Steve Prefontaine 8:42, Craig Virgin 8:41 and German Fernadez 8:34, all ran solo for their national 2-mile records, and for good measure, David Moorcroft ran a solo13:00 WR. There is no way they would have run significantly faster with pacing. Performance wise, all those times were consistent with their mile PRs.
Then please sue all the meet directors who provides rabbits (pacers) and pacing lights. They are clearly negatively affecting races. In fact all races should be done solo (like bike time-trials) to elicit the proper racing response.
The discussion is whether pacing results in a significantly faster time and I didn’t claim it actually slowed people down. Your response is a straw man.
Your cycling reference is also odd as TDF time trials are indeed solo rides.
Returning to the actual topic, Moorcroft’s mile PRs of 3:49 and his 5000m WR, both score 1215 on WA points tables.
Pacing changes the race. No pressure, nothing to respond to, pacers carry the mental load. My opinion is it significantly increases a pr. Especially when there is only one athlete in the field and the focus can be pulling them to a time. Kudos to all the female athletes who have run top times with male pacers. It's been done by several top athletes this year. No knock against them. But don't think they should count as records. If we are "protecting women's sports," then cut it both ways.
Pacing changes the race. No pressure, nothing to respond to, pacers carry the mental load. My opinion is it significantly increases a pr. Especially when there is only one athlete in the field and the focus can be pulling them to a time. Kudos to all the female athletes who have run top times with male pacers. It's been done by several top athletes this year. No knock against them.
But don't think they should count as records. If we are "protecting women's sports," then cut it both ways.
Braelyn Combe joked on Instagram today that it should count as a record because she didn't see any boys in her race. (Even though she was literally surrounded by them.)
Pacing changes the race. No pressure, nothing to respond to, pacers carry the mental load. My opinion is it significantly increases a pr. Especially when there is only one athlete in the field and the focus can be pulling them to a time. Kudos to all the female athletes who have run top times with male pacers. It's been done by several top athletes this year. No knock against them.
But don't think they should count as records. If we are "protecting women's sports," then cut it both ways.
Braelyn Combe joked on Instagram today that it should count as a record because she didn't see any boys in her race. (Even though she was literally surrounded by them.)
Running 9:44 as a HS girl however you put it is extremely impressive, but this should not count towards any records.
Her 9:44 will probably make the various top girls lists on Milesplit, Athletic.net, Track and Field News, etc. But California probably won't recognize it as a record.
Because of the male pacers will it still count as a state record?
Brynn Brown's national record run in 2020 during the Covid shutdown did not officially count for two reasons: (1) she had two male pacers and (2) it was not part of an actual meet. She ran a time trial with nobody in the stadium except her two pacers and a person with a video camera to document it. She did break the record, however - 9:39.
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