{"id":76608,"date":"2025-03-29T07:59:42","date_gmt":"2025-03-28T23:59:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/?p=76608"},"modified":"2025-03-29T07:59:42","modified_gmt":"2025-03-28T23:59:42","slug":"how-to-set-a-world-record-in-three-easy-steps-a-column-by-len-johnson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/runnerstribe.com\/features\/how-to-set-a-world-record-in-three-easy-steps-a-column-by-len-johnson\/","title":{"rendered":"How to set a world record in three easy steps | A column by Len Johnson"},"content":{"rendered":"

A column by Len Johnson<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to set a world record. Asked once how he felt about doing it, Ron Clarke responded that once you\u2019ve set one it\u2019s just a matter of running a personal best.<\/span><\/p>\n

Clarke should know. He set anywhere from 18 to 21 world records in his storied career. The first, for six miles in the 1963 Zatopek 10,000 was a simple maths exercise, Judging Sando Iharos\u2019s record as ripe for the picking, Clarke devised a lap schedule and stuck to it. His second record \u2013 the 10,000 metres \u2013 was almost as easy, just a matter of finishing the race, which he was reminded to do by his mate Neil Robbins.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Australian Running Legend, Ron Clarke.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I started thinking about world records when the bar in the men\u2019s pole vault at last week\u2019s world indoor championships went up to 6.00 metres with both Mondo Duplantis and Emmanouil Karalis tied in the lead. Neither had missed a height and Karalis now elected to pass. I wondered whether anyone had ever passed at six metres before, a mark only 29 men have ever achieved, other than through tactical necessity.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a9Mondo Duplantis(AP Photo\/Bernat Armangue)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Turns out you only had to go back a couple of weeks to the All Star Perche (French for pole vault) on 1 March, Duplantis won with the latest of his 11 world records of 6.27. Karalis was second, with both men keeping a clean sheet up to 6.02. Neither attempted 6.00, though this was just the set progression of heights \u2013 5.97 to 6.02 – rather than a tactical decision by either vaulter.<\/span><\/p>\n

But another thought occurs. The 6.27 Duplantis cleared at the All Star meeting is his outright personal best. When Sergey Bubka first cleared six metres in Paris in 1985 he came into the competition at 5.70, just 24 centimetres below his then PB of 5.94. How long, I wonder, before we see Duplantis \u2013 or Karalis \u2013 enter a competition at six metres. Unthinkable, isn\u2019t it (or wasn\u2019t it).<\/span><\/p>\n