Athletics; All pre-2005 World Records to be cancelled

As Colin Jackson pointed out yesterday yer man Seb Coe no longer holds any records.

9 Likes

Off topic, but this might be my favourite single Chris Morris moment.

1 Like

It’s a bit of a blunt instrument to address the issue and I can totally sympathise with the athletes who were (assuming they were) clean when they set their world records. For those in the more technical events it must be particularly irksome as drugs would not necessarily have helped as much as having a perfect technique e.g. long jump, triple jump. Zelezny’s javelin record was mainly achieved by having a brilliant technique and being able to reproduce it in competition

Technique under pressure is a product of repetitive training though.

Drugs can definitely help you to be able to train for longer and harder.

2 Likes

Agree to a point

oh go on

show some working of your aspersions at least

might be interesting to break down just what it is that allows an athlete to gain such a competitive advantage on potential rivals

Well based on the fact that Kenyans (and East-Africans generally) have dominated marathon running for the best part of a decade now and none of them have got close to 2:15 despite the advances in sports science and conditioning training etc since then it kind of sticks out like a sore thumb for a British woman to have run it that quick 15 years ago IMO.

seems pretty likely to happen.
I don’t really know enough about it to know why 2005 was chosen, seems kind of arbitrary. like most sports i think track and field is a bit too backward looking and nostalgic generally, but this seems a bit far the other way, like they’re basically writing off the entire sport pre 2005.
subthread : anyone else going to the world champs in august? i’m proper excited.

Don’t confuse men’s long distance running with women’s: The Kenyans and Ethiopians didn’t become a dominant force in women’s marathon running until fairly recently.

(eg, prior to the Athens olympics, there had only been two female east african olympic medallists at that distance since the event’s introduction in 1984, out of 15 medals awarded)

2 Likes

2005 is when blood samples started to be stored for potential retesting at later dates.

i think its when the doping rules changed, but this is from reading a bbc article about it yesterday and not any of my own knowledge so pls dont question me further

Seven years feels like “the best part of a decade” to me pal.

they also have some stored from previously though don’t they?

1 Like

From the BBC article:

a world record would only be recognised if it meets all three of the following criteria:

  • It was achieved at a competition on a list of approved international events where the highest standards of officiating and technical equipment can be guaranteed;
  • The athlete had been subject to an agreed number of doping control tests in the months leading up to it;
  • The doping control sample taken after the record was stored and available for re-testing for 10 years.

The IAAF has stored blood and urine samples only since 2005 and current records that do not meet the new criteria would remain on an “all-time list”, but not be officially recognised as records.

oooh, the marcker has become the marckee

2 Likes

alright

but what are you saying there? That east-african runners have a genetic advantage ?
It wasn’t so long ago that British runners dominated the world at middle and long distance running and before them it was Scandinavian runners …why’s that?

There are a lot of factors
And it might seem like Radcliffe’s success is anomalous looking backwards but is it really?
It always amazes me how much weight is put on genetic advantage and material/resource advantage in sport compared to psychological advantage. Britain has long had success in running & athletics in general - which both propels & is propelled by having the resources & the infrastructure to win alongside having the belief to do it too

Paula Radcliffe was breaking school records in the early/mid 80s and started out on the path to becoming a world beater already then. How many scouts were out there in the schools of Ethiopia or Somalia in 1984 identifying the raw talent and convincing 10 & 11 year old girls to train every day, tailor their diets and start working towards winning the county cup, the area championships, the junior nationals etc until the world record could be theirs?
How many of them had that future available to them, that structure around them and that belief in their destiny?

1 Like

just read someone saying that Paula might be able to track down her samples from pre 2005, not sure if they meant IAAF had stored them before then but not consistently. maybe she keeps them for her own personal use

More down to training and being used to performing at altitude which makes doing it closer to sea level a lot easier innit.

Her 2.15 time was set in a mixed marathon (i.e. with male pacers), a situation which has been ruled out for official records, so it’s never really been attempted since then. None of her other times were better than 2.17, and her women-only record was beaten less than two weeks ago, by Keitany, a Kenyan, in the London Marathon.

1 Like

How come mixed has been ruled out for official records?