Sport is about competition. To many that competition is not as important as it is to those who earn a living from sport. Yet to many who will never be paid to play sport there is a still a strong competitive nature to their performances, they want to win the competition that they are part of. They want to be the best that they can be, and so they are constantly looking to improve on previous performances. That is the nature of sport.
Today’s coverage of sport sometimes focuses too much on statistical records. It is almost as if this is the measure of the contest that we are watching. When there have been thousands of great matches where neither team has scored in football, great races where the lead has changed but no world record has been broken. Where the contest and the tactics used by the various individuals or coaches has been the intriguing issue that draws the fans in.
There are of course some long-standing records in numerous sports which many ask whether they will ever be beaten, let alone matched.
The longest unbeaten World record in Athletics is in the Women’s 800 Metres. Jarmila Kratochvílová of what was then Czechoslovakia ran a new world record time of 1:53.28 that has stood since 26 July 1983.
In July 1986 Uwe Hohn representing East Germany broke the world record in javelin with a throw of 104.80 meters. It was labeled an “eternal world record” at the time, and is so far proving so, as he remains the only athlete to throw a javelin 100 metres or more.
When it comes to the Olympic Games Bob Beamon, of the USA’s long jump record has stood since 1968 in Mexico City, when he jumped 8.90 metre. This is the oldest record in Olympic Athletics. While some doubt it will ever be beaten, others feel it is just a matter of time. The question is how much time?
Records abound in all sports, such as in baseball where from May 30, 1982 to Sept. 19, 1998, Cal Ripken Jr. played 2,632 consecutive games. That is a record that is more than 500 games longer than Lou Gehrig’s second-place streak.
In football it is a known fact that if you concede goals you are less likely to win, hence why so many teams are built around defence. The record in domestic football for a team or a goalkeeper not conceding a goal belongs to Brazilian keeper Mazarópi. While playing for Vasco da Gama in the 1977-78 Rio de Janeiro State Championship, Mazarópi went 1,816 minutes without conceding a goal. To put this in perspective that is over 20 consecutive matches without letting in a goal!
In the English Premier League Dutch legend Edwin van der Sar playing for Manchester United, kept 11 consecutive clean sheets, making it 1,311 minutes of action without conceding a goal between November 15 and January 27 of the 2008-09 season.
While at the international level, it’s the immortal Italian Dino Zoff who holds the record. Between 1972 and 1974, Zoff went 1,142 minutes without allowing a goal in international competition. Will these records be beaten?
Unbeaten seasons, games without conceding, running under a certain time, throwing of jumping set distances have always been goals set by teams and individuals. You have to aim for the top.
But is our current obsession with records actually distorting history and undermining records that have been set previously?
In Cricket it is hard to compare records to day to those of yesteryear, because the boundaries at famous grounds on which previous records have been set have been brought in by in may cases 20 metres. So you are not comparing like with like. (Knowing Your Boundaries)
Yes, some world records are still questioned today as to whether they were aided by performance enhancing drugs, but until proven otherwise one has to assume that they were not.
Equipment has changed, and so too has technology. As we see in so many sports coaches are using computers, GPS devices and heart monitors to be able to judge whether a player needs to be replaced or moved. The number of substitutes in many sports has increased, and in some sports the playing time has been shortened. While the argument stands that with the extra substitutes the intensity of the contest remains, that natural war of attrition and the fatigue that was a key component in contest of the past is now rarely an issue.
In October 2019 the great Kenyan runner Eliud Kipchoge created history by becoming the first athlete to run a marathon in under two hours. A barrier that many said would never be broken.
There is an outstanding documentary called “The Last Milestone” which follows the preparation that went on behind the scenes to ensure that everything was ideal and as close to perfect for Kipchoge to break the two hour barrier.
The location was the Hauptallee, the historic tree-lined avenue in The Prater in Vienna, Austria. This was chosen specifically “because of its long, flat straight sections and its protection from the wind.” Kipchoge had a team of 41 pacemakers, which featured some of the best middle and long-distance runners in the world. Each of these runners interchanged at various points in the run, to ensure that a steady world record pace was maintained. They were organised to run in set positions in order to protect Kipchoge from the wind. There was hardly a stone left unturned to ensure that everything was perfect to allow this supreme athlete every opportunity to achieve this feat.
Kipchoge ran the 42.195KM distance in a remarkable time of 1:59:40:2. Which is of course a new World Record.
However, it does raise the issue of records and the conditions under which they are achieved. There is no doubting that this is and should be a World Record, but we should never forget the conditions under which it was achieved. These were manufactured conditions. Conditions very different to those experienced in a competitive race, so should we give more credibility to records achieved under race conditions?
