From Quercetani to Amado and a familiar formula

I have recently purchased the History of modern Track and Field by the late R. Quercetani.  I already had the 1990 edition, in italian, but the 2014 edition was covering the period up to 2013 and Quercetani is the father of T&F statistics, so I did not hesitate. In fact I may write an article on Quercetani one day. 

While perusing the book I stumbled upon this note on one of the last pages. It was an estimate of what women throwers could obtain were they to throw with the men's implement. 

Now this is a question which has been treated on various occasions in this blog (and I'm not done with it yet). But I was intrigued since the source of Quercetani was F. Amado. That was not the first time I was seeing that name. Amado is at the origin of what were called the Portuguese scoring tables. I had heard about him already in the 60s. His work will be mentioned when I decide to write the (series of) article(s) on performance scoring. Having seen the reference of Quercetani I had to find the book of Amado. 

The matter was further complicated by the fact that after the first, 1956, edition he published what he considered the definitive one in 1962, having expanded it into two volumes. I managed to find the first volume in a rare book bookshop and the second volume in the library of the University of Bordeaux (I requested a loan, I got it a few days later and proceeded to scan it). The part on the comparison of throws with implements of different masses was in the first volume.

Amado does not give any explanation concerning his results. He discusses how one can interpolate between values of the table (something which anybody with a smattering of maths would not hesitate to apply a cross-multiplication rule to) but he does not tell us where his numbers come from. So the only possibility was to try to see whether they are too far off the magic formula, I have written a zillion times about, linking the mass, m,  of an implement and the length, L, of the throw.

L=a/(m+f)

Below I give a fit of the data for shot put from Amado's table for p=1000 points. The fit is not bad at all and the resulting value of f, 4.5 kg, quite realistic. My preferred value for this quantity if 6 kg but Amado's value comes sufficiently close. For discus throw the bracket of the values I have found for f is 1.5-2.5 kg, while from Amado's data we find 1.1 kg. For javelin the fit on Amado's p=1000 performances gives f=0.7 kg, while my values are in the 0.5-1.0 kg range. Finally for the hammer throw we find from the fit f=3.8, while my values are around 3 kg.

This gives the impression that all is well. In fact I was surprised by the note of Quercetani, because the predicted world records of women throwing with men's implements were very close to what I would have predicted. However if we apply the same analysis to Amado's data for p=0 we find values for f which are much smaller than those obtained for p=1000, half or even less and in fact a negative value in the case of hammer throw. This is a hint that the table of Amado was constructed empirically based on extrapolations not always well controlled. Still it has the merit of existing and does quite well at high level of performances. And he does better than Willoughby who was convinced that the length of the throw was related to the square root (!) of the mass and was astonished that no theoretical explanation existed.

Rafer Johnson passes away

Rafer Johnson, the 1960 olympic gold medalist (and 1956 silver medalist) and former world record holder, passed away on December 2nd. He is one of the greatest decathletes, joining now Jim Thorpe in the Pantheon of the best athletes of all times. The Rome decathlon where Johnson fought for the title with his team mate C. K. Yang (who died in 2007) till the very last metre of the 1500 m is probably the most gripping decathlon ever contested. 

World Athletics has a short article announcing the sad news. RunBlogRun has a most interesting tribute to Johnson where all the great US decathletes reminisce about their meeting with Johnson. I highly recommend it. But the best article is the one of Decapassion. So, if you can read french don't hesitate to visit the site, curated by two great decathlon specialists, and read the article on this fantastic decathlete who is no more among us.

The WA awards were announced and I'm not convinced

World Athletics announced yesterday the 2020 athletic awards. The ceremony was virtual and the hosts were, the always elegant, S. Richard-Ross and A. Boldon, who is developing  a noticeable embonpoint.

The male athlete of the year was the one who was also my favourite, A. Duplantis. He had a fantastic year and the award was amply deserved. And let's not forget that it was just two years ago, in 2018, that Mondo was nominated rising star of the year. His rise was meteoric but I am convinced that he is here to stay and lead pole vault to another era. (By the way Duplantis' parents obtained the Coaching Achievement Award, a perfectly merited one).

What I have trouble understanding was the nomination of Y. Rojas as female athlete of the year. Two years ago I was nicely surprised by the choice of C. Ibargüen. This year the choice of Rojas looked, to me, as totally incongruous. Rojas did break the indoor world record in winter and then had a well below-par summer season, only to pull herself together in October, jumping a world leading 14.71 m (which, by the way, is nothing to write home about). It is my feeling that the choice of Rojas was a very convenient way to avoid the dilemma of choosing between Hassan and Jepchirchir, a choice that would have, either way, generated (justified) critiques.

This year's awards were bizarre, to say the least. There was a "Member Federations Award", a "Covid Inspiration Award", an "Athletes Community Award" and no Rising Star Award. Frankly I do not understand what WA were thinking by eliminating the later. Are they caring only about how to butter up their member federations? At least the Covid inspiration award went to the  Ultimate Garden Clash, which was R. Lavillenie's idea. I liked the idea quite a lot and in June I published an article on the Ultimate Garden Clash competition, involving three of the best decathletes.

The photograph of the year award was, to my taste, a letdown. Although I can resonate with the message conveyed by the photo of kenyan children participating in a cross country race, I think that what should have counted more is the artistic side, which the photo is sadly lacking. Had I to choose among the three finalists I would have chosen the photo of A. Ngandu-Ntumba but  there are plenty of even nicer photos among the ones that did not make it to the final three. Just look at the photo of the chinese relay under pouring rain.

Rain is also present during Hassan's 10000 m record attempt, but what is exceptional in this case is the out-of-this-world green reflection of the Wavelight pacing system. 

If you wish to see for yourself, you can visit the WA awards page, which, at least as I am writing these lines, presents the shortlist of photos. (It is remarkable that a good one third of them has to do with pole vault, one way or another).

The award that I really appreciated was the one bestowed by the president to T. Smith, P. Norman and J. Carlos. I wrote about the Black Power salute on the podium of the Mexico Olympics in my article on A. Brundage (who was the one to promptly expel Smith and Carlos from the Games). In that article of mine the photo is one taken from an angle different from the one below. One can see there that the two americans are barefoot on the podium, as another sign of protest. 

