)

P.S. Last winter I injured myself in several mysterious ways and now everything is better than new. ??!!

[Alan Shank]

From the "Daily Nation":

MWANGANGI, KAMWOROR FACE FARAH

The men’s 5,000m battle that is rich with talent. World 5,000m silver medallist Caleb Mwangangi and Kamworor, the World 10,000m silver medallist, are some of the Kenyans who will be out to stop World and Olympic champion Briton Mo Farah.

Of course, Farah is in the 10,000, not the 5000. AFAIK, Farah was never announced in the 5000.
Cheers,
Alan Shank
Woodland, CA, USA

[wamego relays champ]

Back to other clueless writing. There's a story now linked on the front page about Americans competing at the Pre Classic. It concludes with this sentence:

>>The Prefontaine Classic is named after Oregon native Steve Prefontaine, an Olympian killed in a 1977 car accident at 24.<<

In fact, that fatal accident occurred in 1975.

It's a bit upsetting to see an article written by the Associated Press and appearing on the NBC website that gets such a basic fact wrong. If you can't trust the AP and NBC to get simple facts right . . .

What is especially egregious about this one is that every single press release that the meet puts out has this information at the bottom. No fact-checking needed; it is right there in the source used (copied in many cases) to write the article.

[booond]

Back to other clueless writing. There's a story now linked on the front page about Americans competing at the Pre Classic. It concludes with this sentence:

>>The Prefontaine Classic is named after Oregon native Steve Prefontaine, an Olympian killed in a 1977 car accident at 24.<<

In fact, that fatal accident occurred in 1975.

It's a bit upsetting to see an article written by the Associated Press and appearing on the NBC website that gets such a basic fact wrong. If you can't trust the AP and NBC to get simple facts right . . .

It could be as simple as a typo or brain fart. And the AP is not your grandfather's AP. They are politicized and sloppy. And no one edits websites. What lands there remains there.

[jazzcyclist]

It could be as simple as a typo or brain fart. And the AP is not your grandfather's AP. They are politicized and sloppy. And no one edits websites. What lands there remains there.

Those are my sentiments too. I've made typos that were as egregious as this error many times on this board. Anyway, here's an error that I think is a lot harder to dimiss as a brain fart or typo, especially considering the source.

http://www.ncaa.com/news/trackfield-...ords-highlight

[Atticus]

This insn't excatly 'clueless' . . . well, yes it is . . . from a Brit headline linked on letsrun:

Rome DL Recap: Almaz Ayana Just Misses the World Record, Caster Semenya and Conseslus Kipruto Continue To Dominate and Elijah Manangoi Breaks His Maiden

[gm]

What's wrong with that? Wasn't Rome his first DL win?

[Atticus]

What's wrong with that? Wasn't Rome his first DL win?

Please parse the phrase 'breaks his maiden'. I believe this horse-racing term has an . . . **ahem" . . . alternate meaning.

[lonewolf]

Surely, you and I were not the only two to note the ambiguity of that phrase.

[gm]

Sometimes I wonder about you, man. It's a very common phrase in Britain. Where the story was published. For British readers.

[Atticus]

Sometimes I wonder about you, man. It's a very common phrase in Britain.

Well, then I say say to you, join the queue. :-)

[dukehjsteve]

All dirtbags ( imcludes me ) "got it" immediately.

[Atticus]

All dirtbags

I prefer the term "Warped Sensibilities" . . .

[lonewolf]

I believe it was Churchill who once described US and UK as "two countries, separated by a common language."

[tandfman]

I believe it's a common term in horse racing even on this side of the pond (or at least it used to be).