RECORDS SECURE

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30879, 12 October 1965, Page 23

RECORDS SECURE

Effect Of Altitude (Special Crspdt. N.Z.P.AJ LONDON. A member of the Medical Research Council, Dr. L. G. C. E. Pugh has worked out a system which will enable anyone to discover how performances are likely to be affected at the 1968 Olympiad in Mexico City, according to the “Sunday Times.” His method is quite straightforward. He took the averages for the best three times in the track events at the 1955 Pan American Games, and the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, and plotted a graph showing the differences between the sea level and Mexico City times against distance. It shows that for events between 400 metres and 10,000 metres, there is a straightforward relationship between the two. “It means, for example, that a performance equal to Herb Elliott’s winning 1500 metres in Rome in 3min 35.6 sec (the Olympic record) would be 13 seconds slower at Mexico City’s altitude because of the effect of the thin air is to add 6 per cent to a sea-level time. "So if Dr. Pugh’s graph is correct, it is possible to say now, three years before the Games, that records for all running events over 400 metres are secure until 1972,” the newspaper said.