Clueless writing about our sport

[Atticus]

Well, IAFF is good too. It's Laff with a lowercase L and this is all getting very comical.

[tandfman]

They corrected the IAFF gaffe when they put the story on their website. See link on front page.

[tandfman]

How's this:

The hurdles for the 110H at the U20 (formerly known as junior) height are six inches shorter than at the senior and collegiate level (33"/99.1cm compared with 39"/106.7cm) so the time doesn't count on the list of UK's school records.

They've got the difference between junior and senior hurdles heights wrong, and both metric translations to Imperial measure are wrong.

https://ukathletics.com/news/2019/6/23/track-field-tai-brown-wins-usatf-u20-110h.aspx?path=track

What's particularly upsetting about this is that it appeared on a website owned and controlled by the University of Kentucky.

[Tuariki]

Do not expect serious, introspective coverage of track and field until our beautiful sport takes itself seriously. Our courageous and ambitious efforts at waging a war on PED's has cost us our place in the American consciousness and kept us out of truly high regard in the sporting world. We are to the national and international public, a shady sport of drug cheats.
We have only ourselves -- the track world -- to blame. FIFA and the NBA deal with no such problem. They just stay out of it.

Examine the different tactics employed by the NFL and USATF (and IAAF) with failed drug test disclosures. The NFLbriefly experimented with "public disclosure", that track invented. They found such disclosure only damaged the NFL image, which is the most valued in worldwide sport and they pulled back to a way more discreet policy. The NFL is more protective of its image, and less anxious to publicize drug violators, in order to better preserve the league "product".

I would suggest track should be asking the NFL how they manage such information. There has got to be a way to detect PED abuse without destroying the very name of track and field. Public disclosure has proved to be a miserable failure. It has not served as a deterrant AND it has destroyed the name of our sport. It is a lose/lose. We have years of image repair ahead of us, but there is always hope, with engaged leadership.

I thought the NFL approach to the problem was to ignore it

[Halfmiler2]

And most NFL careers are so short, the players don’t have time to caught by the lax testing.

[tandfman]

Getting back to clueless writing, how's this:

>>NAIROBI, July 11 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's 3000m steeplechase specialist Beatrice Chepkoech will return to Monaco on Friday, on a track she broke the world record two years ago, eyeing another win.<<

It happens that she broke the steeple WR in Monaco last year, not two years ago.

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-07/11/c_138218409.htm

[Atticus]

>>NAIROBI, July 11 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's 3000m steeplechase specialist Beatrice Chepkoech will return to Monaco on Friday, on a track she broke the world record two years ago, eyeing another win.<<

C'mon, now - they got the name right, the event right, the place right, the WR right - 4 outta 5 ain't bad!

[tandfman]

Did you know that there was a North American Pole Vault Championship in California yesterday? Neither did I.

https://kmph.com/great-day/michael-in-the-mix/michael-previews-the-north-american-pole-vault-championship

[gm]

Did you know that there was a North American Pole Vault Championship in California yesterday? Neither did I.

https://kmph.com/great-day/michael-i...t-championship

Yep, the North American Pole Vaulting Association has been around for a bit.

[tandfman]

That doesn't make their event a North American Championships.

[Atticus]

That doesn't make their event a North American Championships.

It is if they say it is! They can even trademark it, I bet.

[tandfman]

Fake news, sez I.

[gm]

Almost as bad as calling something the World Series...

[gh]

or the Championship Relays of America (Penn)
or the National Relay Championships (Arkansas)

[tandfman]

This has been noted on the Current Events MB, but it's worth noting here. It's the report of a street pole vault in Omaha a few days ago and it includes this:

Kendricks won with a clearance of 5.90 meters and Chris Nilsen finished in second place with 5.90 meters on countback.

The height that they cleared was actually 5.80, not 5.90.

http://www.digitaljournal.com/sports/review-sam-kendricks-sandi-morris-win-capitol-district-vault-in-omaha/article/555215#ixzz5vdmmRNRt