IAAF ratifies Courtney Williams’ 200m time

The International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) has ratified Vincentian Courtney Williams’ time of 20.59 seconds, set in the 200 m men’s race at the All Lights All Comers Meet, held June 5 in San Marcos, Texas, USA.

Williams’ time put him as 109th in the world rankings, as of July 14.{{more}}

In the process, Williams reset the St Vincent and the Grenadines’ mark of 20.76 seconds which was set on May 19, 1995 by Eswort Coombs at the NJCAA Championships in Odessa, United States.

However, some persons here have been questioning Williams’ time, stating that it was impractical for him to run that fast, given his previous recordings in the event over the past years.

But local international technical official Woodrow ‘Killy’ Williams, who is not related to Courtney, explained to SEARCHLIGHT some of the processes involved.

“The system is a system used in Oklahoma state called the Enduro system – the same system used in cycling, which is a meet management system, not a timing system, but it will give you the results of the times shown by the photo finish camera,” Williams said.

The experience coach added, “It provides entries and results as events happen and is used by the state for smaller meets.”

“The timing system is different from the meet manager system, but no one knows what system they used….There are other meet manager systems which would only give the results based on the times recorded,” Williams noted.

Williams, who admitted that he too was mystified at Courtney’s time in the race, said he has to accept the outcome, now that the IAAF has ratified the event as legitimate.

“It was a meet sanctioned by the United States Track and Field Association, which in turn is sanctioned by the IAAF, otherwise he would not have received the ranking,” Williams related. He concluded that it will be interesting to see what Courtney does in the 200 m race when he competes at the Pan Am Games in Canada, July 23.