Athletics is actually very good at differentiating between, World Records, European Records, Track records or National records. It is one of the few sports to do so, but do more sports need to put their records into context?
The truth is in the world of athletics creating circumstances to enable an athlete to break a world record have been commonplace for nearly a century. Great Britain’s Sydney Wooderson broke the world record for the mile in 1937 in what was a scratch race. This meant that he started at the back of the field having to cover the full distance of a mile. The lesser runners were staring from a variety of positions ahead of him based upon their ability. These man would spur him on to overtake them, and therefore achieve a pace that would see him break the World Record.
A year before Sir Roger Bannister became the first man to run a sub four minute mile Australian Don Macmillan paced Bannister for two and a half laps while Chris Brasher trotted around a lap in arrears, and in the last lap picked up the pace to try and drive Bannister to the record. He managed four minutes and two seconds, but the Amateur Athletic Association refused to recognise the time due to what they labelled “manipulation.”
Bannister is quoted as saying of that decision, “My feeling as I look back is one of great relief that I did not run a four-minute mile under such artificial circumstances.”
A year later in May 1954 in a meet between the Oxford University Athletic Club and the Amateur Athletic Association Bannister achieved the first sub four minute mile. Once again he had pacemakers in Chris Chataway and Chris Brasher. This time Brasher led the race during the first lap, Chataway then took the lead up until the front turn of the last lap when Bannister took over and kicked for home with about 275 yards to go.
Pacemakers were used once again, and their sole purpose was to pull Bannister along at a pace that gave him the best opportunity to “do the impossible,” but this time it was viewed as legitimate. Pacemaking continues today in Athletics as athletes look to push themselves to the limit and try and lower world record times.
In June 1954 at Turku, Finland, Australian John Landy became the second man, after Roger Bannister, to achieve a sub-4-minute mile. He achieved a world record time of 3:57.9 unaided by pacemakers.
Both made history, but some will say that Landy’s achievement holds more prestige as it was done without the help of a pacemaker. It was achieved in a legitimate competition.
In many international meets, younger runners are sacrificed to go out hard and set a pace to ensure that a more experienced high profile compatriot is assured of a medal. Why should these athletes make such a sacrifice? Yes, it may be that they are doing what is best for the team, and their country, but are they undermining the legitimacy of the race.
In an article twenty years ago one of the world’s top long distance runners claimed that this was all well and good at International meets, but come the World Championships and the Olympic Games it should be every man or woman for themselves. They did however admit that this was not always the case. In those two events.
The rationale behind it being OK at international meets was they claimed, because the public attend to see a fast race, and with pacemakers they get to see that, and maybe a world record. This is a hard argument to accept. Most sports fans want to see a competitive race. They want to see a legitimate contest between the best on that day. If a world record comes along that is a bonus.
While such tactics are clear to many, are they damaging the credibility of the competition?
While Kipchoge’s attempt to run under 2 hours for the marathon is a world record there was no hiding from the fact that this was a well-planned attempt in which those involved were going to do everything possible to ensure that they achieved that goal.
When you go to a sporting event you want to see a legitimate contest. As we have seen with the influence of betting on sport in the past 30 years fans have frequently been deceived as to the integrity of the competition they have bought tickets to watch. As a result, now when a player makes a genuine error in a crucial game which impacts the final outcome they find themselves under suspicion or closer scrutiny.
Are such activities undermining the contest, the competition, the sense of fairplay?
By all means let us have world record attempts, but let us seperate those achieved in a genuine race from those that have been planned. For to be forced to do your best to win and having to break a world record to do so, must surely be more rewarding?
Think back to 1980 in the 1500m in Koblenz, Steve Ovett won the race in a world record time of 3 minutes 31.36 seconds, but the two men who came in second and third also broke the World record, Germans Thomas Wessinghage and Harald Hudak. Despite losing to Ovett who at the time was arguably the best at the distance in the World, both of these men would know that they gave their best, they beat the world record which is phenomenal in itself, but still could not beat their opponent or claim to be a world record holder.
While records make headlines, and make the media’s job easier, sport needs to be careful how much emphasis is being put on record-breaking achievements, but most important of all these records have to be put into context. For Cricket, a game built around statistics and records is killings itself by comparing today’s feats with those of yesteryear. Other sports should take heed of this, and learn from it.
When all is said and done the average sports fan wants to see a genuine closely fought contest between competitors striving to be the best they can be. Records are secondary.
