Longest-lasting Women's National Record?

[roger/over]

Just got to wondering: which female vaulter holds or has held her national record for the longest time without interruption? A quick guess before peeking--Emma George, of Australia, and Daniela Bártová of Czech Republic must be in the running. Perhaps Monique de Wilt, of the Netherlands, although I know she loses credit for at least two earlier marks that were NED bests before that federation finally recognized her 2.80m as their first official women's record in July of 1995.

Sounds like a simple question, right? What's your guess? Well, when I did peek at the data, things quickly got complicated. Like:

How much confidence do you put in older--really old--data, for being accurate and complete? The first NR longevity of note that I encountered (in a world record progression Gérard Dumas and I put together) was that of Yelena Goldobina of the USSR, whose record of 2.35m (7'8 1/2") stood from 1924 to 1953. But what are the chances that other USSR athletes had improved on Goldobina's record before Zoya Romanova set the next world record for that country at 2.53m? I would think the chances to be considerable.

Similarly, the longest tenure of a national record holder of any in my files is that of Dianne Bragg (sister of world record vaulter Don Bragg), whose 2.59m (8'6") world record in 1952 may have been the USA record until improved by an inch by Jana Edwards in 1981. That 29-year skein might have been the longest ever. ut Diane's record was almost certainly in a "mixed" competition, which today would not be accepted for any women's-event comparison. Jana continued the USA record improvement to 11'9 1/2" and held that NR for 14 years, until broken in 1995 by Melissa Price.

Another possibility that is difficult to pinpoint is that of New Zealand's Brenda Walker, who matched Dianne Bragg's 8'6" in 1969. The first official NZL record I have is Melina Hamilton's 1996 3.80m (12'5 1/2"). That would make Walker the record-holder for 27 years, but it's difficult for me to believe that there wouldn't have been some NZL mark better than 8'6" in that time.

See what I mean by "getting complicated"? And I haven't yet stipulated that I'm considering outdoor records only, since I know that files on indoor marks are far less complete.

Next, what counts as a "country" with national records? If Isle of Man is a country, the NR of 1.90m (6'2 3/4") by Voirrey Callow in 1995 might be the longest-standing record. Sorry, but quite aside from the definition of "country," I don't take seriously the height of barely over six feet as a valid contender in this particular comparison.

So how do my first guesses (and yours) stand the test of comparison with such data as I can bring to bear?

First of all, I was wrong in putting Bártová in my first two picks. She held the CZE record from 4.12m in 1995 to 4.51 in 2003, but I had thought her first emergence on the world record scene was several years earlier than that of Emma George. Not so. Daniela broke the world record eleven times--but all of those during 1995. Emma's first world record also came in 1995 and earlier (11 February) than that of Bártová. Another difference is that the CZE national record has since been beaten (by Hamáková in 2003), while George remains the Australian record holder--for 19 years.

Does that, then, leave George the winner by default? Not quite. The longest record holder, so far as I can determine, is Gabriella Mihalcea of Romania. She set her first national record, 3.70m, on 5 July 1993, improved it to 4.22m by 1999, and still holds that as the ROM record. That makes her the national record holder for 21 years.

De Wilt does follow Emma in these rankings, and Stacy Dragila (4.15 in June 1996) has been the USA record holder long enough to drop Bártová to fifth place. Another contender is Janine Whitlock of Great Britain. The earliest national record I have for her is 4.00 at Telford on 14 September 1996, but it's possible that she may have broken the record earlier in that season. A final wild-card is Anita Tomalevski of Norway, who has held her country's record at 3.80m since 11 June 1996 and perhaps even longer, since that is the only entry I have for Norway.

How does that compare with the longevity of men's NRs in the vault? I don't have the files to test that. For all of us, I suppose, the names that would leap to mind are Cornelius Warmerdam and Sergey Bubka.

Warmerdam's tenure as national record holder is fairly straight-forward. He broke the USA/World record of 14'11" with his first 15-foot vault on 13 April 1940, improved it several times to a final 4.77m (14' 7 3/4") and held it until Bob Gutowski finally bettered it by a centimeter on 27 April 1957--just over 17 years.

Bubka's first world record (for the USSR) was 5.85m on 26 May 1984. No USSR or Ukranian vaulter has bettered his eventual PB/NR/World Record of 6.14m--a total of at least 21 years. Gerard Dumas' "Who's Who in Pole Vaulting," which lists 332 Bubka marks from 1975 (age 12) to 2000 (age 37) shows his PB prior to 1984 as 5.70 at Helsinki in 1983, which would not have been a national record, because Vladimir Polykov held the world record for the USSR at 5.81 in 1981. So, the best information available would seem to place Bubka's tenure as NR-holder at 21 years and counting.

If an obscure vaulter from some island kingdom has held their NR for longer than 21 years, I could care less.