This time, Sir Sebastian did not mince his words:

“We created the President's Award to recognise and honour exceptional service to athletics.The bravery, dignity and morality of these three men continue to inspire athletes from all sports 50 years on. The image of Smith and Carlos raising fists has become seared in history as an incendiary act of protest by athletes. But sadly, their cause and what they so bravely stood for has not been consigned to the history books. As demonstrations around the world this year have shown, there is much more that needs to be done. I hope that the uncompromising attitude of these three athletes can continue to be an inspiration to all of us who refuse to accept racism.”

And yes, he is talking about all three, since P. Norman was fully supportive of the two black sprinters, wearing the badge of the "Olympic Project for Human Rights" on the podium, an act for which he was subsequently ostracised. (However in 2012 the australian House of Representatives provided a posthumous apology to Norman, who had passed away in 2006).

PS. I had just published this article when the results of the Valencia Marathon arrived where the women's race was won by P. Jepchirchir in 2:17.16. Had the race taken place one week earlier, that may had shifted the balance in favour of the kenyan athlete, who would have amply merited the title of the female athlete of the year. 

A resurrection

In February I published a post concerning the site by P. Larsson which gives the all-time athletics performances. The post's title was "Is this site dead?". What spurred me to write that was the fact that the site was not updated since the end of October, while the indoor season was already underway. 

I voiced my concern and I (somehow) apologised for the indelicate choice of the title. It was definitely politically incorrect (but I am not very good at political correctness, preferring a straightforward language).

Well, it turns out that the site is not dead after all. The first update made its appearance just after the Impossible Games in June (I had to use the Wayback Machine in order to find a snapshot of the site containing the funny misprint which did survive for a few weeks). 

By now the site is back and thriving, regularly updated in order to keep track of current events. But keep in mind that the site is focusing on the "best" performances and while its lists are very deep they draw the line at some (very) high level. For example women's high jump last listed performance is 1.98 m while the corresponding men's one is 2.31 m. So if you are looking for "lesser" performances you are out of luck. Fortunately the blog trackinsun is giving an (almost day by day) account of competition results from all over the world going back all the way to 2011. (Keep in mind that the format of trackinsun will change from next year. I will write about this in a future post, once more details are available).

The finalists for the athlete of the year

World Athletics published the list of five finalists for the Athlete of the Year 2020 title. The five women finalists are 

Letesenbet Gidey (ETH)

Sifan Hassan (NED)

Peres Jepchirchir (KEN)

Yulimar Rojas (VEN)

Elaine Thompson-Herah (JAM)

When the list of ten appeared I made a prediction concerning the possible finalists. There was no discussion whatsoever about the first three and I predicted, correctly, that Rojas would be among the finalists. I gave Yeshaneh as fifth due to the fact that she had established a world record (and perhaps as attonement for having keft her out of my top list). Finally it was Thompson who was chosen, not an unwarranted choice but, clearly there since the list must contain five names.

For the men finalists we have

Joshua Cheptegei (UGA)

Ryan Crouser (USA)

Mondo Duplantis (SWE)

Johannes Vetter (GER)

Karsten Warholm (NOR)

The four names to appear in the list were a no-brainer and WA chose to add Grouser to the lot (while I had chosen Kiplimo).

This year WA did not publish a rising stars list of five. For the male rising star I believe that Kiplimo is clearly dominating and will clinch the tilte. However the things are not so clear for women. I guess that we'll have to wait till December 5 for the final announcement. I am quite confident about my choice of Duplantis for the men's title and I think that women's title will be decided between Hassan and Jepchirchir, but one never knows. After all, two years ago I was really surprised by the choice of C. Ibargüen (but I hasten to add that that was a very nice surprise).

Are they trying to kill the horizontal jumps? (I think so)

I have already written about the plan of WA to modify the rules concerning the judging of fouls in horizontal jumps. The new rules were supposed to come into force from this November, but given the current situation, with an almost inexistent 2020 season, their application was postponed to November 2021. 

Here is how the situation is summarised on the WA site.

Currently, a no-jump is called if an athlete is judged, while taking off, to have touched the ground beyond the take-off line. A plasticine board set at an angle of 45° has been long used to assist with such decisions. Under the new Technical Rule (number 30.1.1), it will be a failure on take-off if any part of the take-off shoe or foot breaks the vertical plane of the take-off line. It was felt that this would be more understandable and simpler to judge. 

Balderdash! (And I almost used another b-word).

The old rule occasionally allowed toecaps to visibly broach the line without marking plasticine. In the future, such moments are to be fouls.

Let me translate. From now on, the judge will be free to interpret the "broaching of the line" and distort the results as he wishes. 

In the article quoted above I was writing about what happened to poor King Carl and how he was robbed of a fantastic world record.

King Carl is getting real old

Before publishing that article I came accross a mention of the rule change. My reaction there was

"Where the people who proposed this completely brainless?" 

It looks like they are.

And just to make things harder, the plasticine board, if used, is to be set at 90°.

How many years have we gone without a world record in a horizontal jump? Unless I'm mistaken the more recent world record dates back to 1995. And WA, instead of adopting a strategy that would liberate the jumpers from the foul angst and help them go fetch longer jumps is moving to the opposite direction making things even harder for them.

But wait, things are getting worse. A new rule stipulates  that World Championships and Olympic Games are no longer excluded from competitions where events may be held in an alternative format. Which means that we may well see the "last jump absurdity" entering the Olympic Games.

Had this "last jump" been used in the 1991 Tokyo World's, M. Powell would have been second, having fouled his last jump while C. Lewis managed 8.86 m. Fortunately the competition ended with Powell first, with a world record 8.95 m, and Lewis second with a wind assisted 8.91  m. In the 1995 Göteborg World's I. Kravets who had registered a 15.50 m world record on her third attempt, would have ended up third since she fouled the last jump (while I. Prandzheva and A. Biryukova had valid jumps at 15.00 and 14.66 m respectively). Closer to us, C. Taylor would not have been world champion last year despite his 17.92 m, since he jumped a "mere" 17.54 m at his last try, while W. Claye and H.F. Zango had both jumps at 17.66 m. Same scenario for Y. Rojas in the women's event (which she won with 15.37 m). She fouled her last jump, while C. Ibargüen had a valid 14.47 m.

But if things do not reach this level of sport-ruining decisions it is highly probable to see one day the horizontal jump competitions limited to just four tries. And in fact why limit this to jumps? How about limiting throws as well to just four tries? Or perhaps allow three tries to all finalists and then allow a fourth one to just the first three. (And award the positions according to the "last jump" procedure).  I am feeling here that WA is trying to kill athletics. 

