Clueless writing about our sport

[wamego relays champ]

The only clueless thing about the NYT obituary was this:

>>The Penn Relay’s four-mile event in 1949 was won by a team that included three Ashenfelter brothers: Horace, Bill and Donald.<<

It was, and is, the Penn Relays. I'm not sure that the name of the meet is intended as a possessive, but if it is, it should be Relays', not Relay's.

As the OP of this thread I suppose you make the rules, but to me grammatical errors do not qualify as "clueless writing."

[tandfman]

I agree. I'm a real grammar scold, and I always ignore solecisms on these Message Boards. But I couldn't resist pointing out the errant apostrophe in this case because the previous post had cited the NY Times obit as the antithesis of the thread title.

Is it clueless writing "about track"? I suppose it could be, if the writer didn't know that the name of the meet is the Penn Relays.

But in any event, this one just happened to hit one of my hot buttons--the faulty grammar that appears much too often in the NY Times. If there were a website devoted to such things, I might be a daily contributor.

[br]

From the front page story Michigan "Meat Factory" Wins Weight Throw At Home, the writer extols the accomplishments of Michigan throwers, but misidentifies the event.

Junior Joseph Ellis helped to pace the Wolverines, finishing with the furthest distance amongst the field on five of his six attempts, including one that traveled 22.55 meters to set a personal record and notch the longest shot recorded in the Big Ten this season.

“That’s a huge confidence booster,” Ellis said when informed his shot was a personal best.

[Atticus]

notch the longest shot recorded in the Big Ten this season.

And, of course, the 'shot' here refers to what the writer should be . . . [rimshot]

[dukehjsteve]

Related of course to this is how in everyday parlance, the implement is typically a " shotput."

[tandfman]

>>First-year Peighton Simmons also earned first place out of 10 competitors in the women’s triple jump with a 40-7 mark on her third attempt. Sophomore Brianna Isles secured second place for North Carolina with a mark of 11.76m.<<

The winner's mark in feet and inches and the runner-up's mark in meters.

It boggles.

http://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2018/02/track-and-field-gamer-0219

[wamego relays champ]

>>First-year Peighton Simmons also earned first place out of 10 competitors in the women’s triple jump with a 40-7 mark on her third attempt. Sophomore Brianna Isles secured second place for North Carolina with a mark of 11.76m.<<

The winner's mark in feet and inches and the runner-up's mark in meters.

It boggles.

http://www.dailytarheel.com/article/...eld-gamer-0219

I do give the author credit, however, for marking the 44th anniversary of Tony Waldrop's 3:55.0 mile record in the lede.

[bambam1729]

I do give the author credit, however, for marking the 44th anniversary of Tony Waldrop's 3:55.0 mile record in the lede.

While I was in school at Duke (1969-73), in addition to the basketball rivalry, we had a great miler rivalry between schools with Tony Waldrop (UNC) and Bob Wheeler (Duke). Rather rare. I knew Bob a little, but not well. He died young several years ago.

[tandfman]

Did you know that there will be a half-marathon in the 2020 Olympics? I didn't. :-)

Here's a story that says that Chattanooga is in the running to host the 2020 marathon and half-marathon Olympic trials.

http://www.wrcbtv.com/story/37596219/chattanooga-in-running-to-host-2020-marathonhalf-olympic-trials-usatf-visiting-this-weekend

[Atticus]

Did you know that there will be a half-marathon in the 2020 Olympics? I didn't. :-)
Here's a story that says that Chattanooga is in the running to host the 2020 marathon and half-marathon Olympic trials.
http://www.wrcbtv.com/story/37596219...g-this-weekend

From the article

Chattanooga submitted it's letter of intent to bid for the 2020 Team USA Marathon and Half Marathon Olympic Trials.

Bad writing - bad editing . . .

[tandfman]

This is a strange one. It's a story from an Australian newspaper about the final pre-Commonwealth meet held in Brisbane today (Wednesday). Here's the interesting quote:

>>England’s Zharnel Hughes, who raced only in a relay on Wednesday night at the State Athletics Facility, will go to the Games with the world’s fastest 100m time of 2018, from his win in 10.01 over Blake (10.05) in Kingston, Jamaica on February 24.<<

http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/commonwealth-games/jamaicas-yohan-blake-shows-his-class-in-brisbane-meet-ahead-of-commonwealth-games/news-story/8dd4fa2d867ec6d6cfa0f53b96c4b484

The problem is that according to the IAAF's report of this meet, linked in the front page headline section, Hughes ran the 200 there in 20.23 (into a negative 1.6 wind).

One of these reports is obviously clueless. I'm guessing it was the Courier Mail.

[Atticus]

the IAAF's report of this meet, linked in the front page headline section, Hughes ran the 200 there in 20.23 (into a negative 1.6 wind).

But their 100 list has it:

1 10.01 +0.8 Zharnel HUGHES 13 JUL 1995 GBR GBR 1f1 Kingston (JAM) 24 FEB 2018

[tandfman]

There's no question about the 100 in February. It's today's 200 in Brisbane that the Courier Mail says didn't happen.

[wamego relays champ]

There's no question about the 100 in February. It's today's 200 in Brisbane that the Courier Mail says didn't happen.

I don't think the Courier Mail's mention of Hughes was intended to refer to his performance in Brisbane (even though IAAF thought it deserved the headline).

It seems to be a factual add-on to the lede featuring Yohan Blake, who declared that he was "the fastest man over 100m and 200m." The Courier Mail was just pointing out that Hughes (and not Blake) is the world leader at 100m.

So the prose may be a bit disjointed, but I don't think it qualifies as clueless. Well, maybe for only mentioning that Hughes ran the relay, ignoring his 200m performance. It was probably a newspaper deadline thing, since the 200m was the last event, with Hughes' race scheduled for 9:49pm.

[tandfman]

Here's a clueless headline writer:

The sub-headline reads:

>>Nate Richartz wins the high jump for the second time this season<<

The article correctly reports that Richartz won the pole vault, not the high jump.

http://www.und.com/sports/c-track/recaps/033118aae.html