Progression of World Records seems to be screeching to a holt.

The mens's 100m WR keeps getting broken over and over.

So I don't know if track surface has anything to do with it.

The 100 is the most popular event, has the most participants and nearly every race is a WR attempt.

Distance races are normally not run with an attempt to break records or run the fastest time possible.

In the early and mid 80's Coe, Cram and Aouita were constantly going after records. People aren't chasing times now. The fact that now 3 out of every 4 years there is an Olympic Games or World Championship reduces the number of fast race attempts as people focus on peaking for the Championships and running tactically.

The women are a different story. They have belonged to FloJo and the communists for some time now.

2nd page alraedy.

Looks like I brought this this thread to a holt.

Actually, Statistician made a very good point. In fact you fail, not him.

eh ?

you are considering 1 part of the body's moment of inertia in isolation from others

where is your analysis of the upper body moment of inertia & it's contribution ?

you are looking at the minor aspect of the problem

the global aspect is from KE considerations & the increased mass consideration is included in that & supercedes moment of inertia considerations - you forget that you will have to sum all the altered moments of inertia of the system & convert it into KE for overall velocity calculations & for a fixed mass system, not violate conservation of energy

yes, but even with same mass & no power increase, his decreased turnover is compensated by increased stride-length by a factor of 71/70 in this case ( or 3'27.04 before you slow this down for decreased turnover )

Sir Lance-alot wrote:YOU are telling someone they are posting "drivel", and you've led off with your theory that as people get taller, distance world records will proportionately improve???

Ok ventolin, back to your calculator.

(I mean, c'mon, the absolutely most dominant distance runners of the modern age are Geb and Bekele, who stand 5'5" and 5'6". Coe, who was so far ahead of his time, only one human in over a quarter century has beaten his 800 time was 5'9". The 3 fastest milers ever (El G, Lagat, Ngeny) stand about 5'8" - 5'9". I could go on and on, but this should suffice in smashing your theory to pieces. In fact, your theory is utter, and absolute garbage, and you know it.)

eh ?

coe was short, but within 3y of his 1'41.7, a 6'er in cruz matched it ( & that run had unquestioned timing )

previous wr holders prior to coe were el caballo - 6'3 !!!, ryun, a near 6' & snell at 5'11 ( & both couda gone 1'42 at worst on modern tracks - ryun ran his wr at barely 19y of -ve splits & snell his on grass )

as for 1500/mile, we have snell/ryun again & with cram a 6'er, the last non-african wr holder & now we have finally a "giant" african in asbel at 6'2 - let's see what he does over 1500/mile

as for 5/10k, geb/kennster have been best ever, but they are 1 anomaly after another - next in lists behind them are komen & tergat, both ~ 5'10

in the longer term, in next 20 - 30y, it's likely to be 5'10 - 6'0+ africans who will take records from 800m up, not runts

toro wrote:

2nd page alraedy.

Looks like I brought this this thread to a holt.

Someone already cited this, but I see any sign of a woods or grove of trees.

What about the field event records? They have been stagnant for even longer. Why is this?

Mr. Obvious wrote:

What about the field event records? They have been stagnant for even longer. Why is this?

Just think of the problems in trying to throw a discus/shot/javelin/hammer in a holt. That screeching is a discus bouncing off a tree and taking out a spectator.

If you think that the energy requirements of moving one's legs are not important to running I can only congratulate you, you are one stupid man.

I'm glad we see tons of cankle-carrying 7 footers out there running 3:45miles.

Where are the tall athletes dominating?

Your 'theory' is really just someone using freshman in HS physics and simple ratios to try to draw broad conclusions.

You can't see the forrest from the trees - wow Jaunterena was pretty tall eh? Oh kipketer wasn't though....

The best runners are not very tall, any other statement on this point is unnecessary. I tried to enlighten you but you are likely beyond help.

Mr Wikipedia wrote:

You can't see the forrest from the trees

It's because you are in a friggin' holt! Of course there are trees!

you are an idiot

i'm talking about minor increases in height/generation, or by increasing a current guy's height, in term's of 1" or so

now cut the drivel & give us a global consideration of moment of inertia & incorporate the upper body one as well as lower limb one & then tell us overall effect...