You may point out at this point that they are "only" trying to kill the field events, track ones are safe. Not so fast! They have also plans intended to ruin track events. In long distance races there is a possibility of an elimination system where all competitors start together and after a certain distance the last runner through each lap is eliminated till just four remain for the final lap. When I first saw such a race in the 2018 Continental Cup I found it entertaining. It is not a bad idea for a week-end competition among friends. But once you start looking closer at the difficulties, then all havoc breaks loose. 

When such a competition was first organised in 2009 European Team Championships, the winner of the women's race was disqualified because she should have been eliminated at a previous lap. In the men's race four athletes reached the line in the same time and stopped waiting for the photo-finish to tell who had to be eliminated. It's difficult to imagine a more ridiculous situation. 

So please, Sir Sebastian, don't add insult to injury telling us that the new rules are introduced in order to promote athletics. They are there to please the television producers, who at first will throw some extra money in the direction of athletics and, once people start not caring about the rigmarole of track and field "competitions", they will entirely forget our sport.

The World Athletics e-learning platform

World Athletics just launched what they call the e-learning platform. I don't know how much money the poured into that project but my feeling is that it is money thrown out of the window.

The platform was launched in order "... to enhance knowledge within athletics", and "... designed to educate everyone from newcomers to experts". "Experts", did they write "experts"? Really? OK. Just so that you can judge for yourself, here are the two examples given in the corresponding page:

Did you know that athletes competing in the shot put are not allowed to tape two or more fingers together?

Or that long jumpers are forbidden from doing a somersault during their run up, take off or landing?

Is there an athletics "expert" who is unaware of these details? Well, things are clear: if he is so ignorant he is no expert. 

So how about newcomers? Perhaps the pedagogical structure of the platform could be interesting to people who prefer to watch a video rather than perusing the rules (I prefer the latter). But then the information provided is both simplistic and over-quantitative. To me this looks rather self-defeating. Why on earth does a newcomer have to absorb the detailed measurements of run-ups, throwing sectors and so on?

There are some (moderately) interesting videos like the combined events one that shows a small sequence of each of the events. But after you have watched the video you have learned almost nothing about the decathlon and heptathlon, except which are the events composing them (provided you managed to retain them during the presentation).  

And the actual state of the platform is a mess. 

While a video is still playing a pop-up of the next available ones appears on the screen and covers a good part of the presentation. Hasn't anybody tested the workings of the platform before putting it online? 

I have given my opinion on the project in the opening paragraph of this post. While I do find some WA innovations, like the Weekend Reads, excellent, the headlong race into modernisation leads often to questionable choices. 

And just an advice for newcomers (assuming that a "newcomer" ventures into this blog): if you feel like following something from the WA website you should opt for the "Our Sport" section. It is really informative (although I object to the appearance of G. Devers as the representative of women's sprint, alongside the greatest of the great, J. Owens). 

The World Athletics list of athletes of the year is here

World Athletics just published their list of the top ten men and women athletes of the year. Despite the paucity of championships and even high level competitions, the summer season has been rich in results (and the winter-indoor season even more so). So here is the list of the top ten male athletes, in alphabetical order:

Donavan Brazier (USA)

Joshua Cheptegei (UGA)

Timothy Cheruiyot (KEN)

Ryan Crouser (USA)

Mondo Duplantis (SWE)

Jacob Kiplimo (UGA)

Noah Lyles (USA)

Daniel Stahl (SWE)

Johannes Vetter (GER)

Karsten Warholm (NOR)

Since this year I have published my list ahead of that of World Athletics one can compare the two lists and it is clear that I nailed it. All WA athletes do figure in my list. Admittedly by grouping Cheruiyot and Ingebrigtsen as well as Lyles and Brazier I could squeeze one more athlete in the top list, since I have reserved Kiplimo for the rising star award. In fact I am curious: will WA nominate Kiplimo for this award now that he is in the "grown-ups" list? We'll have to wait till December for this. In fact if they do not consider Kiplimo for  the rising star award, then the obvious candidate is J. Ingebrigtsen. I included him in my top list but I could very well have switched him with Kiplimo. 

For the top ten female athletes, again in alphabetical order, the list is:

Femke Bol (NED)

Letesenbet Gidey (ETH)

Sifan Hassan (NED)

Peres Jepchirchir (KEN)

Faith Kipyegon (KEN)

Laura Muir (GBR)

Hellen Obiri (KEN)

Yulimar Rojas (VEN)

Elaine Thompson-Herah (JAM)

Ababel Yeshaneh (ETH)

Here my performance was not stellar: I missed Yeshaneh. I did know about her world record in the (mixed-race) semi-marathon but somehow her name did not spring to mind when I was establishing my list of top athletes. She definitely has her place there, all the more so, since I give an extended list of female athletes which would merit inclusion, before opting for the tenth name. In fact, Bol, Muir and Obiri made my top classification only through this extended list (which allowed me to include athletes like Allman and Dadic). 

I have trouble understanding the absence of Lasitskene from the WA list. She jumped a humongous 2.05 m indoor. Is there an unwritten rule in the WA choice which precludes the inclusion of ANA (i.e. russian) athletes from the top lists? Or has it something to do with the fact that Lasitskene is particularly outspoken. Her remark concerning the lift of suspension of S.E. Nasser "It turns out it is faster to break the rules by missing four doping tests and be freed than remain a hostage to being Russian for many years" must have stung the WA priesthood.

Given the WA top ten one can risk predictions as to the top-five finalists. For the men's list my choice is straightforward: my top four ones, namely Duplantis, Cheptegei, Warholm and Vetter complemented by Kiplimo. Concerning the latter my reasoning is "why put him in the men's list only to be taken out after the first round". For the women's list I will start again with my top three, Hassan, Kipchirchir and Gidey. Rojas is the obvious choice for fourth. And there I would be stuck, were I to base my prediction on my own lists. However given the WA choice I think that the fifth finalist will be Yeshaneh. 

Anyhow by mid-November we will be fixed and I will report as soon as the finalists lists are out. Usually they are accompanied by the rising star lists and I admit that I am eagerly waiting for them.

An interview with K. Tsagkarakis, second part

In a previous post I presented the interview with Kostas Tsagkarakis, a marathon runner and organiser, with whom I have forged a strong friendship link over the past years. I have already told the story of how we met, thanks to the book he had written on G. Papavasileiou. In fact, that was the second book Kostas had written on a sports' personality. At the end of out marathon-length interview I asked him to talk about the books and how they came to be.

The first book on marathon runner Chr. Vartzakis.

