t-and-f: Blast from the past: Bob Bornkessel on sub-50s
Y ask: Kudos to USATF for affirming the monumental 400 hurdle race by Kerron Clement, a high school junior (!) from La Porte, Texas. His 49.77 at the Junior Olympics finally erases the legendary 49.8 (hand-timed) altitude mark by Shawnee Mission North's Bob Bornkessel at South Lake Tahoe during the final Olympic Trials of August 1968. Even though preps rarely run 400 hurdles, a sub-50 is still scary fast. Four preps have broken 4 minutes for the mile. Only three have gone sub-50. Clement edged Kenneth Ferguson of Detroit, who also broke 50 at Harry A. Burke High School (my alma mater and scene of my legendary fifth-place 120 highs race of 14.4 in the 1972 Nebraska State Meet). But what of the former record holder? Bornkessel, a stocky hurdler, went on to compete for Kansas, also my alma mater. He was a senior when I was a freshman. Sadly, BB didn't show the same brilliance in Lawrence that he did at Echo Summit. I wrote him recently for his reaction to the new sub-50s and to understand why he didn't live up to people's expectations in college. Bob is now safety training manager at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan., and also coaches at a local high school. His comments: On why it's taken so long to see another sub-50: First, very few high school athletes run the race often. Only a few states run it in their state meets. Even though everyone runs the 300 hurdles, the race is completely different. The 300 hurdles can still be approached as a sprint race -- I adjusted from running 180yd lows to 300 hurdles. I had to hold back during the 400 hurdles to be able to get over the last hurdle. Second, there is the psychological 'hurdle' to deal with. Knowing how much it hurts to run a 300 race and considering going 1/3 farther may be difficult for a young athlete. I think many athletes today are afraid to fail. They have been taken care by their coaches and haven't learned how to fail. I went into the situation knowing that I had nothing to lose. No one had any expectations of me. I ran as fast as I could for as long as I could without fear of losing. On how he managed sub-50 as a teen: The environment in 1968 was unique. Altitude (which I don't think helped the time), six meets in a row against the best hurdles in the world, working out daily with these athletes, and working out under the best coaches in the US for six weeks. I have told may people that competitively, `You do what you have to.' What I had to do at the Olympic Trials was to beat 10 of the best 17 400 meter runners in the world. That year the Olympic Committee sent the top 10 athletes in each event to Lake Tahoe to train and adapt to high altitude. Each weekend we had meets. Consider having national class track meets for six straight weeks. It did wonders for our times, but in the end (at the Olympics) it hurt the three that made the team. They peaked at the Trials. The three who made the team all tied or broke the world record. My time was eight-tenths off the old record and was 10th among our the group. After all, how many high school kids have had a chance to compete with the national champion and world record holder for six consecutive weeks, work out with the best in their event, and see how hard they train? In a way, I am surprised it lasted so long. The race went through huge change during the Edwin Moses years. In '68, everyone used a 15-step pattern. Even the taller runners. Now almost all use a 13. Basically, now the brakes are off! Also, it used to be that a good differential (difference between the 400m time and 400m hurdle time) was 3 seconds. That means that a great high school 400 meter runner who also can hurdle should be able to run 49 or better. I was lucky that my natural stride length was perfect -- my differential was 1.8 when I ran 49.8. And what about his KU falloff? I did run a 49.7 (KU GIVES HIM CREDIT ONLY FOR 50.4 AT 1972 NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS, WITH KU RECORD OF 49.5 SET BY NOLAN CROMWELL IN 1975) and held the KU record for a while. I could think of all kinds of excuses (college life is much different than living at home with your parents), but the main reason was conditioning. I probably never achieved the conditioning I had in the summer of '68. Bob dreams of running hurdles in the M50 age group, but has to overcome knee problems. Nolan Cromwell, a coach with the NFL Seahawks, told a friend of mine two years ago that his football injuries negate a masters comeback. Stay tuned. The Bob Bornkessel Story is still being written. Ken Stone (KU track walk-on 1972, kicked-off 1974) http://www.masterstrack.com
RE: t-and-f: Blast from the past: Bob Bornkessel on sub-50s
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Kudos to USATF for affirming the monumental 400 hurdle race by Kerron Clement, a high school junior (!) from La Porte, Texas. His 49.77 at the Junior Olympics finally erases the legendary 49.8 (hand-timed) altitude mark by Shawnee Mission North's Bob Bornkessel at South Lake Tahoe during the final Olympic Trials of August 1968. Finally? Bornkessel's record had already been erased a week earlier by Kenneth Ferguson's 49.38 in the World Juniors in Jamaica. Ferguson of course was second to Clement at Omaha in 49.83, which is also superior to Bornkessel's hand time. John Dye [EMAIL PROTECTED] DyeStat - the Internet home of high school track www.dyestat.com
t-and-f: 2 days left for the European Championships prediction contest
Hello all,
Two more days before the start of the European championships in Munich,
Germany. This also means there are only two days left to enter the European
championhips prediction contest ('toto' in Dutch). Entries must be filed
through the internet no later than tuesdaymorning 00:01.
The number of contestants is approaching 100. Those are mostly new
contestants, the 'regulars' usually wait for the last minute news
(cancellations, etc.). So it definately means something to win (or score
well) in this contest.
