Børre Lilloe has written to alert me that my masters discus list,
posted yesterday, is missing a mark for Svein Inge Valvik that is shown
on Jalava's world list as # 521 at 51.49m.
This is an unfortunate mistake, because Valik was nearly 52 years old
on the date of the competition and should have replaced Pertti Hynni
(48) as the oldest thrower on the 2008 list.
The complete entry for Valik would have been:
521 51.49 Svein Inge Valvik NOR 20 Sep 56 Oslo 28 Jun
How does this sort of error happen? As I've noted, in looking for
masters on a list, I sort for all those with birthdays in 1973, which
would make them 35 if their birthday is before the date of the meet
when the season's best mark was made. Then I sort for 72 birthdates,
71, 70, etc., until I seem to have exhausted the possibilites. I see
that on the men's discus list I had a hit on 63, none of 62 or 61, a
surprise hit on 60, none on 59, 58, or 57, so quit looking at that
point--as it turns out, one year too soon. Sorry, but there are lots of
lists and I'm not quite half-way through. I'll try to watch more
carefully.
Yesterday, Uri Goldbourt wrote of another kind of error on the men's
discus list, asking:
What does Dheeb from Qatar do on the men's list if he was born in 1985?
The list showed Dheeb ranked #72 at 61.95m. This time, in sorting for
"72" 1972 birth years, the search turned up Dheeb's 72 and I failed to
note that it was his ranking and not his birth year.
If that seems too many mistakes, you ain't seen nothin' yet: I've just
sampled around the marathon lists a bit and it looks like about a
fourth of the athletes shown have masters-age birthdates. I just think
maybe I'll save that for last, hit "send" and go chanterelle hunting
for a week before I check my in-mail.
Cheers