KT When I was training for the marathon there was Chr. Vartzakis. He was 35 older than myself, born in 1911. When we were running 20 km, Vartzakis was always beating me. And he was not running alone. He was always accompanied by a dozen younger runners and he was the one setting the pace. He always started slowly, warming up progressively. In the 20 km races I was clearly ahead of him at mid distance, however upon reaching the final 2-3 kms I was hearing Vartzakis and company approaching and finally beating me. I was hearing various things about him. He himself was also regularly complaining. He was a man born in the wrong period. He was an athlete of Peiraikos, a club not among the major influential ones. Moreover the coach of Peiraikos was not on good terms with the coach of the national team. 

One day I had the idea of writing a book with his story. I submitted the idea to Vartzakis, making clear that I was no writer and he would have a veto on everything I wrote. Moreover the book would cost him nothing and I was not going to make any profit from it. So we started. I visited regularly his house with a tape recorder. It was a difficult task since Vartzakis did not have a linear narrative. I was taking down everything and had to put some order to all that. I tried to write everything respecting the style of Vartzakis. He showed me all the memorabilia he had collected in his career, cups, medals, diplomas etc. When Vartzakis passed away the family, upon my advice, offered the collection to the Marathon Museum. In the  collection of the Marathon Museum one can find the donation of Vartzakis along with the one of Kyriakidis (the Boston marathon winner) and of more recent marathon runners. Vartzakis has never been the best greek marathoner. His best time was just over 3 hours. He could not compare to Kyriakidis who had a record of 2 and half hours. 

Once the book was written the real difficulty was how to edit it. I started by contacting the main publishers in Athens. They were discouraging, a book with this subject would not sell. They suggested that I pay for the publication, what was practically impossible. All this was just before the 2004 Athens Olympics. I decided to go and meet the Secretary General of the organisation. I had heard about the cultural olympics and that publications were among their activities. I obtained an appointment with him and I presented my project. His first question was whether there was any political views or critiques in the book. Of course, there were none. I left one copy with his secretariat and he promised a prompt answer. A few days later the edition was approved. Then I had to present a budget and so I found a professional printer. He was very well paid but I think that he ripped me off: the edition was too expensive. Also there were many misprints. I had to make several rounds of corrections and some misprints still remain. For the distribution I decided to give a number of copies to each of the clubs of runners for health. I kept a few copies for myself and Vartzakis. We made an official presentation of the book which was attended by many important personalities of the world of sports.

A yearly running competition in honour of Vartzakis

The book was distributed gratis. I did not like this because I know that people would not read a book given out free. I would have preferred to put a nominal price and use the money collected for some special purpose. That was what I decided for my second book.

The second book on the flying steeple-chaser, G. Papavasileiou. 

I had always been an admirer of G. Papavasileiou. I was meeting him regularly at various competitions. One day I asked him whether anybody has written anything on him, his story. Since nobody had done it I suggested that I do it myself. I would write a first draft that he could then amend, and I would need photos, press clippings etc. He knew about the book on Vartzakis and the plan was to make something similar. We agreed and we started recording in the stadium of Nea Ionia. Again I had to work in order to give a structure to these discussions. The problem of the publication arose again. This time I found some other editor who gave me a price half of what I had paid for the first book. By setting a small price for the book we could cover the editing expenses, provided we sold a reasonable number of copies. I contacted the Greek Athletics federation, where Papavasileiou was well known, having occupied several positions in the board, as member of the judges group etc. They agreed to buy 500 copies. 

The announcement of the presentation of the book

The presentation was programmed on the day where the great riots in Athens took place. For the presentation I had obtained the auditorium of the Hall of Commerce of Athens and moreover gratis, something really exceptional. We decided not to adjourn but we feared that nobody would show up a second time. Fortunately people came, more than 100 people showed up. At the reception my wife was selling copies of the book. She knew that, once we reached a number of copies sold, the publishing expenses were covered. While I was giving the presentation talk she made me a sign that we had got there and I could announce that the publication expenses were covered and from now all profits from the selling of the book would go to the Kivotos tou Kosmou, a greek non-profit organisation for the protection of mothers and children. We made a second presentation in Piraeus and we managed to push a few more books. My real disappointment was with AEK, the club of Papavasileiou. They did not show even the smallest interest in supporting the book. But I had also had pleasant surprises. One day a young lady called and ordered two copies of the book. When she gave me her name I realised that she was the daughter of one of my young athletes from Zakynthos, where I had served during my first years in the National Bank, the one who later became champion in steeple-chase. 

So, what's next?

I have more plans for books but most probably the next one will not be a sports-themed one. I am currently working on the history of the suburb where I live. It was populated by people who came as refugees from Asia Minor (hence the name Nea Ionia) in 1922.

My choice of the year's best athlete

All of a sudden I realised that October was the proper moment for the publication of my list of the year's best athletes. Last year's November publication was due to the fact that the World Championships took place unusually late, in October. In fact I asked myself if World Athletics are going to go through their usual selection of the year's best given the unique situation forced upon us by the epidemic. But, whatever they decide, I felt that I had to go through my yearly report and choose the athletes I appreciated most during the 2020 season. 

For men's top three the choice was easy. Three athletes really distinguished themselves this year. Foremost is A. Duplantis. 

He started with two superb world records arriving at 6.18 m, indoors (but, for vertical jumps, indoor world records do count as absolute ones). And then in order to silence those who were thinking that he had not yet surpassed Bubka he did jump 6.15 m outdoors becoming the indisputable ruler of pole vault. 

J. Cheptegei began the season with a road 5 km world record in February. But the serious things came later when he erased Bekele's name from the world record tablets with two superb performances over 5000 m (12:35.36) and 10000 m (26:11.00). Had he managed to win the World Championship of half-Marathon (he finished 4th) he would have shared the first place with Duplantis. As things stand he is in second place.

The third place goes to K. Warholm who has chased the 400 m hurdles world record ending up at less than a tenth of a second with his excellent 46.87 s. What would have occurred had he not stumbled over the last hurdle is still a matter of debate. The record over 300 m hurdles (33.78 s), obtained early in the season, is a consolation. 

The remaining 7 athletes of the top-ten are usually given without any special order. This time I will make an exception and give J. Vetter the 4th place. With his 97.76 m javelin throw he showed us that the 24-years old record of Zelezny is not unattainable. 

