In a message dated Sun, 14 Jan 2001 2:59:30 PM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
writes:
<<He won NC's, made the final of the US trials, made the OG team, ran the Gold medal
relay, and defeated everyone in the US all through Europe, except for Maurice. As a
matter of fact he beat everyone ranked in Europe, except for Maurice. >>
Darrell:
If you want to get into specifics, suggest you get your facts straight first. Winning
the NCs means nothing in a WORLD Ranking sense, much as I hate that fact. Williams did
beat Coby Miller there, and he�s ranked ahead of Miller in the U.S. Rankings.
Running the gold medal RELAY also means absolutely nothing in the rankings for the 100.
As for his competitive record, suggest you pay more attention to the races before
running your mouth. After his NCAA win, Williams ran in 9 races, never winning. How
manypeople in the crowd see the following (his record after NCAA, where it starts to
really count) as a top-10-in-the world season?
Prefontaine--lost to Miller, Brokenburr and Howard
Lucerne--lost to Bailey and Brokenburr
Rome (B race)--lost to Mitchell and Brokenburr
Oly Trials--lost to Greene,Johnson, Drummond, Lewis, Brokenburr and Montgomery
Stockholm--4th in his heat behind Boldon, Lewis and Saddler, did not advance to final
Malmo--lost to Boldon and Laynes
Zürich--6th in his heat behind Greene,Thompson, Miller and Drummond, did not advance
to final
Brussels--lost to Greene
Gateshead--lost to Chambers
Berlin--lost to Greene, Drummond and Montgomery
Not only does he have consistent losses to those who ranked ahead ofhim, he also has a
significant number of losses against others who didn�t get a sniff at the World
Rankings.
Later in your screed you say:
<<I did not say this, but the personal bias is shining through. I am saying it in
public and I will stand by it, it is a bias towards a group of individuals that has
nothing to do with their performance, at all! >>
I assume you�re saying there�s some anti-HSI bias at work here. I find it rather
informative that Williams never appeared in the pages of T&FN listed as HSI (we keep
collegians through the end of the year with the same affiliation), he was listed as
�unattached� in the official Trials sums, and in results from Europe he would always
be tagged as �US.� I would then posit that those who did the rankings (other than me)
had no idea that he was an HSI guy.
And if they did, I can assure you, they couldn�t care less. We�re talking wonks here;
numbers geeks who pay no attention to anything outside the lines. The list of raging
assholes we�ve made No. 1 is long enough to choke a horse. If you want to debate
numbers, fine. But don't cheapen your argument by playing some vague "bias" card.
If we paid attention to every agent/club manager who annually accuses of bias and
there was indeed merit to the charges, the rankings in some events would be composed
solely of "free agents," because if we hate all the groups at once, they're all that's
left.
Bottom line on bitching about the Rankings: every time you advance a case for A and
against B, just remember that if we reversed them, the other side would bitch as loud.
Nobody is ever truly happy but the No. 1 Ranker, and I'm afraid to report that the
laws of mathemetics mandate that we can only name one of those per event.
gh
(garry hill, editor, track & field news)