Hey genius - I am not going to type out a detailed biomechanial analysis of how human beings move around for your edification of someone who thinks a 5-10 guy running 3:30 suddenly becomes morcelli if he can add 1" to his height.

Simplified Cliff Notes For Those Who Can Understand:

1) all levers become longer, all levers require more energy to move due to length

2) all levers become thicker, all levers require more energy to move due to mass

3) mass increases far out of proportion with limb length (ie a 6' 140lb athlete doesnt become a 12' 280lb athlete)

conclusion - (SURPRISE!) there is an ideal height for distance/sprint performance, and it isn't going to be anything even close to 6-6. Do you want a hint at what it might be? Look at the starting line of a GL 5000m race, are you picking the random 5-11 spanish guy in the race for the Win?

thanks for that schoolboy analysis

come back when you have something more than that to impress with...

( as for morceli example, you are obviously too stoopid to read that 5'10"/3'30 stretched to 5'11" goes 3'27 with cubic power increase concomitantly required, but will go only 3'29-flat with no power increase - longer stride-length inhibited by increased mass of body, but longer levers still offer a detrmining advantage

here's a clue - geb/kennster are runts at 5'4" & do not have a power output of just (5'4"/5'9")^3 compared to that of a hicham or ~25% less, but he ran 3'26 & they coudn't break 3'30 - his longer levers of 8% longer ( with theoretical 25% heavier mass ) have compensated for a power difference of maybe 10 - 15% between them for 4s faster at 1500 )

Ventolin has been bitchslapped! haha

This stuff reads like the text on the side of a Dr. Bronner's soap bottle!

CONCOMITANTLY REQUIRED CUBIC POWER INCREASE!

Best Part: Using Geb/K.Bek as examples of slow 'runts'!

Sebastian Coe was such an exceptional, versatile, agile athlete and all-around performer. His alltime bests are amazing!!!!

Personal Best - Outdoor

400 Metres 46.87 01/01/1979

800 Metres 1:41.73 Firenze 10/06/1981

1000 Metres 2:12.18 Oslo 11/07/1981

1500 Metres 3:29.77 Rieti 07/09/1986

One Mile 3:47.33 Bruxelles 28/08/1981

2000 Metres 4:58.84

What are some other great athletes with range like Coe's?

OP, turned out we just needed better shoes.

The Long Wait wrote:

Since the beginning of IAAF (back in the early 1900s) there has been a steady progress of records. But it seems that we are having to wait longer and longer for the next world records.

All records in the IAAF era

800m progression men:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_record_progression_800_metres

-The longest standing world record for the 800m was set by Rudolph Harbig of Germany. The record of 1:46.6 lasted for 16 years (1939-55)

discuss.

Harbig's mark stood for 16 years 19 days, but Coe's stood for 16 years, 2 months and 3 days. Even if you include Kipketer's mark that equalled Coe's time, it was still longer than Harbig's tenure; 16 years and 27 days.

Thus Coe's mark lasted the longest. In terms of longevity for holding the World Record over 800m, Coe was the WR holder from 5.7.79 to 13.8.97, which is 18 years, 1 month and 8 days.

Why would you bump a 10 year old post just to jerk off Seb Coe?

The_Musicman wrote:

Sebastian Coe was such an exceptional, versatile, agile athlete and all-around performer. His alltime bests are amazing!!!!

Personal Best - Outdoor

400 Metres 46.87 01/01/1979

800 Metres 1:41.73 Firenze 10/06/1981

1000 Metres 2:12.18 Oslo 11/07/1981

1500 Metres 3:29.77 Rieti 07/09/1986

One Mile 3:47.33 Bruxelles 28/08/1981

2000 Metres 4:58.84

What are some other great athletes with range like Coe's?

Weird example. His 400 is not fast compared to his 800. His 2000 is not fast compared to his 1500 and mile. The world record is 4:44, so 14 seconds faster, whereas his 1500m and mile times are only four seconds slower than the world records. Admittedly his 1500 is faster than all who have bettered his 800 time. But I think Ovett and Aoutia had better range.