Everyone again is arguing about the wrong things. Look at the video there are 4 officials/ photographers lined up 3-5m in front of the wind gauge during the actual run. That alone should be enough to get the run thrown out, it was not possible to get an accurate reading in that situation. A world record long jump got thrown out for the same thing. Anyone with eyes can see the run should never have been ratified, it shouldn't have taken 36 years for someone to point that out.
Yeah and all of the wind gauge folklore aside this is the final point.
We can be pretty sure that FGJ was a high 10.6X runner in the 1988 season (almost all of her focus performances come out at this number when accounting for wind in either direction). What we can't forget is that from 1983 to 1987 she ran between 10.96 and 11.06 and then basically retired after Seoul.
So something took her from the high 10.9's to the high 10.6's in the space of a year at the ripe age of 27. In 1988? Doubt it was just sports drinks and creatine powder.
I'm beginning to narrow down to a ballpark number the impact PED's can have on top sprinters. Interestingly we have the same situation with Marcel Jacobs who ran 9.80 in Tokyo but like FGJ that one season and the performances are massive outliers with the rest of his career where he struggles to (ie. can't) even break 10.0 seconds. He has multiple seasons in the 10.0X range and this one golden summer where he hit 9.80. Simple math but it's not unreasonable to suggest that doping can impact a 10.0 male and an 11.0 female in the 2-3 tenths of a second range and that is not something I had thought about before (like an actual figure). Even when you look at Bolt a natural performance in the high 9.8's seems plausible for his level of talent. He was a perfect candidate for PED's at his height and body type so that 0.3 second advantage takes us right to his WR of 9.58.
As for ETH? Well, yeah.
We already know Jacobs had a nutritionist at his beck and call.
Yeah and all of the wind gauge folklore aside this is the final point.
We can be pretty sure that FGJ was a high 10.6X runner in the 1988 season (almost all of her focus performances come out at this number when accounting for wind in either direction). What we can't forget is that from 1983 to 1987 she ran between 10.96 and 11.06 and then basically retired after Seoul.
So something took her from the high 10.9's to the high 10.6's in the space of a year at the ripe age of 27. In 1988? Doubt it was just sports drinks and creatine powder.
I'm beginning to narrow down to a ballpark number the impact PED's can have on top sprinters. Interestingly we have the same situation with Marcel Jacobs who ran 9.80 in Tokyo but like FGJ that one season and the performances are massive outliers with the rest of his career where he struggles to (ie. can't) even break 10.0 seconds. He has multiple seasons in the 10.0X range and this one golden summer where he hit 9.80. Simple math but it's not unreasonable to suggest that doping can impact a 10.0 male and an 11.0 female in the 2-3 tenths of a second range and that is not something I had thought about before (like an actual figure). Even when you look at Bolt a natural performance in the high 9.8's seems plausible for his level of talent. He was a perfect candidate for PED's at his height and body type so that 0.3 second advantage takes us right to his WR of 9.58.
As for ETH? Well, yeah.
We already know Jacobs had a nutritionist at his beck and call.
I'm actually stunned at how many people try and defend that guy. I don't understand on what basis or agenda you would try? The human conditions of wishful and fearful thinking? So weird to me.
Everyone again is arguing about the wrong things. Look at the video there are 4 officials/ photographers lined up 3-5m in front of the wind gauge during the actual run. That alone should be enough to get the run thrown out, it was not possible to get an accurate reading in that situation. A world record long jump got thrown out for the same thing. Anyone with eyes can see the run should never have been ratified, it shouldn't have taken 36 years for someone to point that out.
Yeah so the Pedroso situation you are referencing is slightly different. In that case there was footage of a guy standing literally a foot away from the anemometer of the gauge and he did it for every single one of Pedrosos 6 jumps. That day there were 60 jumps, only 4 were legal and 3 of them were from Pedroso including the "WR".
