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Monday, July 30, 2007

Anti-Doping News

Reading the US press, the news is all about Justin Gatlin's hearing. The Washington Post examines his defense and wether it stands any chance or not. Realistically, he has none.
Discuss: young punks / old farts

The much larger news is actually news, as in something new we didn't know. As Le Monde reported several days ago, the English-speaking world now reports an emerging bust based in France, Spain, Monaco and Morrocco:
"A year ago, I had said there were dodgy people in (French) middle-distance running," French Athletics Federation (FFA) president Bernard Amsalem told Reuters in an interview on Saturday.

"A year ago, I knew this already. Now the rumours are proving to be true, networks are beeing unveiled."
...
"Until September, athletics will be rocked even more, certainly in our country but not only. There are two Moroccan networks involving Moroccan athletes based in Europe, notably in Spain. They should be unearthed very, very soon.

"We are currently working on a list of some 15 people, all French middle-distance runners," Amsalem added. "For the moment I have no information regarding the sprints or throws."
Le Monde named Khalid Skah as a supplier. Keep an eye on this story.

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Anti-Doping News

As "bittertrackguy" pointed out, yesterday's Tour coverage did indeed spend significant time addressing the Vinikourov issue in the pre-race show. I was not aware of it because said show was not part of the reruns later in the day. As for the protest at the beginning of the race, in retrospect I'm not terribly surprised Ligget and Sherwin were less than informed, as the Associated Press failed to mention the details. I had to link to the Irish Times to get the full story.

Today's reruns did include a portion of the pre-race show and of course they addressed the doping issue at length. I was a bit harsh on Ligget and Sherwin yesterday; today Ligget showed me just how wrong I was. When Al Trautwig and Bob Rolle agreed that this is the lowest point yet for professional cycling, Ligget thought that years from now it would be considered cycling's finest hour. This is the classiest comment I have ever heard on the subject of doping, and an Englishman would not use such a phrase lightly; it indicates a understanding both of the depth of the problem and that giving up the fight is simply not an option.

Oh, and Jolanda Ceplak got the boot today for EPO. Recall that after the 2002 European Championships, Kelly Holmes accused Ceplak of doping. At the time, Jonathan Edwards was very critical and said "It always seems to be the prerogative of the middle and distance runners to get their knickers in a twist about drugs...Kelly has been ill-advised and she may live to regret what she said". I wonder if he's up for an apology. Discuss.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Anti-Doping News

Yesterday, top cyclist Alexandre Vinokurov failed a doping test and his team abandoned the tour (predictably, Vino claimed innocence and persecution). Today, Italian cyclist Cristian Moreni failed a test and was taken away by police; his team also withdrew from the race. And Tour leader Michael Rasmussen was removed from the race not by anti-doping officials but by his own team. At this point, professional cycling's credibility has been compared to that of Alberto Gonzales--which is to say it has none whatsoever.

You might not know much of this by watching today's Tour coverage on Versus. Announcers Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwin mentioned Vino's doping positive once, in one sentence, and then merely in passing. The cable channel spent less than ten seconds of video on today's protest at the start of the tour, and was less than genuine in its description (I only know this after listening to an account on BBC World News). The protest was staged by a number of teams who have instituted strong team anti-doping regulations; whereas Liggett and Sherwin described it as a simple refusal to start the race, in fact these teams blocked the course and forced a 13-minute delay before the remainder of the field could physically force their way through. Those riders who did were summarily jeered by the crowd (another fact ignored by Versus).

In the USA, this would be front-page news in the sports section, but it's been pushed out by assorted problems in the NBA, the NFL, and Major League Baseball. All of a sudden, track looks maybe not squeaky-clean but at least reasonable.

Years ago, it was assumed that every doping positive would further decimate track's already weak public image. I thought that attitude was bullshit then and I still do now. The truth is that track began to deal with its doping problems long before any other major sport even thought about it. Honesty may cause short-term pain but in the long run it is always better than lies. Cycling and baseball are taking their lumps now; football will get its share of suffering sometime soon. Track & field can hold its head high and know we've tried to do the right thing.

Monday, July 23, 2007

Track on TV update

See previous post for the reason to update so soon.

