Answer: the average speed of the runners increased since last year.
Explanation:
The table is:
Mean MAD
Last Year 16.2 s 1.2
This Year 14.7 s 1.9
Looking at this table we can see that this year, the mean time is smaller than the one from last year, so the runners are faster in average.
The mean absolute deviation is bigger, but the change in the mean is bigger.
difference of the mean 16.2 - 14.7 = 1.5
difference of the MAD 1.9 - 1.2 = 0.7
This means that the average speed of the runners increased since last year, and the fact that the MAD increased means that not all the runners increased their speed at the same rate, so now the speeds of the different runners are not as alike like last year.