Isaiah Richardson BB 800m Champion
Phoenix Invitational
I think if you have been around at least one season you realize that the Elite Youth Rankings aren’t perfect but it is all we have in the youth track and field world and I believe they do the job to the best of their abilty.
This brings up many basic questions we all have regarding rankings and proper posting of times. First, I realize that the developers of this system saw a need and filled it. Now may of us have questions and sometimes confusion over how the times are posted.
Recently questions about the Phoenix Invitational FAT system have come under question.What is known is that the FAT system went down during the running of the 100m prelims and some athletes were given hand times to qualify for the finals. What is speculated is that the girls 100m was miss measured to 107 meters and therefore times were commiserate with distance. Which is very unfortunate if it did happen, but it didn’t affect the finals.
I have not received an official yeah or neah on this but, as of the weekend Elite Youth has removed the Phoenix times,the official FAT times (all divisions) it appears all events (but I am not sure) and replaced with hand times. My question is WHY? They haven’t even confirmed the hand times nor the 107 meters question officially. There are many inconsistencies currently on the ranking list.
Most of the current times with the exception of The Phoenix Invitational final times are Not FAT but are not listed as such. In Florida the March 28th meet was officially confirmed as a hand time meet but not posted as such on EY.
One of many questions arises. Does the coach or responsible person who submits the results state clearly FAT or not? It appears it isn’t not required based on the list currently.
Parent comment: ”JUST WANT TO VERIFY THAT THOSE TIMES ARE HAND TIMES. ALSO, THERE WERE MANY MANY MISCUES WITH THE RESULTS. FOR EXAMPLE, IN THE BANTAM GIRLS 400, DAESHA ROGERS WON THE EVENT, AND SYMONE MASON FINISHED 2ND. HOWEVER, NEITHER OF THEM ARE EVEN LISTED AS COMPETITORS IN THAT EVENT ACCORDING TO THE FINAL LISTING. ON ANOTHER NOTE, I FEEL THAT ANYTIME AN ORGANIZATION SUBMITS TIMES TO ELITE YOUTH, THEY SHOULD STATE WHETHER THE TIMES ARE HAND OR COMPUTER. THAT WAY, ELITE YOUTH COULD AT LEAST MAKE THE CONVERSIONS AND NOTE THEM. ALSO, IF A TIME IS “EYE-POPPING” OR UNBELIEVABLE, THEN MAYBE ELITE YOUTH SHOULD VERIFY THAT IT’S NOT A TYPO”.
As the parent above stated ,maybe Elite Youth should do a bit more work when times are a little off or “Eye Popping” to sustain the credibility of the site. Track is unique in that EVERY THING RISES AND FALLS ON TIME. Our bottom line isn’t like team sports playing against each other or matching up divisional power houses. I think you get the point. Time is very sensitive there for needs to be treated as such.
Parent comment: I verified with someone who’s childs ran that meet(Florida) a parent/coach and yes he did advise that those two BANTAM times are incorrect for the 100 meter and the time for the 1st place 200 meter is incorrect. However the 2nd place time behind it in the 200 meter dash is a correct(hand) time. But it was very GUSTY all over the state of Florida……”
In the end as I stated in the post previous on EY issues. National meets are the true standard and we as parents and coaches have to simply wait until then to see the tale of the tape. Elite Youth is simply a “nice place to look at times.We must take them with a grain of salt as they post nations “best performances” in youth track and field.
Until Next time
I was at the phoenix invitatational and I question a name I seen in the BG finals. She is on my kids track team and when I noticed her qualifing time and knew what her previous time were I knew something was wrong. She had never ran that fast and her time was 21/2 sec faster going from 16.59 to somewhere in the 14.00. I just hope the get it fixed cause I frequant the website.
What I understand is that there was no problem with the finals times and they are intact. There is a qustion regarding the prelims times since some were hand times and some FAT due to the wind blowing the equiptment down during the 100m .
As for the athlete you questioned Hum??? I am not sure if it is the athlete improving or a mistake in posting or timing. You will have to track the athlete over time to know for sure. I hope they work, out their posting issues too! I guess time is the great equalizer.