OT: Track: World Best in the 2 mile

[Blakeon18]

A couple of days ago Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigsten ran 2 miles in a world best 7:54.10 in a Paris meet.
The current Olympic 1500 meter champ broke the olde record of around 7:58. Those are the only 2 performances
under 8 minutes....ever.

Back in the day Roger Bannister shocked the world when he ran a 3:59 and change to be the first man to go under
the 4:00 mark. Jakob ran his first mile in 3:59...would have beaten Bannister...and then upped his tempo
and ran the second mile in 3:55. Incredible performance!

Track fans...I know there are some of you out there!
Question: Track authorities are NOT calling this a world 'record'...but rather a 'world best' time.

Without research...does anyone know why they are doing this?

 

[uconnfan68]

I think the metric system won.

 

[Blakeon18]

Pretty much got it! The USA has essentially adopted the world's metric system in track and field but
the world has allowed/embraced one exception....the mile. That's the only 'American-based' event that the authorities
regard as an official event....probably due to its history and glamour attached.

OK: again without research: the organizers 'helped' Jakob in his performance. I am guessing that he told them what he was hoping to do and they were glad to do what they did. What was it? 'Twas help that was 'legal".

 

[CCSUblue]

A couple of days ago Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigsten ran 2 miles in a world best 7:54.10 in a Paris meet.
The current Olympic 1500 meter champ broke the olde record of around 7:58. Those are the only 2 performances
under 8 minutes....ever.

Back in the day Roger Bannister shocked the world when he ran a 3:59 and change to be the first man to go under
the 4:00 mark. Jakob ran his first mile in 3:59...would have beaten Bannister...and then upped his tempo
and ran the second mile in 3:55. Incredible performance!

Track fans...I know there are some of you out there!
Question: Track authorities are NOT calling this a world 'record'...but rather a 'world best' time.

Without research...does anyone know why they are doing this?

WBP – world best performance (the best mark recorded for a non-IAAF world record event)

Has less to do with the pacers and more to do with the race distance.

 

[RegisteredUconn]

Wasn't there a "rabbit" or pacing in that race? Does that somehow disallow the time? Of course Bannister had two rabbits in his sub-four. I remember the race where the guy ran the first sub-two hour marathon but there were questions about pacing or something.

 

[Blakeon18]

The article said that there were a couple of rabbits in the race.
The organizers also had lined a series of lights just inside the track.
The lights were set on a pace that would allow Jakob to set the new world 'best'.
Stay ahead of the lights...world best. Fall behind...Jakob would know he had to pick up the pace.

But the time is NOT recognized a a world record as per CCSUblue's reference to this distance simply as one not in the mix for track organizations.

Great performance nonetheless.

Hmm...do you think a woman will ever break the 4 minute barrier for the mile?
Current record is 4:12.33 set by Sifan Hassan.....back in 1993.

 

[ed4ourgirls]

We had two sub 2 minute half milers on my high school 4 X 880 relay team, but we
never broke 8 minutes.

 

[iri10]

There have been a lot of amazing track performances the last week or two. On the women's side, a week ago, Faith Kipyegon broke the 1500m record by about a second.

Apparently that wasn't enough for her, because then a week later she broke the 5000m in Paris, the same meet where Ingebrigsten broke the (somewhat rarely run) 2 mile, and Girma broke the men's steeplechase world record.

Anyway...the thing that astonishes me about Kipyegon's 5000m is that after nearly 14 minutes of running, she had the energy to put on that crazy burst of speed at the end to clinch the record:

 

[RegisteredUconn]

The article said that there were a couple of rabbits in the race.
The organizers also had lined a series of lights just inside the track.
The lights were set on a pace that would allow Jakob to set the new world 'best'.
Stay ahead of the lights...world best. Fall behind...Jakob would know he had to pick up the pace.

But the time is NOT recognized a a world record as per CCSUblue's reference to this distance simply as one not in the mix for track organizations.

Great performance nonetheless.

Hmm...do you think a woman will ever break the 4 minute barrier for the mile?
Current record is 4:12.33 set by Sifan Hassan.....back in 1993.

Ever is a long time. Within a decade? No. Two decades? Not sure.

 

[CCSUblue]

The organizers also had lined a series of lights just inside the track.
The lights were set on a pace that would allow Jakob to set the new world 'best'.
Stay ahead of the lights...world best. Fall behind...Jakob would know he had to pick up the pace.

The wave lights have been at all of the Diamond League events this year. I think they are a pretty cool feature personally, especially for the crowd.

 

[Bluenoser]

The article said that there were a couple of rabbits in the race.
The organizers also had lined a series of lights just inside the track.
The lights were set on a pace that would allow Jakob to set the new world 'best'.
Stay ahead of the lights...world best. Fall behind...Jakob would know he had to pick up the pace.

But the time is NOT recognized a a world record as per CCSUblue's reference to this distance simply as one not in the mix for track organizations.

Great performance nonetheless.

Hmm...do you think a woman will ever break the 4 minute barrier for the mile?
Current record is 4:12.33 set by Sifan Hassan.....back in 1993.

I have to be persnickety, Sifan Hassan's mile record was set on July 12, 2019 at the Monaco Diamond League. As for a woman running a 4:00 minute, unlikely for a long while. As has been noted Faith Kipyegon just ran a brilliant 3:49.11 for 1500m, to get a 4:00 mile that pace would have be about 7 seconds faster. For reference, in 1980 the women's 1500m record was 3:52.47, it took 43 years to get a little over 3 seconds quicker.

Imperial distance world records were discontinued by the IAAF, predecessor to World Atletics in 1976 as 400m tracks became the standard and races in imperial distance races disappeared. With regards to Jacob Ingebrigtsen's 2 mile record, race pacemakers and the pacing lights are not prohibited under World Athletics competition rule 6 on the theory that everyone in the race can use them to judge their pace or not if they can't keep up. For that reason Eliud Kipchoge's sub 2 hrs marathon was not considered a world record or even a world best - it was not a competition, but an individual time trial. There were teams of 7 pacers that he could draft off of, fluids were delivered by a cyclist, a timing vehicle provided additional protection, and the shortest route was illuminated by laser. It was a tremendous running achievement, but it was not a race.

 

[Blakeon18]

Thank you Bluenoser for your info..."persnickety" is welcome when correct. July 12, 2019 is the correct date. I did google my info but clearly committed a turnover....no surprise there.