Talk:Saint Silvester Road Race

Race is called a marathon in Brazil

"Road race" gives the impression of an automobile race. Shouldn't this article's title be changed to "Saint Silvester marathon"? --Wloveral (talk) 19:33, 12 May 2008 (UTC)

• A marathon is 42.195 km long. The Saint Silvester (15 km) isn't even a half-marathon. Whoever calls it a marathon is incorrect. The term road race is correct, regardless of the kind of race. -- (Fbergo (talk) 00:08, 13 May 2008 (UTC))

OK. Glad to know. Thanks. --Wloveral (talk) 01:28, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

Worlwide view

There are Saint Silvester Road Races/Marathons around the world. I know at least those held in Spain and Portugal.Miguel in Portugal (talk) 15:24, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

Ok, if any of them meet the threshold of notability, they might be included as well, but not on this specific article. We will need to decide which one is the most widely, commonly known race generally speaking, or of greater importance in the Athletics calendar. That one would be the entry to use the simpler title. For the moment, I will assume that it is this one. That being the case, an article on another Saint Silvester race might be placed at a title like "Saint Silvester Road Race (Portugal)", or with the specific city name in the title. We would add a disambiguation note to the top of both articles, so that readers can know and find both. If there are multiple races that can be included (not all races might meet the notability standards), we would create a disambiguation page, probably named "Saint Silvester Road Race (disambiguation)", and disambiguation notes would be added to all the articles, pointing to the disambiguation article (probably using the "other uses" template that we have). Redux (talk) 17:50, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

The most commonly known races in Portugal are São Silvestre da Amadora and Porto, and in Spain is that from Madrid. Since Brazil is a country with a larger population São Paulo's race may be the most widely known. All the races usually invite olympic stars and world champions. For example, Porto's race was won by Portuguese olympic athlete Rui Silva last December.See this link. - it is in Portuguese, but since you are a fellow lusophone you will understand. Miguel in Portugal (talk) 19:14, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

This article is about the São Paulo race only. If you want, write articles about the other races as separate articles (possibly São Silvestre Road Race (Porto) and so on). The São Paulo one is the most important, so it's fair that it keeps the main title without parenthesis. Currently there is a disambiguation link to the Vallencana race. When there are more São Silvestre race articles, we can add a disambiguation article with all the possibilities, and link it from the top of this one. I am removing the comments about the other races from this article. Fbergo (talk) 15:44, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

If it is the case of actually creating other articles, we should use the naming scheme I mentioned. In gauging whether or not any given event meets minimal standards of notability, check our general notability guideline, as well as the rest of that page's content. In addition, we should use common sense in determining if any given event is relevant enough to deserve a separate entry on Wikipedia. If there are a few minor events that we can acknowledge, then this minor acknowledgement could be done either here on this article or in the disambiguation page I mentioned above -- a disambiguation page serves the main purpose of pointing to disambiguated entries (articles), but it can also be used to make notes on minor uses (in this case, sporting events named "Saint Sylvester Race" that are not relevant enough to be given a separate entry). Our ultimate goal is to make Wikipedia as complete and as impartial as possible, but within certain parameters, and creating a separate entry for every single event, even if they are very small and localized, does not necessarily accomplishes that goal. It doesn't mean that information gets excluded, just that it gets included differently. Redux (talk) 01:09, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

Wikifying

Why does Portugal (and a few other countries) has not wikilinks like the other countries in the tables? Where are the references for this article, particularly for a dozen of statements like "Winning this event usually represents instant fame in Brazil. Accordingly, Tergat is one of the most recognized African personalities in the country, second only to Nelson Mandela." and "The Marathon was recognized internationally in that year of 1989."? Miguel in Portugal (talk) 16:17, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

I have edited the article to fix some issues, including the ones you pointed out:

Wikification: every year a different person comes here and adds the latest results. Some people wikify, others don't. There was no reason not to wikify Portugal, Italy and France. This was fixed.

Marathon: some parts of the article still incorrectly called it a marathon, I have changed that.

Instant Fame: I was unable to find a proper source for that statement, so I have removed it. At those years when Paul Tergat was won several editions of the race, that statement was probably true. This race is broadcasted on Rede Globo, which is the TV channel with the largest audience in Brazil, and the winners are awarded with instant fame, indeed. Unless we can find a reference to some public opinion poll, it's hard to support the "second only to Nelson Mandela" part.

However, there is something curious about that statement: several internet sites copy wikipedia content blatantly. So there are many websites with that exact statement, copied from here. Apparently, it has been replicated also on Paul Tergat's website: Paul Tergat biography (Google cache, since the main site seems to be temporarily offline: Cache of Paul Tergat Biography.

I am not well informed about the notability of the other São Silvestre races. If you think they are notable enough for wikipedia articles, consider writing them (as separate articles). Cheers, Fbergo (talk) 18:02, 16 January 2009 (UTC)