Tuesday, July 24
ESPN Deportes, 3:00-6:00 AM and 1:00-10:00 PM
Pan-American Games

Wednesday, July 25
ESPN Deportes, 3:00-6:00 AM and Noon-10:00 PM
Pan-American Games

Nickelodeon, 10:00-10:30 PM
The Cosby Show
Episode 48: Off to the Races
(repeats 7/26 at 2 AM)

Sports Time Ohio, 2:00-3:00 AM
Jesse Owens Returns to Berlin
(repeats 7/27 at 2 AM, 7/28 at 6:30 PM, 8/5 at 2 AM, 8/6 at 3 AM, 8/10 at 7 PM, 8/12 at 1 AM, 8/13 at 3:30 AM, 8/16 at 2:30 AM, and 8/19 at 1 AM)

Friday, July 27
ESPN Deportes, 3:00-6:00 AM and 11:00 AM - 11:00 PM
Pan-American Games

Saturday, July 28
ESPN Deportes, 3:00-6:00 AM and 9:00 AM-10:00 PM
Pan-American Games

Sunday, July 29
ESPN Deportes, 10:00 AM-2:00 PM
Pan-American Games

Thursday, August 2
TVLand, Midnight-12:30 AM
Sanford and Son
Episode 90: The Olympics

Sunday, August 5
NBC, 2:30-4:30 PM
2006 Ironman Triathlon World Championship

Monday, August 6
Fox College Sports Central, 3:00-4:00 PM
International Friendship & Freedom Games

Tuesday, August 7
Fox College Sports Atlantic, 7:30-9:30 AM
SEC Outdoor Championships
(repeats 8/11 at 6:30 AM)

Saturday, August 25
CBC, 2:00 PM
World Championships

Versus, 6:00-8:00 PM
World Championships

Sunday, August 26
CBC, 3:00 PM
World Championships

Versus, 1:00-3:00 AM and 6:00-8:00 PM
World Championships

Monday, August 27
Versus, 1:00-3:00 AM, 9:00-11:00 AM, 3:00-5:00 PM, 7:00-9:00 PM
World Championships

Tuesday, August 28
ESPN, 7:00 PM
Track Classic

Versus, 1:00-3:00 AM, 9:00-11:00 AM, 3:00-5:00 PM, 7:00-9:00 PM
World Championships

Wednesday, August 29
Versus, 1:00-3:00 AM, 9:00-11:00 AM, 3:00-5:00 PM, 7:00-9:00 PM
World Championships

Thursday, August 30
Versus, 1:00-3:00 AM, 9:00-11:00 AM, 3:00-5:00 PM, 7:00-9:00 PM
World Championships

Friday, August 31
Versus, 1:00-3:00 AM, 9:00-11:00 AM, 3:00-5:00 PM, 7:00-9:00 PM
World Championships

Saturday, September 1
CBC, 2:00 PM
World Championships

Sunday, September 2
CBC, 3:00 PM
World Championships

Saturday September 8
CBC, 1:30 PM
Zurich Golden League

Saturday Sept 15
CBC, 2:30 PM
Brussels Golden League

December 1
NBC, 4:30-6:00 PM
Ironman Triathlon World Championships

Jesse Owens Returns to Berlin


I try to keep up with all the track & field on TV, even to the point of finding reruns of classic shows like Sanford & Son and The Cosby Show.

So I was surprised to find something on TV tonight that I missed. An obscure cable channel I didn't even know I had, Sports Time Ohio, was running "Jesse Owens Returns to Berlin".

It's part of Bud Greenspan's Olympiad film series, and where he began his filmmaking career in earnest. It is not part of the 8-volume VHS "The Olympiad Greatest Moments" set released in 1996, and is now out of print. Right now, Amazon.com has just one used copy for sale (at a pricy $33.88).

I only saw a few minutes of the film, but fortunately it will be re-run at least ten times in the coming month. I'll wait to pass judgement on it until I get a chance to view the whole thing. But I'm guessing that it contains many of the half-truths and outright fabrications that Jeremy Schaap worked so hard to straighten out.

