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The Three Periods in Chrono History

A) Until 1968
Only hand timing is official.

B) From 1972
Also electric timing is official. A second world list is created for "electric" records in all running events up to 400 metres.

C) From 1977
Only electric timing is official. Hand timed lists are no longer updated.

Particular features of 1968-1971 period
The new electric lists open with the best result ante-1972. The best mark in Men's 100 metres is 9.95 by Mexico City's (1968) Olympic winner Jim Hines. Electric timing was semi-official and 9.95 is only the reconversion of the official 9.9. It's interesting to point out that this mark was already registrated as a world record in hand timed official list. So it appears twice! What happens from 1972 on? No hand timed record is anylonger reconverted.

Particular features of the period 1972-1976
Both lists are official, for it happens that in the same event two athletes are both world record holders, the first in hand list and the second in electric list (men's 100 metres: Steve Williams and Jim Hines). Furthermore, some athletes, especially between 1973 and 1975, ran only hand timed races; just for that they didn't break any electric record.

This is the last part of my research. After writing records chronology, I counted records made by every athletes and ranked athletes with more records by age.

I took into account all athletes active in 1976 and following years. So, for example, Willie Davenport (active 1963-1978) is there, Ralph Boston (active 1959-1972) is not there.

I had some problems with speed races (100-200 metres and 110 hurdles). There's a real case which explains them all: Poland's Irena Szewinska (1964-1980).

Her records strip on 100 metres with electric timing is as follows:

Capture: 8 is the number of records she broke in her career; after her name and her birth year I wrote the ages of her 8 records.
In 1972 Irena was 26 years old. What about her before? We have to look at her hand timed performances:

(I didn't count her beaten records because after 1976 hand timed lists were no longer updated)

Let's put them together and have a look:

Something matches and something doesn't.

Matching ages: 22, 27, 28 and 30 years. Szewinska was the first both in hand and in electric list.

Not matching ages:

1. Records at 19 and 21 years of age, scored when electric chrono wasn't official. So Szewinska could not score any electric records at that age.This means Szewinska holds two more records by age: 19 years (1965) and 21 years (1967);
2. Records at more than 30 years of age, that is scored after 1976, when hand timing was set apart for good in official races. It's simple up to this point, I suppose. Here comes the hardest part:
3. Records at 26 (1972) and 29 years (1975). What has happened? Szewinska scored a new record only in electric list.

Irena Szewinska did 11.33 in 1972 at 26, thus setting a new age record. But at the same age, in 1970 Chi Cheng (Taiwan, 1944) ran 11.0 hand timed. What am I to do? Who's the age record owner? I thought to apply IAAF rule which says that, to compare hand timing and electric timing on 100 metres, 0.24 seconds have to be added to hand timing. Adding 0.24 to 11.0 I have 11.24, which is still better than Szewinska's 11.33. Thus I take off the record to Szewinska and assigned it to Chi Cheng (the Taiwanese held this record until 1976, when Annegret Richter of FRG did 11.01 and 10.8).
I applied the same rule on 1975 record: Szewinska did 11.23 at 29 (new record by age). Three years before Eva Gleskova for Tchekoslovakia did 11.0 hand timed. After IAAF rule the record, this time, was Szewinska's.

Now, let's have a look again about Szewinska's records strips:

"26" is red to show that it's not a record by age.

Now I can number all Szewinska's records on 100 metres. They are 10. As you can see from the first left column (6 and 8) neither electric table nor hand table, alone, are enough: number 10 emerges only from their comparison.

Greg Foster vs. Rodney Milburn

I said Irena Szewinska's story explains all problems I met during my research about the period 1972-1976. It's not just like that. A last case happened to hurdler Greg Foster, who ran 13.28 in 1979, setting the age record at 21 (he bettered a 13.42 of 1968). I forgot on the contrary that before, in 1971, Rodney Milburn marked 13.0, so Foster didn't improve Milburn's record. I didn't think about one fact: a post-1977 record can be cancelled by a hand timed record ante-1977, also if from 1977 hand chrono is no longer official.

To come to an end, here's an award to those who managed to follow me to this point: the list of all cases similar to Szewinska vs. Chi Cheng and Szewinska vs. Gleskova. Have fun and decide whom the record has to be awarded to! Issues

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