Michael and everyone, I would be wary about using the "percentage yardstick" to compare how good women's records are. The mecahnisms that detrmine male superiority in terms of performances are so much different in the Pole vault than the are in running and waliking! (and they may well be somewhat different between running and walking).
Garry Hill's note on time-honored events versus brand new ones is a good point.In the latter we simply ned to weight (consider the steeplecahse. What if a woman runs near 9 minutes flat in two years? It may seem sensational, currently, but it is more or less what we should expect where the true talents in taht events have begun to run it and specialize. UG --------------- Quoting Michael Rohl <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > > Netters > > > > I wonder how a 1:26:52.3 20k track walk measures up against a > 8:23.26 3000m or > > > a 2-19 marathon (for example) on little red book tables.>> > > > > Nobody has any idea, and won't for several years. Indeed, we still > have no idea how good the Dragila vault marks are, really. Assigning any > kind of "legendary" value to a WR in an event in its first couple of > years is pointless. if I vote for Dragila as AOY it'll be because of her > dominance > against her peers, relatively speaking, not because of any WRs she has > set. > > This might help some. Ivanova's record is close to her road time. > WIthin > seconds. Which is the same with the men's walks. When I did an initial > > comparison of records based on the standard differences between men and > women I > predicted about 3 years ago that the World Best for the walk either road > or > track would fall to the 1:26 range. Right now the women's walk record > is at > 90% of the men's best and Stacy is at about 77%. Because of the > technique > limitations I think the women's walks records will get to about 8% > difference. > Now interestingly enough. The woman's marathon record, which as an > event has > much more money and much more development has just now reached 90%. It > isn't > the best way to do a comparison but at least it makes some sense of > it. > > Michael Rohl > Head Coach X-C, T&F > Mansfield University > >