2016 Summer Olympics Bidding

Echoing an assessment made here nearly six months ago, Rob Livingstone of GamesBids.com considers TV timeliness the key factor in the race to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. And echoing an assessment made here two weeks ago, Rio has the inside track due to the IOC's interest in putting the games in parts of the world where they have never been before.

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Alan Webb, American Record

3:46.91.

Flotrack.com has the video.

How big was this? The LetsRun message board crashed multiple times. Flotrack's website had a few traffic issues (or at least for me it did). I hazard a guess that were this on TV, the ratings would have been significant.

But I'll bet you a nickel it gets no mention on ESPN today.

UPDATE: My local paper ran full results of the Madrid GP meet but didn't mention Webb at all. So much for the contention that switching back to imperial distances will solve all of track's problems.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

What's Next?

The last two Golden League meets have featured some horrendous mistakes. Rome's screw-up is not to be laughed at; Sdiri's injuries were serious (still in hospital, surgery does not appear necessary).

The Paris goof was a bit less grim. Amazingly, this didn't make it onto CBC's broadcast of the meet.
Rather unfittingly, this meet will be remembered for the calamity in the men’s steeplechase, which will go down as being one of the biggest blunders in Golden League history due to the mistake by the officials in charge of the lap counter. One might have thought Paul Koech would have been aware of the error, as the same incident had befallen him in Ostrava last year but as the bell sounded, Koech spurted, unaware he had 800m remaining.

Entering the home straight for what he assumed was the final time, the Olympic bronze medallist was greeted to the bell chiming for the second time. Oblivious to this commotion, the Kenyan walked off the track, assuming victory was sealed. It was some time before Koech was redirected back on course but by then, Bob Tahri had stole a winning lead to take a farcical victory in 8:08.47, to Koech’s 8:12.73.


So what's the next goof-up going to be?

USA-USSR Dual Meets

I have at times been called "a bottomless pit of useless knowledge". Well, sometimes it's useful; when my college roommate was on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" I was one of his three lifelines.

So when the request came for scholarly info on the old USA-USSR dual meets, I was on it. From the Journal of Sport History, Fall 2001:

“It Was Communism Versus the Free World”: The USA-USSR Dual Track Meet Series and the Development of Track and Field in the United States, 1958–1985, by Joseph M. Turrini.
Eighty-one thousand spectators packed into Stanford Stadium on a sunny California afternoon in Palo Alto to see the US and USSR national track teams battle on the second day of their two-day dual track and field meet. The July 15-16, 1962 meet was the fourth competition in a dual track meet series between the two strongest national track powers in the world that spanned 28 years (1958-85). On this second day, Valeriy Brumel, a popular Soviet high jumper, thrilled the crowd when he jumped 7’5” and broke his own world record in the high jump. The day before most of the enthusiastic attendees stayed late, after the running events had finished, and watched American Harold “Hal” Connolly heave the hammer 231’ 10” to break his own world record. A national television audience tuned in to watch what was arguably the biggest non-Olympic track event ever held in the United States. According to a New York Times editorial, “the most dramatic moment came at the conclusion of the meet when athletes from both countries walked arm in arm around the stadium to the accompaniment of their national anthems and a tremendous ovation from the large audience.” Just months before Soviet Prime Minister Nikita Khrushchev and U.S. President John F. Kennedy neared the brink of nuclear war in Cuba, Soviet and American track athletes competed in harmony.

Thirty pages of text plus fifteen pages of references. It's an excellent read.

Anti-Doping News

Two stories today, both rather big.

#1. IAAF rejects Bulgarian decision to clear 2 athletes of doping
Bulgaria's athletics federation cleared two female athletes of doping violations Wednesday, contending their positive tests for testosterone were inconclusive.
The IAAF's response is basically "well, you might clear them but we won't", and the athletes are still considered suspended. The athletes in question are high jumper Venelina Veneva (ranked #3 in the world last year; PR 2.04 / 6' 8 1/4") and 400m hurdler Vanya Stambolova (last year's Euro champ, 54.55 NR).
Discuss.

