New sporting record by biggest margin

[Mumpo]

...or as I wanted to put, if it'd have fitted in the subject field - which sporting record has been broken by the biggest margin?

For clarity, and ease of comparison, let's say in percentage terms compared to the existing record.

[Levin]

New sporting record by biggest margin

Wasn't there a soviet athlete who pushed up the pole vault record a centimetre at a time deliberately? Which I realise is the opposite of what you're asking.

Edit: it'll be Bolt won't it?

[Furtho]

New sporting record by biggest margin

I've just read on that Twitter, "Bolt lowering 9.69 to 9.58 (1.14%) is [a higher percentage] than Junxia's to Ayana's bests (0.81%)."

[longeared]

New sporting record by biggest margin

Start with the obvious one - Bob Beamon took the long jump record from 8.35m to 8.90m. That's a 6.59% increase.

[Levin]

New sporting record by biggest margin

Looking at the progression tables on wikipedia it's odd how lots of records haven't been improved upon since the mid to late 90s.

Edit: or rather, throwing records mid 80s, endurance events mid 90s. I wonder why.

[Reed John]

New sporting record by biggest margin

Babe Ruth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Major_League_Baseball_progressive_single-season_home_run_leaders

Of course, he broke his own record a few times. He hit more in a year then many teams.

Here's the progression for career record.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Major_League_Baseball_progressive_career_h ome_runs_leaders

Before he hit 714, the career record was 138.

Ricky Henderson stole 1,406 bases in his career. He beat Lou Brock's record by 468.

At the time Gretzky got 215 points in a season, the highest non-Gretzky number was Phil Esposito with 152. When he scored 92 goals in a year, the record was Esposito's 76.

[Ek weet nie]

New sporting record by biggest margin

What was the record before Arbroath 36 Bon Accord 0 in 1885?

[tee rex]

New sporting record by biggest margin

Michael Crawford tried to run an Olympic marathon in under 2 hours, nearly half a century ago. That would win the thread.

I vaguely remember the film but not the result, so I can't tell you if he did it.

[Janik]

New sporting record by biggest margin

Longest Tennis match (by time) prior to Isner-Mahut:- Santoro bt Clement in 6h33. Isner-Mahut = 11h05. An increase of 69%. Other metrics like games played show similar increases. Record-obilterating is how wikipedia describes that match. Which sounds about right.

[Janik]

New sporting record by biggest margin

And, always, Don Bradman. His test batting average is still 64% more than the next best amongst players whose careers are completed (and played >20 test innings), and that 2nd place spot post-dates him.

[Sam]

New sporting record by biggest margin

Janik wrote: Longest Tennis match (by time) prior to Isner-Mahut:- Santoro bt Clement in 6h33. Isner-Mahut = 11h05. An increase of 69%. Other metrics like games played show similar increases. Record-obilterating is how wikipedia describes that match. Which sounds about right.

Santoro-Clement has since been pushed into third place, of course, by Mayer-Souza during Argentina v Brazil in last year's Davis Cup, what I were at. And even that entire match didn't last as long as the fifth set of Isner-Mahut.

Percentage terms for time are going to be tricky, aren't they? A marathon runner can't hope to take as big a percentage off the world record as Bolt did off the 100 metres one. They'd have to beat it by roughly a minute and 24 seconds.

And as I work that out, I discover that Derek Clayton took the marathon world record down from 2:12:00 to 2:09:36.4 in December 1967. 1.14% of two hours and twelve minutes is one and a half minutes.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

New sporting record by biggest margin

Le Vin wrote: Wasn't there a soviet athlete who pushed up the pole vault record a centimetre at a time deliberately?

Sergey Bubka, who had the good fortune to start breaking records when athletics was giving up its amateur status pretence, and when meeting promoters were offering decent bonuses for a world record - he may well have worked out that it was more lucrative to break it one cm at a time rather than go for a big break.

Wiki reveals a nice snippet I didn't know, or had forgotten, "Bubka lost his outdoor world record only once in his illustrious career. After Thierry Vigneron, of France, broke his record on 31 August 1984 at the Golden Gala international track meet in Rome, Bubka subsequently reclaimed the record on his next run, just minutes later".