This is slightly different - none of those 4 people are standing and the wind gauge is 4ft high. Two of them aren't even in a direct line of the chamber and the other two aren't close enough to affect wind going into it.
I mean in the Pedroso situation it was clear that there was a premeditated attempt to cheat. When a guy is filmed standing 12 inches away from a gauge directly in front of it 6 times - we can be sure it's a deliberate thing.
What we see in that video is not like that. It is far more likely that in the 100 degree weather the mid 1980's technology simply stopped working/malfunctioned and the WR race caught officials with their pants down. And they couldn't fix it before the second QF either but managed to by the 3rd and then used that as "evidence" it was all kosher which saved them a ton of embarassment.
That being said thanks for posting that video - I had seen this one before but couldn't find it on youtube. My favorite part of the first clip is the official behind the blocks standing there holding their white flag (check 17-18 seconds in) and it's absolutely howling in the wind (aka no chance it's a 0.0 day or moment in time) - and also the shot immediately after the race with the big scoreboard (43 seconds in) with the flag clearly showing a howling wind up the home straight.
Those people are definately close enough to effect the wind gauge. I have seen a garbage can that was moved into that area knock 2 meters per second off on a day with 4-5 meters per second day. There are 4 people in that area it will defintely create turbulence and slow down air speed. There presecence in that area also has the potential to create a swirling effect which over the course of 10 seconds could actually lead to a .0 average. There is also another video from that day where the official is walking toward the wind gauge from the front to check it and his mere presense in front of the gauge seems to cause the weather vain on top to turn side ways and then immediately goes back to normal when he gets out of the wind path.
The wind gauge trick is still being used today the Tiger Olympian strength and conditioning coach was told to stand in front of the wind gauge at an LSU meet for "all the important races". He is basically solely repsonsible for Bandon Hicklin getting invites to 3 diamond league races this year because his 9.94 measure at 1.7mps instead of 4.0mps plus like all the heats with non tiger Olympian people. He is basicallly standing in the wind gauge though. Here is the video of that.
Those people are definately close enough to effect the wind gauge. I have seen a garbage can that was moved into that area knock 2 meters per second off on a day with 4-5 meters per second day. There are 4 people in that area it will defintely create turbulence and slow down air speed. There presecence in that area also has the potential to create a swirling effect which over the course of 10 seconds could actually lead to a .0 average. There is also another video from that day where the official is walking toward the wind gauge from the front to check it and his mere presense in front of the gauge seems to cause the weather vain on top to turn side ways and then immediately goes back to normal when he gets out of the wind path.
The wind gauge trick is still being used today the Tiger Olympian strength and conditioning coach was told to stand in front of the wind gauge at an LSU meet for "all the important races". He is basically solely repsonsible for Bandon Hicklin getting invites to 3 diamond league races this year because his 9.94 measure at 1.7mps instead of 4.0mps plus like all the heats with non tiger Olympian people. He is basicallly standing in the wind gauge though. Here is the video of that.
That must have been a tall garbage can because as mentioned, the actual anemometer part of the gauge is 4ft off the ground.
For that 88 race there looks to be at least 2 people in the key zone that could impact wind flow into the gauge. Is that enough to make it 0.0? Remember the next race also had a 0.0 were they doing the same for Sheila Echols, Alice Brown et al? Did they then just happen to move by heat 3 and "screw" Gwen Torrence out of her 10.78?
I think we are agreeing to the same thing - this 100m WR is bogus and it could be for a plethora of reasons. On the other hand the implications of eliminating it are potentially massive - none more so for footwear brands and how this would work with bonuses, rollover amounts for athletes that would have been the WR holder over the last 20+ years. By my counting, Merlene Ottey, Christine Arron, Marion Jones (creating more mess here obviously), Carmelita Jeter, SAFP and ETH would all have been the WR holder at some point in history if this time was nullified. How that would be resolved is anyones guess but clearly a cluster-f.
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