#2. Former pole vault world champion Gibilisco suspended 2 years for role in doping
Former world champion pole vaulter Giuseppe Gibilisco was banned for two years Wednesday for his alleged role in the "Oil for Drugs'' case.
...
The case against Gibilisco is built mainly on phone wiretaps. But CONI's anti-doping prosecutor Franco Cosenza said a diary taken from Gibilisco allegedly contained codes for doping substances.
Gibilisco was the surprise winner at the 2003 Worlds; of course he professes his innocence. The "Oil for Drugs" case is a several-year-old Italian anti-doping investigation centered mostly on cycling which has received little press in the USA (no mention anywhere at Steroid Nation).
Discuss.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Anti-Doping News

From Reuters:
Professional wrestler Chris Benoit, who killed his wife and son before hanging himself, injected steroids not long before he died and his son had been sedated, a medical examiner said on Tuesday.
I don't want to make light of this, but it might be more newsworthy if a pro wrestler was found not to have steroids in his system.

And merely saying you have a testing system by itself means nothing:
World Wrestling Entertainment Inc., Benoit's employer, said after his death that Benoit had passed a random drug test in April.

Track on TV update

Note: ESPN's TV listings do not specify which sports will be covered or at what time during their Pan-Am broadcasts.

Saturday July 21
CBC, Noon-1:00 PM
Canadian Championships

Sunday, July 22
ESPN Deportes, 9:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Pan-American Games

Monday, July 23
ESPN Deportes, 3:00-6:00 AM and 1:00-10:00 PM
Pan-American Games

Tuesday, July 24
ESPN Deportes, 3:00-6:00 AM and 1:00-10:00 PM
Pan-American Games

Wednesday, July 25
ESPN Deportes, 3:00-6:00 AM and Noon-10:00 PM
Pan-American Games

Nickelodeon, 10:00-10:30 PM
The Cosby Show
Episode 48: Off to the Races
(repeats 7/26 at 2 AM)

Friday, July 27
ESPN Deportes, 3:00-6:00 AM and 11:00 AM - 11:00 PM
Pan-American Games

Saturday, July 28
ESPN Deportes, 3:00-6:00 AM and 9:00 AM-10:00 PM
Pan-American Games

Sunday, July 29
ESPN Deportes, 10:00 AM-2:00 PM
Pan-American Games

Thursday, August 2
TVLand, Midnight-12:30 AM
Sanford and Son
Episode 90: The Olympics

Sunday, August 5
NBC, 2:30-4:30 PM
2006 Ironman Triathlon World Championship

Monday, August 6
Fox College Sports Central, 3:00-4:00 PM
International Friendship & Freedom Games

Tuesday, August 7
Fox College Sports Atlantic, 7:30-9:30 AM
SEC Outdoor Championships
(repeats 8/11 at 6:30 AM)

Saturday, August 25
CBC, 2:00 PM
World Championships

Versus, 6:00-8:00 PM
World Championships

Sunday, August 26
CBC, 3:00 PM
World Championships

Versus, 1:00-3:00 AM and 6:00-8:00 PM
World Championships

Monday, August 27
Versus, 1:00-3:00 AM, 9:00-11:00 AM, 3:00-5:00 PM, 7:00-9:00 PM
World Championships

Tuesday, August 28
ESPN, 7:00 PM
Track Classic

Versus, 1:00-3:00 AM, 9:00-11:00 AM, 3:00-5:00 PM, 7:00-9:00 PM
World Championships

Wednesday, August 29
Versus, 1:00-3:00 AM, 9:00-11:00 AM, 3:00-5:00 PM, 7:00-9:00 PM
World Championships

Thursday, August 30
Versus, 1:00-3:00 AM, 9:00-11:00 AM, 3:00-5:00 PM, 7:00-9:00 PM
World Championships

Friday, August 31
Versus, 1:00-3:00 AM, 9:00-11:00 AM, 3:00-5:00 PM, 7:00-9:00 PM
World Championships

Saturday, September 1
CBC, 2:00 PM
World Championships

Sunday, September 2
CBC, 3:00 PM
World Championships

Saturday September 8
CBC, 1:30 PM
Zurich Golden League

Saturday Sept 15
CBC, 2:30 PM
Brussels Golden League

December 1
NBC, 4:30-6:00 PM
Ironman Triathlon World Championships

(waiting for programming schedule for the Big Ten Network)

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Canadian Nationals

I've long believed that track meets cause rain. It now appears it's merely my presence at a track meet that causes rain; I broke two droughts this summer, once in Indianapolis and once in Windsor.