[Sam]

New sporting record by biggest margin

I'm sure when Bolt first took the 100m world record with that ridiculous run where he seemed to be slowing up with twenty metres to go, he afterwards said that he wanted to leave himself the chance to get another world record bonus in the future, or something.

[Satchmo Distel]

New sporting record by biggest margin

Beamon graph:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_jump_world_record_progression

[Crystal Staples]

New sporting record by biggest margin

It's mindblowing that Mike Powell has now held the record for even longer than Beamon did. And also that Carl Lewis jumped over 8.75m four times that day in Tokyo to win the silver behind him, and no athlete has legally reached that mark since.

Yelena Isanbayeva is another pole vaulter who broke world records by small margins, 28 of them.

[Gerontophile]

New sporting record by biggest margin

Yeah, but Isinbayeva is a cunt, and can fuck off.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

New sporting record by biggest margin

Levin wrote:

Looking at the progression tables on wikipedia it's odd how lots of records haven't been improved upon since the mid to late 90s.

Edit: or rather, throwing records mid 80s, endurance events mid 90s. I wonder why.

Don't they keep increasing the weight of the javelin, to ensure that no-one can fling it clean into the crowd at the other end, each time people start getting up to about the 90m mark?

And as for the pole vault, why don't they just use longer poles?

[Big Boobs and FIRE!]

New sporting record by biggest margin

Ek weet nie wrote: What was the record before Arbroath 36 Bon Accord 0 in 1885?

Earlier the same day, Dundee Harp had beaten Aberdeen Rovers 35-0. The referee had marked down 37 goals but only 35 scorers. He therefore submitted the lower score. After all, it would only matter if another team were to win 36-0, and the chances of that happening was billions to one.

[GCostanza]

New sporting record by biggest margin

American Samoa losing 31-0 in Australia, surely?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_31%E2%80%930_American_Samoa

[Sam]

New sporting record by biggest margin

Crystal Staples wrote: It's mindblowing that Mike Powell has now held the record for even longer than Beamon did. And also that Carl Lewis jumped over 8.75m four times that day in Tokyo to win the silver behind him, and no athlete has legally reached that mark since.

Jonathan Edwards' triple jump record is only a few years behind - 21 years, a month and a bit and counting. Prior to him the longest-standing men's triple jump world record was the first ever holder of the record, Dan Ahearn, who held it for 13 years between 1911 and 1924.

Rogin, my guess on the pole vault would be that making it much longer might reduce the amount of safe flex in the pole, perhaps? Also of course they've got to be able to build up some momentum during their run-up, so a 60-metre long pole wouldn't be much use. It'd be interesting to read about whether that sweet spot has yet been found though.

[ursus arctos]

New sporting record by biggest margin

The javelin is redesigned by moving the centre of gravity forward, rather than increasing its weight.

[gjt]

New sporting record by biggest margin

ursus arctos wrote: The javelin is redesigned by moving the centre of gravity forward, rather than increasing its weight.

which provided a handy way to reset the mid-80s-set women's javelin record.

The minor (recorded) cricket individual innings record went from 628* (set in 1899) to 1009* this year in an Indian schools' age-group match, which probably will stand for a long time.

[Satchmo Distel]

New sporting record by biggest margin

Worth noting that Lewis set his long jump marks while also competing in 100m, 200m and relay. How far would he have gone had he only competed in long jump?

When Michael Johnson ran the 200m in 19.32 in 1996, no other runner had previously run under 19.73 at sea level or 19.72 at altitude.

[Reed John]

New sporting record by biggest margin

As I recall, for a long time, the high jump was treated like a big hurdle. Then somebody figured out the backwards flop and it revolutionized the event. Not sure what the increase in height was but I'm sure it was dramatic and whatever the record is now is much higher than it would have been if they'd kept doing it the old way.

[Reed John]

New sporting record by biggest margin

gjt wrote:

The javelin is redesigned by moving the centre of gravity forward, rather than increasing its weight.

which provided a handy way to reset the mid-80s-set women's javelin record.

The minor (recorded) cricket individual innings record went from 628* (set in 1899) to 1009* this year in an Indian schools' age-group match, which probably will stand for a long time.

Is there no Slaughter Rule in kids' cricket?