R. Grouser has been going after the world record in shot put but he finally had to settle for an 22.91 m.

T. Cheruiyot was unbeaten over the 1500 m this year obtaining a 3:28.45 in the Monaco Herculis meeting in an epic battle with J. Ingebrigtsen where the latter established a European record with 3:28.68. Both have won their place in the top ten.

D. Stahl dominated the discus throw, winning 18 out of 20 competitions, with a year's best of 71.37 m. 

H.F. Zango has won his place in the top-ten for his superb African indoor record in triple jump with 17.77 m at just 15 cm from his coach's (T. Tamgho) world record of 17.92 m.

The last place goes to N. Lyles for his 19.76 s over 200 m together with D. Brazier for his world leading 1:43.15 over 800 m.

As always there is also a "rising star" category, focusing on young, typically U20 (but I do not always apply this rule), athletes. 

The first place is a no-brainer. By winning the World Half-Marathon championships, J. Kiplimo established himself as one of the best long-distance runners. He would have won a place in the men's top ten had I not reserved him for the rising star crown.

The second place goes to  M. Volkov (son of 1980 olympic silver medalist K. Volkov) who at 15 years of age jumped a U16 world record of 5.50 m in pole vault.

Finally, for third place, we have S. Zhoya who improved the U20 60 m hurdles world record with 7.34 s. 

For the women's top the things were less clear. I finally opted for a first place to S. Hassan who improved the 1 hour world record with 18930 m and made a serious attempt at the 10000 m record of Ayana, finally settling, due also to the disastrous meteorological conditions, for "just" a European one with 29:36.67.

The second place goes to P. Jepchirchir who repeated her 2016 victory by winning the 2020 edition of the half-Marathon World Championship, this time accompanied by a (women's only race) world record 1:05:16.

L. Gidey, who broke the 5000 m world record with 14:06.62 occupies the third place in my list of the year's best athletes.

There is no particular order from here onwards. E. Thompson and S. Miller were the best sprinters this year. The first with 10.85 s over 100 m and a brief appearance in the european Diamond League circuits, while the second did not cross the Atlantic, favouring the US circuits, where she ran a 21.98 s 200 m.

F. Kipyegon has been chasing Masterkova's 1000 m record during all summer. In the end she had to settle for an African record of 2:29.15, just 17/100 s off the World one.

M. Lasitskene jumped only during the winter season but managed a world leading 2.05 m in high jump confirming her position at the top of the discipline. Let us hope that the ANA program is not scrapped and that she'll be allowed to participate in the Tokyo Olympics next summer (provided they are held, of course, which is not at all obvious at this point in time).

Y. Rojas improved the indoor triple jump world record with 15.43 m and then she went on to a so-so summer season. If only she had profited from this season's lack of competitions in order to improve her technique ...

I really like this photo of Allman

V. Allman surprised everybody with a US discus record of 70.15 m . With this throw she became the 25th member of the event’s still-exclusive 70-metre club. Allman, trained in dancing, believes that having a deep connection with body movement through dance has been “incredibly beneficial” during her discus career.

I had to choose the tenth athlete among a slew of women who have had a great season: B. Kosgei (winner of the London Marathon and second at the half-Marathon championships), M. Mihambo (who jumped 7.03 m outdoors and 7.07 indoors in the long jump), K. Klosterhalfen (who, with  14:30.79, established a European record over 5000 m indoor), L. Muir (who won all her races over 1500 m, and had a world best of 3:57.40), H. Obiri, undefeated over 3000 m and 5000 m, the two dutch hurdlers, N. Visser (and her world-leading 12.68 s over 100 m hurdles, winning 13 of her 14 races) and F. Bol (who won all her six races, and registered a world leading 53.79 over 400 m hurdles) and A. Sidorova (who jumped a world leading 4.95 m, indoors, in pole vault).  

Finally I settled for the heptathlete I. Dadic. She has the world-leading performance in heptathlon with 6419 points but, what is really impressive, she completed a one-hour heptathlon in July obtaining 6235 points. Her performances are impressive: 13.64 s, 1.80 m, 14.84 m, 24.32 s, 5.76 m, 47.60 m and 2:19.10. Were it not for the slightly below par long jump (where she lost probably 150 points) she would have done almost equally well in the one-hour compared to the two-days event.

For the women's rising star the first place goes to Y. Machuchikh, thanks to her U20 2.02 (indoor) record obtained in February. Unfortunately the remaining season was not on par with this performance since she managed "only" 2.00 m outdoors. So my recommendation is less enthusiastic than the last year's one.

I have reserved the second place to a greek athlete, E. Tzengko. She threw a 63.96 m in the javelin throw improving the U20 world record. Unfortunately due to some technicality (the anti-doping test was performed the following morning) her record cannot be homologated. 

In the third place we have L. Iapichino, the daughter of F. May and G. Iapichino, who, by jumping 6.80 m this summer, showed that she is following in her mother's footsteps.

G. Stark improved the indoor U20 60 m hurdles world record with 7.91 s. A. Shukh (she is 21, but as I said I do not abide WA's rule of under 20) is, at last, starting to show her real potential as heptathlete with a 6386 performance this summer. If she manages to improve her basic speed there is no limit to what she can do. S. Richardson, at 20 years of age, is constantly improving, with 10.95 and 22.00 s over 100 and 200 m. All of them are rising stars.

When (if) World Athletics publish their top-ten list I will definitely report on that, comparing their list to mine.

Competition in the times of the epidemic: a personal experience

I do not write about myself in this blog. In fact, apart from some of the very first posts where I wrote about how I came to be interested in athletics, there is one mention of the sport I practice in the post on mixed relays. There are of course several blogs of mine dealing with my sport but "rethinking" is a blog totally devoted to athletics (where, of course, I present my personal, totally subjective, view of things). This post will be an exception to the general rule. Here I intend to draw upon my personal experience as athlete and present my view on the disastrous, panicky, and responsibility-avoiding handling of the epidemic by the various governments.

But before going into this let me give some background. I am a finswimmer. For those of you who do not know this sport I suggest you google the term finswimming. There are even semi-decent wikipedia articles on this. I am training and swimming at competition level, participating in the masters's age groups competitions. This year the world championships were planned for June. They got postponed to October and transformed into european championships due to the existing travel restrictions.

The author (middle) on the podium of this year's European Masters'

First came the lockdown. All of a sudden one could go out just one hour per day in order to exercise. I am reading the accounts of several top-class athletes who had to improvise training in their backyards or in the street. Now, why on earth an open-air training ground couldn't be accessible to a certain number of athletes is a mystery to me. My assessment of the situation can  be summarised in a single word, panic. The various governments, caught unprepared without even a reserve of the today omnipresent masks, decided to enforce isolation on everybody. And when they realised that this was ruining the economy (was that so difficult to predict?) they lifted the lockdown but kept the training grounds off-limits.