Are you interested to enter? Then check: http://www.xs4all.nl/~rvweele/
Enjoy the championship and the toto,
Wilmar Kortleever
(on behalf of contest organiser - and private sponsor - Ronald van Weele)
Wilmar Kortleever schreef:
Hello all,
On behalf of a friend of mine, I forward the message below.
I can strongly recommend this tipping game/prediction contest.
For one, it is much more fun of watching those events (on televison or
live) in which you do not have a favorite of your own.
Furthermore, it challenges your knowledge as a true 'all-round'
athletics enthousiast.
Lasts winner was the famous Belgian track and field journalist Ivan
Sonck. Will you be his successor???
Regards, Wilmar Kortleever
(near the rostrum a few times, but no cigar...)
-Original Message-
From: Ronald van Weele [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: dinsdag 30 juli 2002 22:18
Subject: EC Munchen tipping game
Hi friends,
Up and running: the 13th edition of this track field tipping game.
Again free entrance and the following prizes: 100, 50 and 25 EURO
Look at:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~rvweele/
Send this invitation to all your tipping friends and athletic
mailinglists in your country.
Predict all the medal winners. You have to chose from lists, so you have
all athletes per event available. With some help from the EAA/IAAF lists
it is really easy.
Last year 91 participants in the Edmonton game and in the year 2000, 88
participants in the Sydney game. Participants from all over the world:
Australia, Kazachstan, Germany, USA, Sweden, New Zealand, ...(in 1996 we
had 759 participants, all data entry handwork! Nowadays data entry only
webbased and no longer that much work for the organizer.)
For the non-europeans this tournament is may be not that interesting.
I wish you a lot of fun with the European Championships and the game.
Ronald van Weele
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(I will travel to Munich the 5th of August)
t-and-f: Dave Johnson a Body Guard?
I was looking through the new US magazine, with Angelie Jolie on the cover and the had an article about celebrities and their body guards. The showed a picture of Tom Cruise jogging with his in california and I could swear that his body guard was Decathlete Dave Johnson. Does anyone know if this is true? He had on the shades and reebok shoes. _ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com
Re: t-and-f: Dave Johnson a Body Guard?
In a message dated 8/3/02 8:23:54 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: I could swear that his body guard was Decathlete Dave Johnson. Does anyone know if this is true? I would bet it's NOT Penn Relays Director Dave Johnson. Jim Gerweck Running Times
Re: t-and-f: the 1-second rule
Luckily, I'm working on 400m altitude assistance at this very moment! Based on my models, I find the altitude assistance of the two venues (2250m) to be almost exactly 0.5s. That's purely altitude assistance, mind you, no wind considerations. Wind can play havock with 400m performances, since unless you have absolutely still conditions or a cross-wind (which helps you on the last turn), or arguably favorable swirling winds, you're done for. The real problem with correcting 400m races is that there is absolutely *no* wind data avaialble to work from, so it's mostly guesswork when comparing to actual races, or has to be based on similar statistical analyses to this which don't account for that factor. The fact that you found a few in the 0.5s range is encouraging (glass is half-full!) I'm still working on the data, but I anticipate throwing together something for publication in a little while. If anyone is interested, I'd be happy to elaborate further. J. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Dr. Jonas R. Mureika W. M. Keck Science Center The Claremont Colleges Claremont, California 91711-5916 Web:http://desert.jsd.claremont.edu/~newt/ Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Office: +1 (909) 607-4124 FAX: +1 (909) 621-8588 Home: +1 (626) 584-3873 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= On Sat, 3 Aug 2002, ghill wrote: in my Bornkessel post, I posited (very) empirical evidence that perhaps Mexico City and Echo Summit (7000ft sites) might be worth a second in the 400H, and did quick math on '68 season which showed an 0.91 differential for the World Rankers. Out of curiousity, I've now gone back and done the flat 400 (I'd never actually done the math to come up with the 1.0 figure before; was just an obvious figure from working with the times for many years in many different contexts). Can only do 7 of the 10 World Rankers: Evans 43.8-45.0 (1.2) James 43.9-44.9 (1.0) Freeman 44.4-45.4 (1.0) Matthews 44.4-45.0 (0.6) Gakou 45.0-46.7 (not enough sea-level data to trust) Jellinghaus 44.9-46.0 (1.1) Collett 44.9-45.4 (0.5) Bezabeh (only altitude data) Badenski 45.4-46.2 (0.8) Taylor (hurt in OT quarters, so doesn't have real altitude mark) Average altitude improvement for the 7? ... another drum roll...0.89! Of course, it could be just a huge COINCIDENCE. gh ps--wasn't it great back in the hand-timing (aka 10th) days, when the common man could look at a track time and not be overwhelmed by multiple decimal-point numbers. Another nail in the sport's coffin.
Re: t-and-f: the 1-second rule
By the way, here is a link to an on-line calculator I've created for altitude corrections to 400m races: http://desert.jsd.claremont.edu/~newt/track/wind/400alt.html It technically only works for world class times, so don't try to correct 47s or 53s races and assume it to be accurate for those. However, you can see the theoretical 1/2-second rule coming out (in conflict with the experimental 1-second rule). =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Dr. Jonas R. Mureika W. M. Keck Science Center The Claremont Colleges Claremont, California 91711-5916 Web:http://desert.jsd.claremont.edu/~newt/ Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Office: +1 (909) 607-4124 FAX: +1 (909) 621-8588 Home: +1 (626) 584-3873 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
