The charts summarize the number of athletes each country placed in the world top-100 outdoor rankings for 2004 (plus ties) and the highest-ranked of these. Since one or two placings may represent only exceptional individuals, rather than national program strength, I've listed only countries with three or more athletes in the top 100 (plus ties). The data base drawn upon is the world deep list from Mirko Jalava's web site <http://www.tilastopaja.net>. This use of the data is with permission (his) and thanks (mine).
MEN'S 100 METERS 2004
Country Top 109 Highest
United States 40 1
Jamaica 9 2
Nigeria 6 14
Trinidad 4 25
Great Britain 4 39
Brazil 4 42
Ghana 3 8
Japan 3 24
Canada 3 43
34 countries represented
100th = 10.27
WOMEN'S 100 METERS 2004
Country Top 107 Highest
United States 27 1
Russia 9 15
Jamaica 8 2
Ukraine 7 39
France 5 4
Nigeria 5 27
Belarus 4 3
Bahamas 3 10
Trinidad 3 17
China 3 60
36 countries represented
100th = 11.39
A note on the formatting. In past years, I've used Mishikawa 12-pt font and placed the men's and women's charts for an event side-by-side for easy visual comparison. This year in changing servers, I've also changed my mailing program from Eudora to Apple Mail. When I tried mailing from my former server to Shaw, those neat columns exploded all over the page. I have the uncomfortable feeling that has been the case for many subscribers in past years, if they weren't using Mac and Eudora and Mishikawa. Since I'm too old and set in my ways to figure a better solution, I've decided to format the men's and women's data in sequence, rather than in parallel. I've also switched to Courier 12-pt, since Courier is an equal-space font that maximizes the possibility of aligning the columns if you, too, are using any equal-space font. If anyone has any suggestions on how I might change the formatting for easier use by more subscribers, I'd appreciate hearing them.
Cheers,
Roger