For swimmers the situation was even worse since we need a pool to swim in. In France the swimming pools were inaccessible from March to September. The way I found in order to keep in shape was by doing indoor biking and occasionally going for brisk walks. Running is out of the question unfortunately: after 40 years of finswimming my ankles cannot take much beating. When summer arrived I left for Greece and started training in the sea. I came back to France just when the swimming-pools were opening so that I could do my final preparation for the Europeans. It was a close call since just upon my return from the championship I learned that the swimming pools were again "temporarily" closed. This is something I have trouble understanding. How can closing swimming-pools help mitigate the spreading of the epidemic? Swimming-pools are among the safest places as far as the sars-cov-2 virus is concerned. With a minimum of preventive measures (which are already in place) people can swim (and train) safely. It all boils down to deniability. Governments like to be able to claim that they cannot be held accountable since they have taken these and those measures.

But it is not enough to be able to train. In order to participate in the championships one must be able to travel. And there the nightmare starts. The restrictions imposed by the various governments change every week. I can now understand why there have been so few american athletes present during the Diamond League circuit of competitions. And for professional athletes this is a disaster since they need the money they get from competing in order to live. 

However what is even more important (and applies equally to professional athletes and to amateurs like us) is that one cannot be an athlete without competition. Competition is not about beating the others (although this is also part of the game). Competition is about surpassing oneself. And this is something that all athletes crave for. I cannot describe to you the elation I felt when I found myself in the championship swimming-pool.

This year's competitions were "spectator-free". As far as us finswimmers are concerned this is not a big deal. Our competitions do not attract big crowds. So the fact that it was only us competitors in the pool did not make any difference. (But the fact that you had to wear a mask while in the stands and during the award ceremonies was not the nicest of experiences). I don't know if the elite athletes are feeling the absence of spectators. Compete in a stadium in the presence of tens of thousands people must be a unique feeling.

I really like this photo of Hassan

And now the season is over. Its conclusion was a superb european record by S. Hassan in the 10000 m with 29:36.67 beating at last Radcliffe's 2002 record (E. Abeylegesse's 29:56.34 was expunged for a doping violation). As chance would have it, Radcliffe missed the 30 min barrier by a mere second due to the heavy rain she had to run under and Hassan had to convert her assault at Ayana's world record to a more modest objective due to the same pesky rain.

The night of the world records

I was looking forward to this event ever since Cheptegei broke the 5000 m world record. What I did not expect was that what was planned was a double assault, with Gidey taking a shot at the long-standing Dibaba's 5000 m record.

M. Gidey is more of a 10000 m specialist. She was second in last year's  World's over that distance. Her previous best over the shorter distance was "just" 14:23.14 from 2018. So I was somewhat sceptical when the attempt was announced. However I was to be proven overly cautious. Paced superbly by none other than the steeplechase world champion and record holder B. Chepkoech, she passed at 3000 m in 8:31.85 right on the planned pace. And from there onwards she continued even increasing slightly her rhythm drawing on her last reserves on the final stretch and finishing with a amazing 14:06.62.

It was a unique moment when Chepkoech rushed to hug Gidey, literally lifting her off her feet. 

When A. Ayana ran that "out of this world" 29:17.45 during the Rio, 2016, Olympics, I pointed out that that performance was equivalent to a sub-14 min 5 km.

It looked quite possible since at the time Ayana had a 14:12.59 personal best in that distance. (And then Ayana went on to loose the olympic 5000 m, and essentially disappear after 2017). But now that I have seen Gidey running in such a regular and efficient way in Valencia, I am again optimistic about a sub-14 min 5000 m record in a not-too-distant future.

Speaking of regularity, I think that the best innovation in track events is the Wavelight pacing system. Not only does it ensure a correct pacing all the way up to the finish line, something impossible with human pacers, it is also of great usefulness to the spectators. It was funny, over the last lap, to see Gidey turn her head to see how far ahead of the lights, moving at the world record pace, she was. 

J. Cheptegei is the new name in middle-to-long distance running. When he announced that he was going to tackle the 10000 m record I did a fast calculation and it resulted that all he had to do is run a constant 63 s lap. Well, this is easier said than done, but if anybody could do it that was Cheptegei. In his enterprise he was helped by a superb pacer, N. Kimeli, a last year's World's finalist in the 5000 m with PBs of 12:51.79 and 26:58.97 in the 5000 and 10000 m respectively. Kimeli led Cheptegei to a 13:07.73 first 5000 m (and, surprisingly, he did not drop out of the race, as almost all pacers do, but carried on, finishing in 27:12.98). Cheptegei necessitated a few laps before finding his own pace, but once he reached the seventh kilometre it was clear that the record was within his grasp.

His final time, 26:11.00, is even better than the 63 s per lap I talked about in the previous paragraph. There has even been some pre-race speculation that Cheptegei could attack the 26-min barrier. My own feeling was that it was a tad too early for this. But now that he has mastered the sub 63 s pace, a 62.5 s one (corresponding to a round 26 min) is not unrealistic. 

In the meantime Cheptegei has another objective: the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships, which will take place on October 17th. It might turn out that 10 days are not enough for Cheptegei to recover from his herculean effort, but one never knows. In any case I will keep an eye open. 

PS. Well, 10 days were not enough. Cheptegei could manage just a 4th place, in a race won by his compatriot, young and talented, J. Kiplimo.

The blog is seven years old

 Last year, at the end of my anniversary post I was giving an appointment to my readers for this October, saying "once we have survived the Tokyo Olympics". Who in their right minds could have imagined what would happen just a few months later? The epidemic arrived and nothing was the same anymore. The year that had started incredibly well, went all of a sudden sour. All major competitions were adjourned, beginning with the Olympics. Now we have to wait till next July for them and it is already made clear that there will be no further postponement: if the Games are not held in 2021 they will not be held at all. In which case Tokyo will have the unique "privilege" of having seen the Games programmed for it cancelled twice.

In this topsy-turvy situation World Athletics tried to save what could be salvaged. Some competitions were organised both in the Diamond League series and the Continental Tour ones. There were even some nice performances, foremost among which are the pole vault jump of Duplantis and the 5000 m world record of Cheptegei. But, on the whole, the year was rather underwhelming, failing to create the excitement associated with the major championships.

