Best female world record in terms of male ranking

i always looked at radcliffes marathon record as the best, because every year we have 10-15 high school kids in the country that can run either and/or 10.49, 21.34, 47.60, in the 800 lots of high school kids run under 153.28, even though the 3k is mostly a rarely run event and indoors at least 50 collegians usually go sub 8, and with the 1500 i dont think 350.4 gets you much in college, the high school 5k record of 1337 is 39 seconds better than the womens record and the 10k is 59 seconds better than the womans record even though very few high schoolers run track 10k's yet the boys high school record of 223 would put that kid almost 1 and a half miles behind radcliffe, and in a typical year only about 10-15 usa men run faster than radcliffes time, and this year ryan hall is the only american man who has run faster than the womens world record and i know that is partly because of the weather on the day of the boston marathon and the fact most of the usa men are putting all their eggs in one basket, for the november 3rd trials. but my guess is among the running events we still wont have over 50 marathoners under 215.25 but in every other running event we will have at least 50 guys faster than the womens record.

i forgot to mention some of the best high school distance runners in history ran the marathon thom hunt who ran 402.7 for the indoor mile also ran 224 for the marathon in high school and eric hulst who ran 2855 on the track in high school also ran some sun 230 marathons in high scool.

Thanks Malmo - I can't believe you actually computed all that. Very interesting reading.

Radcliffe was paced by 6 kenyans - Bollocks

Radcliffe was paced by two people , one couldn't keep up she ran along side the other.

Deena - exactly by your account her 2.19 is worth 2.22 !!

Go figure

If we're going to dump on PR for using pacers, than we might as well wipe the World Record slate clean for every event from 800 up. Even in races where more than one athlete was gunning for the world record and it looked more like an actual race - the first three quarters of the race were still paced.

As for Paula being paced by guys, there's not much choice, is there? No woman is fast enough to stay with her for even 30K. Besides, there's nothing in the IAAF rulebook that says that the marathon world record must be set in a women only race

i said i think radcliffes record is the best female record, but i disagree that there are not any girls who can pace her to 30k, as i have said many times, werknesh kidane can not only pace paula for 30k, kidane will one day break radcliffes record, another one to watch is vivian cheruiyot.

Avocados Number wrote:

Many people take the position that you do: If your body travels the marathon distance, that's good enough for record purposes, even the course is downhill, or the race is wind-aided, or the runner is paced by people or (less commonly) vehicles that serve to reduce wind resistance and decrease the runner's total energy expenditure during the race. I don't agree with that position, and I know that many others feel the way I do.

Do you disregard all track records that have pacemakers then?

Two points:

1. I don't know how legitimate Paula's record is, but anyone who thinks that the Chinese women used and Paula didn't better supply evidence besides how fast the Chinese ran.

2. 2:10:20 has been broken over 1000 times!?!?! Ditto 13:16.

Man.......

jealousygetsunowhere wrote:

Radcliffe was paced by 6 kenyans - Bollocks

Radcliffe was paced by two people , one couldn't keep up she ran along side the other.

You're apparently confusing Paula's race in Chicago (a mixed event in which she had two male pacers) and her subsequent race in London (a "women-only" event in which she had six male pacers).

na_carter wrote:

As for Paula being paced by guys, there's not much choice, is there?

If you think real hard, you should be able to answer this question for yourself.

na_carter wrote:

Besides, there's nothing in the IAAF rulebook that says that the marathon world record must be set in a women only race

You don't get it. Paula was seeking to set the world record in a women-only race, but wanted male pacers to assist her.

Avocado,

Cite the rule Paula broke.

Thanks.

Avocados Number wrote:

na_carter wrote:

Besides, there's nothing in the IAAF rulebook that says that the marathon world record must be set in a women only race

You don't get it. Paula was seeking to set the world record in a women-only race, but wanted male pacers to assist her.

I don't know if I entirely agree with Avocado's position here, but I WILL say this-

the topic of this conversation is men's times vs women's times. So......if Paula got men to pace her the whole way, and block the wind (which is what is being asserted), to actually compare that performance to the men's world record times in other events, one should allow a relay of pace-makers to block the wind and pace men in their WR attempts, at least as far as getting a true comparison of Men's fastest time vs Women's fastest time. Now, before people jump on that, I am ...

A) not saying I would necessarily support that, or

B) that it would be currently legal (it wouldn't)

No, I am only saying that think of fast Bekele or Geb might have run a 10k if they had a group of pacemakers (jumping in at different points) blocking the wind and pacing them THE ENTIRE RACE (not 1/2 a race like they tyically get) ? A bit faster I would think. And what about Geb in the marathon? I am sure he would have gotten the WR by now if he had had a group of pacemakers for the entire 26.2 leading him to a sub 2:05.

So whether I think Paula's WR is any less legit or not with the pacemakers she had, for the sake of comparison to men's WR's, AND as it compares to other women's track wr's (where they did not get male pacemakers the whole way, like someone suggested they might like to see some of the Ethiopian women get) she did indeed receive an advantage with the set-up she had.

strike me wrote:

Anyone have any idea which female olympic distance world record would be highest up in the all time male lists (the type with only an athletes best time recorded rather than all time best ever run - i.e asafa powell would not have 10 clockings or whatever under 9.90 but only his current WR? I mention this as it would undoubtedly skew the lists towards the shorter events

i doubt anyone knows definitively but any logical guesses would be appreciated.

)

Malmo supplied you with PERFORMANCE list times and comparisons, and you were looking for PERFORMER lists.

So we still don't your answer, but yeah, it's probably Paula.

You do realise the current men's world record was also paced all the way?

And the pacemakers definitely did not act as wind blocks, you obviously never saw the race.There were only two and Paula stayed a couple of meters back from them the entire way, until of course she overtook the one that couldn't keep up!

erm... wrote:

You do realise the current men's world record was also paced all the way?

And the pacemakers definitely did not act as wind blocks, you obviously never saw the race.There were only two and Paula stayed a couple of meters back from them the entire way, until of course she overtook the one that couldn't keep up!

Precisely. This whole "issue" is just stupid. Every WR is "aided" in some way--whether through good pacing, a fine track, perfect weather, the athlete being at the abolute top of their fitness, etc. Paula had "pacers," just as pretty much every top marathon field now also has. Hers were men, because no woman could have helped for more than about 5k. At the end of the day, however, their "help" really appeared to be pretty minimal. Perhaps they gave her a total of 5 or 10 seconds "advantage" over what she'd have done completely by herself. Big deal. To say that she might as well run behind a pacing truck the whole way is sheer foolishness.

You can see the pic. She's not surrounded by six dudes.

Avocados Number wrote:

You're apparently confusing Paula's race in Chicago (a mixed event in which she had two male pacers) and her subsequent race in London (a "women-only" event in which she had six male pacers).

Please provide a link to a source about the 6 pacemakers, I remember watching it and only seeing the 2.

Utter rubbish, as the other guy says - look at the picture. One , who couldn't keep up and another who finished , whom she ran alongside