Just a few days ago I discovered the Canadian championships were going to be in Windsor, a city closer to Superfan HQ than Cleveland or Columbus. So I quickly located my birth certificate and took off for the Great White North. The border guards going both ways thought it a bit odd that I was going to a track meet just to watch.


The Facility




The University of Windsor's track is literally a hammer throw away from customs at the Ambassador Bridge. It's shoe-horned into a small piece of land right on a main thoroughfare, so there are no seats on the backstretch and the field event areas are all on one end. The javelin run-up is situated in a way I've never seen before; the athletes actually throw over the track.

The smallness of the place creates a feeling of togetherness. Mark Boswell played with his daughter right in the middle of the fans, and I darn near tripped over CBC's announcing duo.

But this facility is in one way far superior to almost any in the USA; the University's indoor track is directly adjacaent to the stadium, creating the type of warm-up facility common elsewhere but basically nonexistent in the States.

The Meet

I went for "Super Saturday", which featured a number of field event finals along with prelims of the 200m, 800m and 400H and finals of the 100m, 400m, 1500m, and high hurdles. For the most part I'm unfamiliar with the rank-and-file Canadian athletes, only knowing the real stars, and this made some of the races a little less interesting for myself than those around me. Still, there was some good competition. The race of the day would probably have to be the men's 1500m, where Ryan McKenzie upset Kevin Sullivan.

The Differences

Seeing different and new things is the best reason to travel. I've been in Canada plenty, but this was the first Canadian track meet I've ever been at. (I went to the 2001 Worlds in Edmonton, but that was an international track meet in Canada--not a meet of, by, and for Canadians.) There were a lot of little differences.

First off, this is also the national championships for athletes with disabilities, because Athletics Canada is the national governing body for all kinds of track & field. I learned not only a bit about the classification system for disabilities but the events themselves. Wheelchair races are fairly straightforward but the shot put is not.

Another difference was the emphasis on clubs. Independent athletes were as rare at this meet as club-affiliated athletes at the USATF Championships. The small number of athletes wearing shoe-sponsored kit were always announced by their club affiliation, unlike the USATF meet were athletes were said to be representing shoe companies. This makes sense when you realize that Canada overall is significantly less commercialized than the USA.

And there were very few sponsored athletes in this meet; only one (Tyler Christopher) could be considered an international star (and even he isn't living extravagantly according to a segment I saw last summer on CBC). That, the club orientation, and the strong presence of high school competitors made the whole thing feel like an elite amateur meeting, whereas the USATF Championship is clearly a gathering of pros and semi-pros (US athletes who are neither after leaving college face a very short future in the sport).

Thursday, July 12, 2007

SI's Tim Layden on Alan Webb

Layden is one of the few mainstream big-time sportswriters that consistently covers track in depth and he does a nice job here.

While everyone seems high on Webb these days, I'm still a bit skittish, taking a wait-and-see attitude. After all , it's merely been good results in a couple of back-to-back high-speed time trials; unrabbitted racing which requires thinking has been his downfall. Nobby Hashuzime, Arthur Lydiard's right-hand man for more than a decade, doesn't think either his racing or training shows much brainpower, and his opinion should carry some weight.

A particular passage in Layden's article struck me.
We talked about some other young runners in the U.S., and I mentioned some heavy workouts that one of them had been doing. Raczko shook his head. It seemed like this particular runner -- who I won't name because he's doing just fine now and there's no reason to embarrass him or his high school coach and besides, Raczko and I were just BS-ing -- might be doing a lot of junk miles. "Where is the value in that?'' Raczko asked. "How is that going to help him in the future?''
It's terribly obvious that runner must be Dathan Ritzenhein, whose issues since then have been injury related, and I'm certain those injuries were brought on not by too much milage but the milage being done too fast. Ritz is the only other high school runner Webb or Razcko could have cared about at all in 2001, as he torched Webb at the Foot Locker XC the previous fall.