The blog fared well, managing over a thousand views per month since March (with the exception of April which was smack in the middle of the lockdown period). But of course the statistics are rendered meaningless by the October 2019 spike of 24k visits. I have never managed to understand where those visits were coming from, but their presence makes the analysis of the numbers nigh impossible.

In the absence of major competitions I managed to keep the blog alive thanks to more technical and sometimes historical articles. If you are new to the blog and wonder what to read, I would recommend the January 1st post on "Eleven wretched women, or how fake news almost killed women athletics". It tells the story  of the first olympic 800 m for women, during the Amsterdam, 1928, Olympics and how the ambient misogyny tried to stifle women's athletics. 

It is clear that the coming months will be no picnic, but will the blog continue? Definitely yes, despite the difficulties. I am not through yet with rethinking athletics.

An interview with K. Tsagkarakis, first part

If you follow this blog you have certainly come across the article on the flying steeple-chaser, G. Papavasileiou, (who, sadly, passed away recently). In that article I tell the story of how did I come to meet Kostas Tsagkarakis. When researching for my "flying steeple-chaser" article, I discovered the existence of a book he had written, I met him and we ended up becoming close friends. For months (years?) now I have been pestering him for an interview. I managed to convince him and, in one of my recent travels to Greece, we sat down and had a lengthy discussion. Below I give a (non-verbatim) transcription of the interview.

The author with K. Tsagkarakis in front of the Panathenaic Stadium

BG. How did you come to love athletics?

KT. I started running already since I was a child. In our school we had a very big schoolyard and during breaks we were running all the time. Our schoolteacher was organising competitions every year and there I realised that I was not good at speed events. So I started interesting myself in longer events. Even if I was not the best in the latter I was, at least, competitive. So I've been running since I was 9 years old.

Growing up things gradually became more serious. I could train in the stadium of the physical education academy, which was very close to my house. One year I participated in a popular competition organised by the main athletic journal of the time, "Athlitiki Icho". It was a 5 km race starting at the Panathenaic stadium. For my first participation I arrived at 53rd position among 400 participants. The following year I finished 8th. Various club representatives were at the arrival looking for promising new talents. Myself, I had been working, during the off-school hours, at a printing shop held by the Misailides brothers. That was the family of Ilias Misailides, a well-known champion, specialist of 400 m, belonging to the club of Panionios. Naturally I ended up belonging to the club of Panionios. During my high-school years I participated in a competition organised by the municipality of Dafni. I ran 2.5 km and finished first. The following year I convinced a friend of mine to join me. That was a bad idea because he finished first and I had to content myself with second place. After finishing high-school I stopped training at Panionios (more on Panionios later).

A parenthesis here

Our printing shop was responsible for all things related to athletic events. So I could always manage to obtain an invitation for the competitions held in the Panathenaic Stadium.

BG. And I would add two personal remarks at this point. 

First, I was not missing a single competition in the Panathenaic stadium since the end of the 50s. So, there a big chance that we may have been seated next to each other with Kostas, in particular when G. Papavasileiou was running the steeples.

Second, I have trained for two-three seasons at the beginning of the 60s in the Panionios stadium. So, I may have bumped into Kostas there, but properly meeting him had to wait for 50 more years.

Back to the interview

KT. Before proceeding, a funny story on steeple chase. As you know I was an admirer of our great champion G. Papavasileiou. One day I decided to show to a friend of mine how does one jump the river. In my training in Panionios, under Misailides and Depastas, we had also been doing hurdle exercises. So I was confident that I could show the proper technique of jumping over the river. There was no water in the river, not enough lighting, and I had a short, 10 m, run-up. So I ended up falling head-first in the hole and I had to be reanimated. I spent three months recovering and that ended my steeple ambitions.

After high school I had to decide what to do professionally and I obtained a position in the National Bank. I spent a few years in various provinces (where I continued running) and then was transferred to Athens. Upon arriving to Athens my first priority became to finish my studies: I was studying law in the University of Athens. After obtaining my diploma I had to do my military service. During my service I was running with my combat boots, having heard that Zatopek was training with these heavy shoes so as to feel lighter when wearing his spikes.

The 1987 Marathon race. K.T. on the right together with athletes of

the club of runners for health

The Marathon saga

During the years I was frequenting the Panathenaic Stadium I became aware of the Marathon race. At that time the classical race was held on April 6th, the Olympic Day. Many big names among foreign runners were participating in this competition. I remember having seen the famous B. Abebe running the classical marathon (me too). I was impressed but also envious. My great desire was to be able to run a marathon, be it once. 

Once I had finished with the military service, that was in August 75, I started running from the very next day. And I have never stopped. I am joking saying that I have yet to arrive at my destination. So I decided to participate in the marathon, but the race was reserved to 'official' athletes. The fact that I belonged to Panionios came in handy at this point. I contacted my ex-coach and told him I wished to run the marathon. He was somewhat astonished and he asked me whether I was running 300-400 km per month. What could I answer, when my quota was around 100-120. I mumbled something and he agreed to let me participate.

That was my first bad experience. At that time the conditions were far from favourable. Once the champions had passed for the remaining runners the ones who could finish in 3, 3 and a half hours there was nothing. No water was left in the intermediate stations and moreover the weather was hot despite the season (April). At the 36 km there was in the middle of the road a separation with grass and which was being watered. I could not resist I started drinking without a second thought but as I lowered myself I got a severe cramp and could not even stand. So I could only drop out of the race and waited for the security vehicle to pick me up. That was my first negative experience from the marathon: I arrived at the stadium on a stretcher.

In October another marathon race was organised, this time open to everybody. I was more experienced and knew that I had to drink more. What we were doing along the road is to ask for water at the various coffee shops. Sometimes there were peasants, working the field, who were offering us water. I finished my first marathon in 5 hours.

The first organisations

I started forming a group together with other runners and participating in popular running events. The group started growing and we were participating under the label "the athletes from A. Kosmas", from the name fo the stadium where we were training. We were training without any supervision inventing our own program. Our motto, was "run a marathon, you can do it", we had even a banner with this. (Now that I think about this, I am not convinced that it was a good advice: a marathon needs serious preparation, training, medical supervision. But at that time we were naive). In order to encourage people along this direction we decided to organise an open competition over 20 km, in May 1978. That was a first for Greece. We asked the national athletics federation to help us by appointing judges but they only laughed at us, hinting that we were running in order to stay slim. In 1981 we decided to create our own association the "club of running for health" (of Athens). Upon creating the club I assumed the presidency (for one  year mandate). We were organising the 20 km competition and later a 10 km. The starting and arrival was in A. Kosmas. Later we started organising, in May, a competition in Ymittos, over 2, 4 and 8 km.

