Indoor vs Outdoor World Records (IAAF Article)

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http://www.iaaf.org/news/Kind=2/newsId=28102.html

World indoor field event records: how good are they?
Thursday 23 December 2004


In a recent discussion on the IAAF internet regarding the merit of World indoor track records it was noted that the three IAAF men’s record events in which the best outdoor mark was closest to the indoor one, the record-holder was the same for both versions: Daniel Komen in the 3000m, Wilson Kipketer in the 800m and Kenenisa Bekele in the 5000m.


Taking a look at the men’s field events the same precedent holds true for the two best relative World indoor records, the Pole Vault and High Jump. In fact, of the men’s field events, the Pole Vault is the only one where the best indoor performance (6.15 by Sergey Bubka) exceeds the top one outdoors (6.14 by Bubka), a differential of 0.6 percent. In the High Jump 0.8 percent separates the outdoor and indoor WRs of Javier Sotomayor.


Despite Christian Olsson’s record equalling 17.83 in the Triple Jump last March, it still lags the outdoor best of 18.29 by 2.6 percent, the biggest gap for any of the field events. It’s also well behind many of the percent differentials for track running, but then again there are less comparable field events held undercover. It comes down to the four jumps – High Jump, Pole Vault, Long Jump and Triple Jump – plus the Shot Put.  NB. there are occasional indoor Discus and Javelin Throw competitions inside some very large indoor halls in the Nordic region but there are no official World records for these indoor throws


The five women’s indoor events show a spread of between 0.6 and 2.0 percent relative to the best outdoors, with the Shot Put on the small end (22.63 versus 22.50) and the Long Jump on the large extreme (7.52 versus 7.37).


The women’s Shot Put is arguably the strongest indoor field record. When Helena Fibingerova set that record back in March 1977 it was not only one of the infrequent indoor marks that was superior to the contemporary outdoor mark, but, in fact, more than half a metre better than the 21.99 she threw the previous September. That indoor mark wasn’t surpassed outdoors for more than seven years by Natalya Lisovskaya. Only four outdoor tosses by Lisovskaya have gone beyond 22.50.


But ‘watch this space’,  as of course, in the coming months of indoor competition a certain Russian Pole vaulter might very well wish to alter the statistics, and return the best outdoor performance of 4.92, which is the current World record, once more into deficit when compared to the best vault indoors. We are of course talking about female World Athlete of the Year Yelena Isinbayeva, as seemingly whenever she sets foot on the runway statistical alterations tend to follow!


Marty Post for the IAAF



MEN
Event - Out - In - % lower
High Jump 2.45, 2.43 - 0.8%
Pole Vault 6.14, 6.15 - 0.2%
Long Jump 8.95, 8.79 - 1.8%
Triple Jump 18.29, 17.83 - 2.6%
Shot Put 23.12, 22.66 - 2.0%


WOMEN
Event - Out - In - % lower
High Jump 2.09, 2.07 - 1.0%
Pole Vault  4.92, 4.86 - 1.2%
Long Jump 7.52, 7.37 - 2.0%
Triple Jump 15.50, 15.35 - 1.0%
Shot Put 22.63, 22.50 - 0.6%