Is that relevant? Are kilometers the same whether measured on land or on water? If so, assuming a race is 100 kilometers, don't you still have to convert the kilometers to nautical miles before you can get average speed in knots? Or convert the kilometers to statute miles in order to get miles per hour?

Compounding the problem with getting statistics about distance races, besides confusion about distance measurement used, is confusion with wind measurement. Wind over the water is supposed to be measured and reported in terms of knots, while wind over the land, even if it is only 50 yards away, is supposed to be measured and reported as miles per hour. And it is often hard to know which it is.

Wouter, I am talking about the United States. I know you think we are archaic.

So in order to understand a certain speed claim, the whole formula used and all the criteria used has to be spelled out so we know how the answer was derived. (Somebody did that earlier in this thread, and that made sense, because you could see the elements used in the formula all the way through. Then if there is a faulty assumption in the mathematics, it can be corrected.)