But the really weird thing is Raczko's point about "junk milage" being useless. The Let'sRun crowd (along with Hashuzime, Renato Canova, and Lydiard from beyond the grave to mention only a few) would disagree most vociferously. "Junk miles" as a term can't even be found in running literature until the 1980s, and we all know what happened here in the USA at that point in time. I'm waiting for the peanut gallery to weigh in on that one.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Track on TV update

Friday, July 13
CBS, 11:35-12:35
The Late Show With David Letterman
Guest: Alan Schweibel (author of The Other Schulman)

Saturday, July 14
CBC, 4:30-6:00 PM
Rome Golden League

Sunday, July 15
Versus, 2:30-3:30 PM
Rome Golden League

Saturday July 21
CBC, No0n-1:00 PM
Canadian Championships

Sunday, August 5
NBC, 2:30-4:30 PM
2006 Ironman Triathlon World Championship

Saturday, August 25
CBC, 2:00 PM
World Championships

Sunday, August 26
CBC, 3:00 PM
World Championships

Tuesday, August 28
ESPN, 7:00 PM
Track Classic

Saturday, September 1
CBC, 2:00 PM
World Championships

Sunday, September 2
CBC, 3:00 PM
World Championships

Saturday September 8
CBC, 1:30 PM
Zurich Golden League

Saturday Sept 15
CBC, 2:30 PM
Brussels Golden League

December 1
NBC, 4:30-6:00 PM
Ironman Triathlon World Championships

Rio de Janiero, 2016 Oly bid

Via GamesBids.com:
Rio de Janeiro is bidding for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. Experts say the ability to organize events like the regional games is one of the key elements the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will take into consideration when it chooses the 2016 Summer Games host.

The IOC will have an opportunity the next few days at the 15th Pan American Games being hosted by Rio July 13-29. According to Kyodo, any problems in staging the Pan American Games could have adverse effects on Rio’s bid and boost the chances of its rivals that include Tokyo, Chicago and Madrid.
As I've said before, I don't really think Tokyo or Madrid have a chance, given the general non-US-television-time-zone issue that will go to four straight Olympiads in 2012. If the IOC pushes it to five, I think they're committing financial suicide. I'm also pulling hard for Chicago, but I don't think they're going to win.

If Rio shows it can pull off the Pan-Am Games, I'd put them at the top of my board. Current odds for Rio are 11:2 (versus 7:4 for Chicago). Why am I picking against the bookies? Jacque Rogge and the rest of the IOC are pushing to get the games on all continents, and neither Africa nor South America have ever played host. If Rio does even a decent job with the Pan-Am Games, the political climate and economic realities all favor Brazil.

Track & Field Reality Show?

Via the master's track blog:
Masters track is about dreams. And now a 35-year-old Fresno high school teacher and movie maker is dreaming REALLY big. Her name is Julia Dudley Najieb, and Monday she wrote about her plans to produce a "track & field reality game show." She envisions a series in which folks ages 32 to 52 train and compete to recapture the glory of their high school track days. And win money!

At first I thought this was a joke, but it appears serious. This proposal does not yet have a buyer, but how difficult can it be? I mean, CBS bought Pirate Master ("So craptacular, so bad, it's worth the damage to your mental well-being to spend the hour in blissful hate of this turd"), so you'd think anything can make it onto the airwaves these days.

I'll keep an eye on this and see how it develops.

Monday, July 09, 2007

Back Online

Last week we packed up the camping gear and the Miller High Life and headed off to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Only a few track/running-related things to report; for one, a beautiful and challenging 12-mile run through Cades Cove. Another is the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad.
I'm not a "railroad enthusiast" (read: train nerd) but after my first Amtrak trip to Chicago a few years back I was hooked on simply riding them. This train excursion was gorgeous but the running relation is oblique.

We all had an array of stories told and read to us when we were young, and each of us had a few which made a big impression on us. The two that had the most important impact on my worldview were Dr. Seuss's Horton Hears a Who and Watty Piper's The Little Engine That Could; the latter was uplifting and the former was terrifying, but each encouraged an attitude of continued effort in the face of uncertainty and possible abject failure. This idea of "gumption", to borrow a word from Robert Pirsig, is essential for long-distance running since months and years of work precede any significant improvement.

