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I was at the final day of the US
Track & Field Olympic Trials in Sacramento yesterday. The rotating
electronic sign boards for the pole vault and the high jump almost uniformly
displayed heights in meters, with the exception of just a couple of times when
the PV board showed feet and inches. But with just a couple of exceptions,
the announcer referred to only feet and inches when pointing out that so-and-so
was attempting such-and-such a height! Sometimes he would say "Jo Blow is
over the bar at 2.25 meters, 7 feet xx inches....".
The uprights holding the cross bars
were clearly in meters, as the signboards only showed increments of (usually) 5
cm. The inches would come out as odd things, like 11 1/4 inches. The
only exception was when Stacy Dragila attempted a world record in the PV at (I
think) 4.88 m, or 16'1/2" (if I recall correctly). There are probably
little inserts that can be added to adjust the crossbars to single
centimeters.
The discus throw, unfortunately, was
the same old feet-and-inches stuff, with the distance being measured by a laser
survey device.
It was nice that the announcer
correctly always referred to meters when announcing running events, even when
shouting at the end of a race that "...with 200 meters to go, xxx makes his
move...." Not a yard to be heard.
At the 20 km racewalk event held
outside the stadium on a back-and-forth section of roadway, the distances were
marked in km with appropriate signs.
This is, obviously, rather maddening,
but shows some progress!
HARRY WYETH
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