Running the 20 km together with a vision-impaired athlete

We started helping the peripheral municipalities in organising competitions. I liked offering my services and was good at organising. I was keeping notes and a written record after the race. Our club or runners for health got imitators. Several clubs of `health runners' were created all over Greece. 

Back to the Marathon

I was pursuing my marathon dream. At that time there was still a US military base in Athens and they organised a marathon. It was again in spring and again around noontime. Unfortunately two days before the race I had a small accident with my scooter where I hurt my leg. Since I was really painful I decided to take an analgesic pill before the marathon start. I took a double dose without reading the contraindications. Had I read them I would have seen that the medicine produced somnolence. At some point I realised that I was running half-asleep and so I decided to drop out of the race. That was the second time I abandoned a race. In fact there was a third one. That was again because of dehydration, due to lack of experience. I was so thirsty that I asked a passing truck driver to give me something to drink. Unfortunately the fruit juice he offered me was too cold and I immediately vomited it. Those were the only three times I dis not finish a marathon. So up to now I have completed 42 marathons, the last one in 2019. I adore the classical marathon and when I am running the classical race this gives me strength to finish it although it's one of the most difficult. I am afraid that if I tried another marathon I would not be able to finish it. Of course having run so often I know the classical route by  heart. 

K. Tsagkarakis, for once in a non-Marathon race, in Distomo (2014)

Organising Marathons

At one point I decided that I had to do something in order to improve the organisation of the classical marathon. Our first action was at the start of a marathon, just when the television crew was filming, to show a banner protesting for the bad organisation of the classical race. We missed participating in the marathon but we could at least voice our discontent. We were collecting data on the participation of foreigners but also their critiques. I started writing to the greek athletics federation. The member of the federation responsible for the marathon was heeding my complains but his answer was that whatever he proposed was ignored by the higher-ups. In the end he suggested that I present personally my ideas at the council. That was in 1998-99 and from that time I never stopped. At the beginning I met quite some hostility but fortunately the councils of the federations are not permanent. What did also help was the fact that the federation realised that the classical marathon could become a major event and even help financially.

Although I haven't participated in races abroad I knew, having discussed with the foreigners who were coming for the classical marathon, I had a good idea on how were marathons organised abroad. Since I had a voice in the council I could try to implement some simple changes. Sometimes it took years even for something simple but in the end it was done. In the beginning one had to pay for the commemorative medal. For me that was against the athletic spirit. Still to tell the truth, at that time you did not have to pay anything for your participation. Unfortunately this is no more so and that was a decision taken contrary to my recommendations.

Fortunately our reactions had a result and in 1983 was organised the first marathon in memory of G. Lambrakis (the well-known politician, physician, track and field athlete, and associate-professor in the University of Athens assassinated by far-right extremists in 1963. He was a prominent anti-war activist and marched alone the Marathon – Athens Peace Rally in 1963). The marathon race, at that time, was known as the Peace Marathon. 

Running the Peace Marathon, 2012, with a pennant like 

the one held by Lambrakis in the Peace March of 1963 

Later, when Alpha Bank became the main sponsor of the marathon the word "peace" disappeared from the marathon. All the participants of the marathon were getting a medal upon their arrival, but that was a medal without ribbon. I was finding that inappropriate and the argument that "threading the ribbon was too much work" downright ridiculous. People would be so proud to wear the medal on their chest and the ceremony having the medal handed by a lady in traditional attire, a unique experience. One thing that was also done were the kilometric indications. Now there are permanent along the marathon route, but of course every five years the distance is measured afresh with great precision. The actual record of the classical marathon goes back to the 2004 Olympics and is held by A. Baldini.

Organising Clubs

I am living in the suburb of Nea Ionia. as soon we moved there in 1986, I enquired about the possibilities for athletics and I found out that the football field was in fact a perfect stadium, with a 400  m, 8 lane, track. When I saw that, I started training and with the help of the runners for health I organised an athletics meeting. What was missing was a club. So in 1988 I organised an athletics competition for the school children of Nea Ionia. At the beginning only three schools participated. (Today there are more than 40 with more than 1200 participants).

The need for a club was clear, since the talented children were seeking nearby clubs in order to pursue their activities. Everybody was discouraging me saying that only football can flourish in Nea Ionia, never athletics. Finally I decided to create the club myself. Of course, I could not do this alone. My friend, G. Ioannou, professor of physical education, did help me a lot. He is now deputy mayor, responsible of sports. I knew several people of Nea Ionia who were running and I presented them the idea. They all agreed, provided I took care of that. We had already several potential athletes among the school-boys and girls. G. Ioannou would take care of training and I had to assume the administrative tasks. I convened a first meeting among interested people, also, in order to see if there were enough potential members. In this meeting, where I explained our plan, and the need for financial support in order to launch the club. So in 1996 we created the sports club of Nea Ionia under the name of Anatoli, a reference to the origin of most inhabitants of Nea Ionia, who came from Asia Minor in 1922. But also an allusion (since Anatoli means both East and Sunrise) to the fact that the club will never reach its sunset. And now, 24 years later, the club is still thriving. 

We are organising annually road races for school children, with traffic security, medical coverage, prizes and each year the race was devoted to something important,: environment, against drugs or smoking, against violence, against bulling etc. And this was accompanied by series of conferences where the parents of the schoolchildren were also invited. We had a great success. In 1996, we organised a painting exhibition with the theme of Olympic Games. But I wished to introduce something reminding the first, 1896, Olympics. The one name everybody knows is that of S. Louis, the marathon winner. I found somebody who had a physical resemblance to Louis, I convinced him to dress in the traditional peasants manner in which Louis is depicted in many photos. He did not take the start together of the official race but was hidden in a corner close to the arrival and when the others came close he started running finishing first. That had a great success.

I have the complete archives of 30 years' organisations, since they started in 1986.

Award  ceremony by the Greek Athletic Federation to the

two marathon runners with most participations in the 

Classical Marathon (K.T. on the right), Athens 2012

At this point we started discussing the books Kostas Tsagkarakis has authored. Since I feel that this merits a special presentation (although I have written about the book of G. Papavasileiou) we shall conclude this part of the interview here.