Probably a stupid question, but I don’t know how to word it in a way Google will understand, so…
Let’s say I’m running in an foot race at 400m, officially sanctioned by whatever the governing body of that sport would be. I destroy the world record for the first 200m, but eventually lose the overall race.
Would I get credit for that record, or does it only count if the race is for that specific distance?
If the race is scheduled for 400m, I’m not sure they have good ways of measuring your time accurately through the first 100m or 200m.
I think the short answer is no, if you are running a 400 meter race and you happen to break a WR for the first 200 meters you don’t get credit for it AFAIK. The slightly longer answer is no, but perhaps you should. The same thing would apply to swimming and lots of other Olympic distance events.
Nope. Only for the specified race unless there is timing equipment set up at the intermediate point.
An example would be the 3000m mark in a(very rarely run and not an official distance) 2-mile race.
Only specific metric distances are considered for world record status except the mile which was retained for historical reasons.
I see.
What about other sports, like swimming, where starts are not staggered and standard pool-length-based distances are more easily measured?
No, and there’s a formal as well as a more substantive reason for it.
The formal reason: It was a 400 metre race, not a 200 metres race. The two are separately assessed competitions.
The substantive reason: There is no equipment at the midway position that would detect your time for that segment with the necessary degree of accuracy.
You cannot just compute the time for the shorter distance without measuring it, either. For instance, before the 2009 world championships in athletics, the world record for 200 metres was 19.30 seconds, which is less than twice the then current 100 metres world record of 9.69 seconds (both were held by Usain Bolt, who has since improved both world records, to 19.19 and 9.58 seconds, respectively, and is still the record holder for both distances). In other words, Bolt was faster in terms of average speed on the 200 metres than the 100 metres, but he didn’t get credited with the 100 metres world record on the basis of his 200 metres time. Which is fair enough, since the time that he lost at the beginning (reaction time after the start signal and acceleration) has less of an effect ion the average speed for 200 metres than for 100 metres.
Another thing is that, as a general rule, this just isn’t going to happen. Once you get past the range where one can maintain a full-on sprint, one would always be harming your performance in a longer race if you were to set an equivalent record in a shorter race.
As an example to illustrate what I mean, let’s consider a 200M and 400M. If you can set a WR speed in 200M and still have enough energy left to run a competitive 400M after, you probably could have run slightly faster in that first 200M; thus, you should also be competing in the 200M and be able to set an even faster time. And if you can set a record in 200M and still run competitively at 400M, you could probably have done even better by properly portioning your energy.
So, I guess it might be theoretically possible–they did that for my 10 and 40 yard springs in a combine–however, when one is talking about the most elite athletes like that, I don’t think anyone is ever going to train for or expect to be measured for such a type of performance, so really why bother?
You can set a world record in a shorter event during the first part of a longer event in swimming. That just happened the other night in the mens 4x100 medley relay, the backstroker for the Americans set a world record for the 100 back. But because it’s a relay you couldn’t set a world record for the other three strokes.
This happens from time to time in Masters swimming. Someone will swim an 800 and break all of the other records in one go. It usually happens in the older age groups, but I’ve seen the 100, 200 and 400 all get broken in one event. There are also some people who wish to break the 50 record and will swim the 100 as well as the 50 to get two chances of breaking a record at one meet.
The current world record for the seldom run 25,000 m on the track was set en route to the current world record for the seldom run 30,000 m on the track. So it can be done.
As mentioned, there are records set in 1500 en route to the mile or 3000m en route to the 2 mile, though not at the world level that I’m aware of. The current high school record in the 1500m was set en route to the current high school record for the mile. Since high school and college records are frequently set that way, savvy track meet organizers have timing equipment at the appropriate locations.
In road races, it is also possible. The current world record for the 20 k on the road was set en route to the current world record for the half marathon on the road. Also the world record for the 30 k on the road was set en route during a marathon.
Note that in track and field and road racing, distances on the track are generally listed as meters, while on the road they are listed as kilometers.
In case this wasn’t clear, the reason only the first person in a relay can set a record is because of the start. The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th legs of a relay have a moving start, where they are tracking a swimmer coming in and can time their start more effectively than you can at the start of a race. You can get get splits for the other legs of the relay, but they are not equivalent to a race start. Only the backstroke leg in the medley or the first leg of a freestyle relay can be used for a record.
I would think this only applies to short course (25m pool) races where you can hit the timing pad after two laps (50m) as well as after 4 laps (100m). On a long course (50m pool) you only hit the timing pad at the end of a 100.
I once ran an extremely competitive 50 yard dash, and demanded that my time be extrapolated to the mile. Nope, they wouldn’t allow it.
Heartless bastards. No doubt this has diminished your self-esteem.
Depends on the pool. Some pools, the one they are using the the Olympics, have touch pads at both ends.
My Google fu is very weak today …
I recall that a female runner, perhaps Mary Decker Slaney once ran a race where her time halfway thru would have been a (US?) record. Jog any memories?
I thought it was interesting, I read recently that swimming purposely does not use milliseconds on their clock even though this allows for an unusually large number of ties compared to other sports. The reason given is that the pool cannot reliably ensure that each lane is exactly the same length for all swimmers to the precision required to make milliseconds meaningful.
In fact they used to measure in milliseconds until someone won by .002 seconds and this objection was brought up.
Moderator Action
Since this involves sports, let’s move it to the Game Room.
Under current IAAF rules, you can get credit for a world record for a distance shorter than the distance of the race in which t was set - if (a) it meets all of the conditions of a race at the world record distance, and (b) the athlete completed the longer event.
The problem is, it is pretty much impossible to do this, as there needs to be a certified and tested photo finish camera at the end of the shorter distance. Even something like a 400m record in an 800m race won’t count, as you didn’t have to run in lanes for most of the first 400m of the race, which is required for the 400m record.
Note that it is possible to set a specific-event record within the decathlon/heptathlon (IIRC, Jackie Joyner-Kersee was a world class javelin thrower).
I’m pretty sure Katie Ledecky has done this, at least for some minor versions of the 800m record. She routinely swims the first 800 of the 1500 faster than any other woman has ever done the 800.
Further, events up to & including the 400 are run in lanes. Because of the curve of the track, you start ‘further back’ in lane 1 than the other lanes (because you’re running a shorter distance on the curve); therefore, the 200 mark in a 400m race is different for each runner as they’re only halfway thru the turns.