Clueless writing about our sport

[Tuariki]

An egregious mistake..akin to confusing Oklahoma Univ/Oklahoma State.

A even better example is probably confusing Michigan and Ohio State

[carfu]

By APA (Agence de Presse Africaine): The fate of Botswana’s 8000-metre sprint champion Amantle Montsho is expected to be known by the end of November.

[gh]

My God Atticus - do go wash your mouth out. For all you uninformed it is North Island,South Island and West Island.

slight hijiack (but worth it!). John Oliver on Sunday night on confusing the Aussie and Kiwi flags.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz29_bFxBZA

[Tuariki]

See GH, you pick on NZ and make fun of us, and BOOM a full scale all out internet missile bombing raid happens on this site.

[gh]

picking on? I thought that came across as a rather pro-en-zed piece.

Despite isis, I vote for black w/ silver fern.

You guys and the Aussies both need to throw off a few more colonial shackles and chuck any presence of the Union Jack.

[Tuariki]

I will be voting to get rid of the current flag. I would also get rid of Elizabeth as our head of state. While I respect the lady she has nothing to do with NZ. …. tasteless posting expurgated by mods

[TN1965]

http://www.iaaf.org/news/news/tirunesh-dibaba-pregnant-sileshi-sihine

"Dibaba’s younger sister Ejegayehu, the 2004 Olympic 10,000m silver medallist, gave birth earlier this year."

Umm... and I thought Ejegayehu was Tirnesh's older sister...

[Hedgecock]

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Javelin ace Steve Backley (GBR) was commentating for a BBC radio station on the men's 1500m final. He said, "And they have completed the first lap in just inside 57 seconds. It's DESPERATELY slow!"
Then, as the field approached 700 metres, he told his listeners, "They will hear the bell now...."
Please, stick to spear chucking, Steve!

[Throwholics]

Berlin legend Harting switches to shot put due to no competitors?

http://www.throwholics.com/2014/11/berlin-legend-harting-switches-to-shot-put-due-to-no-competitors/

At least according to the Berliner Morgenpost.

[tandfman]

i know of no end of people who refer to synthetic tracks as tartan (lower-case).

Wiki backs me up

<< Because the "Tartan" brand name was the first and was widely successful in its time, the name Tartan has incorrectly become a genericized trademark for an all-weather running track.[1][2][3]>>

I don't call that clueless writing at all.

OK, then, how about this:

http://allafrica.com/stories/201411121631.html

The headline says "Spanish Company Mondo Starts to Lay Tartan Track At Kipchoge Keino Stadium" The story says the same thing. Regardless of whether it's ok to refer to a Mondo track as Tartan (I guess we disagree about that), Mondo is not a Spanish company--it's Italian.

[tandfman]

Here's one that I see too often, usually from local newspapers or school newspapers, like this one from the Florida school paper:

>>The Gators will be losing seven players, three of which earned All-America honors in their careers. Despite the loss of key players such as McGee and Eutsey, Florida brings in a class of 10 freshmen and three transfers.<<

Track and field athletes are not "players".

http://www.alligator.org/sports/track/article_c7647838-8f80-11e4-ad0a-9fa03ff5451e.html

[Atticus]

Here's one that I see too often, usually from local newspapers or school newspapers, like this one from the Florida school paper:[/url]

You had me at 'Florida school paper'.
Despite what we think of Florida's (and FSU's) position in the pantheon of T&F colleges, both are Football schools, pure and simple. Everything else is fringe sport, akin to darts or badminton, and a sportswriter (sic) need know little else.

[tandfman]

If tweets count as writing, here's one:

>>Notre Dame XC/TF @NDXCTF · 4h4 hours ago
Stat check: Tiffany Porter's time in the 60mH prelims TIED a meet and Meyo Track record set by Tiffany Ofili in 2008. #Meyo2015<<

I could be wrong, but it sure looks as if the person who wrote this tweet had no idea that Tiffany Porter and Tiffany Ofili are the same person.

[aaronk]

Well, it's clueless announcing, not writing, but it's hilarious!

In the video of Pauli Benavides's HSR PV of 17-11, provided by MileSplit, the meet announcer is busy describing a track race, when Benavides clears the bar, the crowd erupts in cheers, Pauli leaps into the arms of his coach (?), and finally, the announcer says...

"Sounds like SOMETHING'S going on in the Pole Vault!"

Well, DUHHH!!

[Charley Shaffer]

During the broadcast of the New Balance meet in Boston, Tim Hutchings actually said that Glasgow was in England. I've heard him make a lot of mistakes over the years, but I wouldn't have guessed that he would make a mistake about this.