> RT wrote:
>
> >Sanity check time:
> >1) "not recorded electronically" means hand time to me. Hand times are
> >rounded up to the next 10th, or 9.8.
> >2) the standard adjustment for comparison used to be what, .14?
> >That would make it equivalent to a 9.94 electronic.
> >3) extremely unlikely to have a wind guage at a practice session. All
> >the talk the last two weeks has been the 40-50mph winds in the area.
> >Let's be conservative and say just 5mph. Add the standard adjustment
> >for a 5mph tailwind to the 9.94, and what do you get?
> >4) just who timed it- the reporter? Untrained timers usually anticipate
> >the runner's arrival at the finish plane and start applying pressure
> >on the stopwatch button. Rather that waiting to apply pressure exactly
> >when the torso hits the plane. Fast times often result.
Actually, the standard I have heard is .24. As an official, I consider
myself relatively good at seeing the smoke and hitting my stopwatch, and .24
has usually been just about right.
The point is, whatever he did, he did it in practice. It means nothing
other than he is in very good shape, which we already knew. In 1972, the
story goes that Lasse Viren did 30x200 @ 27 with 30 seconds rest and his
pulse never got over 130 (perhaps an apocryphal story - who knows). Another
great workout, but like Viren, Mo will have to prove it when it counts.
In Mo's defense, who knows how much of the impetus for the story was his
doing and how much was the reporter's. He's run some great races, and
should be already be a heavy favorite.
- Ed Parrot
