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I will print the other mistakes that are flawed by their ranking methods Monday. On the above thread Alan ranking ahead of Meb do you feel that is was an error? If so why and if not why?

Vipam wrote:

I will print the other mistakes that are flawed by their ranking methods Monday. On the above thread Alan ranking ahead of Meb do you feel that is was an error? If so why and if not why?

The answer to this is simple.

One voter looked at Culpepper's Chicago marathon and felt it worth a 9th place vote.

You're talking about one person, not a group of people gathering in a room to discuss every small detail of a person's performances.

Vipam,

I can appreciate your passion for the sports and it's stats but, I think you are more upset about this than you should be.

TFN AOY is a somewhat subjective honor kind of like "People" mazazine's "Sexiest Man Alive". Let it go. Both Culpepper and Meb know what they did and that's what really counts.

The one that baffled me was the person who ranked Radcliffe #4 in AOY voting. I could see maybe ranking Marion Jones and Ana Guevara ahead of her, based on their undefeated seasons, but who else could possibly be ranked ahead of her?

I can appreciate your passion for the sports and it's stats but, I think you are more upset about this than you should be.

Portland Runner,

One thing you may not know, many shoe companies base athletes salaries and bonuses on Track and Field News Rankings. T&FN is indeed a subjective ranker of athletes, but when they screw up it costs people money. T&FN didnt ask to be saddled with this burden, but nonetheless it is how the shoe contract business is run.

Next time you are at a USATF meet, look and see which athletes are taking the T&FN guys out for a beer...gotta protect your interests.

Sorry Jeff

But you are wrong, there is a group of people who appoint athletes 1st thru 10-15 as their selection for Athlete of the Year and American Athlete of the Year and thus awarded points. The point total from the placing of the athletes with 1st place pick garnering the most points decide the order of the AOY honors. It does make a different psychology, financial, historically, and its publicity for doing a job well done!!!!!!!

Sorry

Sorry sorry, but YOU are wrong.

Jeff was saying, ONE person voted for Radcliffe at number 4. ONE. Not a group of people sitting around........the group of people sitting around voted her number 1. But ONE, 1, ONE person voted for Radcliffe for number 4. Get it yet?

And chances are, that person either voted Ayhan, Feofanova, or Kotova, since they all received at least ONE 3rd place vote.

Now, do you understand it yet????

That was meant to say "chances are, that person voted Ayhan, Feovanova, or Kotova 3rd ahead of a 4th place Radcliffe voting........"

Yup

Yup you are wrong as two left shoes! Look at Jeff's post

he first printed his quote concerning Meb and Alan and then

he stated one person thought and voted because of Alan's run in Chicago. Yup before you answers someone statement or question please make sure you understand it first! But you are right about the votes for Paula and the other ladies.

Sorry

While I agree that Meb should be ranked in the top 15 I am not sure he should be ranked ahead of Alan... Yes he had faster times in both events. However by your stats there head to head they were 1-1. The tie breaker in that scenario is the marathon performances, which the edge goes to Culpepper (tying the best debut marathon performance ever)

Does anyone have the list handy to post here?

AM Runner

Finally someone with something logical to say! I agree that Alan may have had the best marathon of the two; however, I feel that Meb had the best track season vs international competition and Alan lack of meets is the only reason I would have voted Meb over Alan.

Vipam

Vipam, folks w/feelings just like yours write T & FN all the time after the rankings come out. I suggest you do the same. Don't let the fact that the rankers live and breath this stuff keep you from sending a letter. The rankings are a mix of stats, events and opinion...the last which makes for debate such as yours.