Sunday, July 01, 2007

Haile Gebrselassie's Record

By this time I'm sure you're aware of Geb's lastest world record, 21,285 meters in one hour. How does this match up compared to his other accomplishments?

Not particularly well. While it is true that no other human being has gone further in the one-hour run, several others including Geb himself have gone nearly as far in sginificantly less than an hour. If that's a bit confusing, let me explain.

Road racing and track racing have different sets of records. The one-hour run on a track was once a fairly popular event; former record holders include such legends as Paavo Nurmi, Emil Zatopek and Ron Clarke. But by the late 70s it had become an oddity. Long-distance road running had replaced it.

The road event most equivalent to the one-hour run became the half-marathon, a very popular event these days. The world record for the distance is 58:35 by Samuel Wanjiru.

Geb's splits en route to his one-hour track record suggest a half-marathon time of 59:29. His road PR is 58:55. If Wanjiru went on to the 1-hour mark when he set his half-marathon record, he would have had a minute and 25 seconds to stumble another 188 meters--that's slower than 12-minute pace. So while Geb's new mark is an official World Record because no one has ever done it before, it's hardly what you'd call the best-ever performance at round about an hour.

Using conversions to combine lists of marks made at, for example, 1500m and one mile is a widely-accepted practice. This nifty little calculator allows us to put various efforts at distances near 21.1k on more or less equal footing. Here's our WR progression for the half-marathon using this method.

Mark Athlete (Nat) Year (actual time, distance)
1:14:20 John Levett (GBR) 1850 (1:13:40, 13M)
1:11:09 William Howitt (GBR) 1852 (1:10:31, 13M)
1:10:58 John Levett (GBR) 1854 (1:00:00, 18.022k)
1:09:30 Louis Bennett (USA) 1862 (1:00:00, 18.379k)
1:09:19 Louis Bennett (USA) 1863 (1:00:00, 18.425k)
1:08:59 Louis Bennett (USA) 1863 (1:00:00, 18.507k)
1:08:40 Louis Bennett (USA) 1863 (1:00:00, 18.589k)
1:08:03 Fred Bacon (GBR) 1897 (1:00:00, 18.747k)
1:07:33 Harry Watkins (GBR) 1899 (1:00:00, 18.878k)
1:07:00 Jean Bouin (FRA) 1913 (1:00:00, 19.021k)
1:06:18 Paavo Nurmi (FIN) 1928 (1:00:00, 19.210k)
1:05:50 Viljo Heino (FIN) 1945 (1:00:00, 19.339k)
1:04:51 Emil Zatopek (CZE) 1951 (1:01:15, 20k)
1:03:21 Emil Zatopek (CZE) 1951 (1:00:00, 20.052k)
1:02:53 Bill Baillie (NZL) 1963 (1:00:00, 20.190k)
1:02:45 Ron Clarke (AUS) 1965 (1:00:00, 20.232k)
1:01:25 Gaston Roelants (BEL) 1966 (1:00:00, 20.644k)
1:00:58 Gaston Roelants (BEL) 1972 (1:00:00, 20.784k)
1:00:35 Jos Hermans (NED) 1975 (1:00:00, 20.907k)
1:00:28 Jos Hermans (NED) 1976 (1:00:00, 20.944k)
0:59:59 Arturo Barrios (MEX) 1991 (1:00:00, 21.101k)
0:59:56 Shem Kororia (KEN) 1997 (0:59:56, 1/2 Mar)
0:59:17 Paul Tergat (KEN) 1998 (0:59:17, 1/2 Mar)
0:59:16 Samuel Wanjiru (KEN) 2005 (0:59:16, 1/2 Mar)
0:59:07 Paul Kosgei (KEN) 2006 (0:59:07, 1/2 Mar)
0:58:55 Haile Gebreselasie (ETH) 2006 (0:58:55, 1/2 Mar)
0:58:53 Samuel Wanjiru (KEN) 2007 (0:58:53, 1/2 Mar)
0:58:35 Samuel Wanjiru (KEN) 2007 (0:58:35, 1/2 Mar)