Bol doesn't cherry pick her races. She runs everywhere. Just last week when she didn't break 50 at FBK Games in lousy wet conditions the Sydney fans came out in full force in YouTube comments and all over Twitter, essentially laughing at Bol while using their familiar desperate line that Sydney is 2 seconds faster.
No, today was not a fully representative time. Sydney remains a huge favorite. But Bol has earned something like this on her resume. Sydney never risks anything, like flying to Europe in midseason and facing Bol on her turf. When Sydney tried that last year at 400 flat she ended up losing to Paulino.
Femke *does* cherry pick her races as does everyone. You don't see Femke flying to the USA for a Continental Tour meet, her coach even said that wouldn't work with her schedule, so expecting Sydney to travel the same distance Femke refuses to travel is a bit biased. Furthermore that was Sydney's first 400m race in a long while and expecting her to beat Paulino just shows the high standards she has earned.
Should Femke fly to the US to challenge Sydney at US trials?
Sydney performed well in Tokyo, obviously, but many US runners were absolute babies about being in another country under less than ideal circumstances, and performed accordingly (check out the men's sprints). The fact is that Syd could have flown to Europe and known that if Bol was on a start list, Bol would show up if she was healthy. Bol would be insane to fly to the US to wait for Sydney to make a game-time decision on whether she was gonna run or not.
At 3,500 ft, there is approx 87% of the conc of O2 that there is a sea level. This is from using the equation from physical chemistry that we had to derive in college (52 yrs ago for me): e (exp -mgh/RT), where m= mass of O2 (32 g/mole), g= force of gravity (9.8 meters/sec(exp 2)), h= height, R= universal gas constant, and T = temp (298˚K).
At 3,500 ft, there is approx 87% of the conc of O2 that there is a sea level. This is from using the equation from physical chemistry that we had to derive in college (52 yrs ago for me): e (exp -mgh/RT), where m= mass of O2 (32 g/mole), g= force of gravity (9.8 meters/sec(exp 2)), h= height, R= universal gas constant, and T = temp (298˚K).
Any aerobic detriment due to the lower O2 partial pressure may be offset by the decreased drag, even for the 400m where the aerobic component is greater, at elevations such as LCDF.
There is no question that she got the benefit of the elevation, plus a warm day leading to even lower air density.
Of course, it's also true that she's in great shape. Does anyone have any real data on 400's done at elevation vs sea level, to try to determine the effect?
People of your mind-set could also argue that SML ran great in Eugene because she was on the greatest track in the world competing for a national title. If you take away the Hayward magic and take away the national title and Olympic spot, she is not getting the WR. Plus her "record" was only a tiny fraction of a second better than the old record. So it doesn't really count as a "new" record.
That is what you sound like when you say someone ran a wind-legal time but it doesn't count.
The Hayward magic went out when they tore down the grandstand.
At 3,500 ft, there is approx 87% of the conc of O2 that there is a sea level. This is from using the equation from physical chemistry that we had to derive in college (52 yrs ago for me): e (exp -mgh/RT), where m= mass of O2 (32 g/mole), g= force of gravity (9.8 meters/sec(exp 2)), h= height, R= universal gas constant, and T = temp (298˚K).
Any aerobic detriment due to the lower O2 partial pressure may be offset by the decreased drag, even for the 400m where the aerobic component is greater, at elevations such as LCDF.
There is no question that she got the benefit of the elevation, plus a warm day leading to even lower air density.
Of course, it's also true that she's in great shape. Does anyone have any real data on 400's done at elevation vs sea level, to try to determine the effect?
The 1968 Mexico olympics were held in Mexico City at an altitude of 7,349 ft. At that altitude there is approx. 74.7% of O2 at sea level, and 76.9% of the sea level air molecules (N2 doesn't dissipate as fast as O2 due its 28 molecular weight). So there was 23% less wind drag. Lee Evans' 400 meter time was a WR time 43.8 s, so the drag effect appears to be stronger than the O2 deficit. The 800 m winning time was 1:44.3.
Altitude definitely gives an advantage in the 400m. If you look at the UK Olympics requirements, they don't factor in times ran at over 950m altitude in all distances 400m or shorter. That 50m difference with the 1000m requirement for World Athletics might have something to do with this exact meet.
Either way it was a great race, a good decision to run here and also Sydney is still the heavy favorite.
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