British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

World Indoor Athletics Championships

JonH · Tennis legend

Stircrazy wrote:
Team GB picked up its first gold yesterday courtesy of Josh Kerr in the 3000 metres. Today was super Sunday: THREE golds - Georgia Hunter Bell in the 1500 metres, Molly Caudery in the pole vault & last, but not least, the most likely candidate, Keely Hodginson, the reigning world record-holder, in the 800 metres - in 28 minutes!

Really hope Keely improves on 28 mins as the season progresses though!

actually, please take that as tongue in cheek as I realise there was a dash before and after the list of gold successes, it just amused me when I first read it!

-- Edited by JonH on Sunday 22nd of March 2026 10:11:06 PM

Christine · Strong Club Player

Keely then went on to run in the 4x400m relay and ran the fastest leg of any of the runners of all nationalities in that race - she did look a bit red faced in the interview!!!

indiana · Tennis legend

Super by Keely and the others

With her Olympic gold in 2024 and world indoor record achieved last week, her sights are very clearly on taking down that very long standing controversial outdoor world record. And while a potentially busy year, this is not an outdoor Olympics or World Championship year, so a year to go for it.

Indoor: Keely WR 1.54.87 ( took down Ceplova's previous record of 1.55.82 from 2002! )

Outdoor: Keely PB 1.54.61 ( WR 1.53.28 by Kratochvilova in 1983!! )

I've just seen a good video, analysing her chances, looking at such as divergences between top athletes' indoor and outdoor bests and how much runs have been targetted. It sure won't be easy but a great goal to have.

youtu.be/d5v3okWKGGA

JonH · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
Super by Keely and the others

With her Olympic gold in 2024 and world indoor record achieved last week, her sights are very clearly on taking down that very long standing controversial outdoor world record. And while a potentially busy year, this is not an Olympics or World Championship year so a year to go for it.

Indoor: Keely WR 1.54.87 ( took down Ceplova's previous record of 1.55.82 from 2002! )

Outdoor: Keely PB 1.54.61 ( WR 1.53.28 by Kratochvilova in 1983!! )

I've just seen a good video, analysing her chances, looking at such as divergences between top athletes' indoor and outdoor bests and how much runs have bwen targetted. It sure won't be easy but a great goal to have.

youtu.be/d5v3okWKGGA

I am amazed Kratochvilova's record has been allowed to stand all this time when clearly it was very highly dubious for lots of obvious reasons. Presumably there has never been any hard evidence of wrongdoing.

The only other record I can think of lasting a LONG time is Jonathan Edwards triple jump - his record was the outcome of perfect technique, timing and speed and still amazes me as one of the greatest athletic records ever. I guess people on the Czech tennis forum may cast aspersions on that one as I am on the Kratochvilova one, so hope it isnt rose tinted glasses, but Edwards , for me, was a perfect jump that will be hard to beat.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

JonH wrote:
The only other record I can think of lasting a LONG time is Jonathan Edwards triple jump - his record was the outcome of perfect technique, timing and speed and still amazes me as one of the greatest athletic records ever. I guess people on the Czech tennis forum may cast aspersions on that one as I am on the Kratochvilova one, so hope it isnt rose tinted glasses, but Edwards , for me, was a perfect jump that will be hard to beat.

And Edwards himself doesn't think "it's a good sign for athletics as a sport that you have a record that stands for 30 years".

indiana · Tennis legend

Stircrazy wrote:
JonH wrote:
The only other record I can think of lasting a LONG time is Jonathan Edwards triple jump - his record was the outcome of perfect technique, timing and speed and still amazes me as one of the greatest athletic records ever. I guess people on the Czech tennis forum may cast aspersions on that one as I am on the Kratochvilova one, so hope it isnt rose tinted glasses, but Edwards , for me, was a perfect jump that will be hard to beat.
And Edwards himself doesn't think "it's a good sign for athletics as a sport that you have a record that stands for 30 years".

Interesting that the long, high and triple jump records are 3 of the 5 longest standing men's outdoor records with the triple jump the 5th oldest, and some of Edwards' thoughts on this.

There have been debates and proposals about expunging old records, created in times with less testing, but to which the obvious counterpoint is that presumably some of these are 'pure' and thoroughly deserve to be so highlighted until someone does better. Difficult if you can't now prove who the guilty were ( even if some considerable doubts ) and there are others with much less doubts.

JonH · Tennis legend

I think Jonathan in part explains the longevity in that athletics just doesnt attract the best athletic talent in many countries and so the inate quality isnt there to push on standards. Tall guys in many countries go for basketball, not high jump, others go for football, world and American varieties etc etc. And maybe athletics is left with a smaller pool. But why three jumping events would be the ones with longstanding records is not answered by that, of course.

paulisi · Tennis legend

Events tend to go in cycles.
Mens TJ and HJ have struggled in recent years, mainly as the best athletes either retired or got injured and nobody stepped up.

indiana · Tennis legend

paulisi wrote:
Events tend to go in cycles.
Mens TJ and HJ have struggled in recent years, mainly as the best athletes either retired or got injured and nobody stepped up.

Hmm, I do thinlk such as these 3 jump records that go back more than 30 years are interesting to consider. These are very long 'cycles' after I assume much more consistent progress in earlier years. Why has no-one truly stepped up in all that time?

To me it asks questions like were these simply sheer phenomenons in the 1990s or consideration of maybe some of Jonathan's points and others.

christ · Challenger qualifying

I seem to recall that Bob Beamon's long jump record stood for a very long time, too, in its day.

... and oddly the Pole Vault record is beaten every other day (but by the same bloke all the time).

I think that some sports records lend themselves to being set by "freaks of nature" (no offence intended), and therefore such record breakers don't come along very often.