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Very, Very Early London Favorites
Christmas is less than a week away, and we’re within counting distance of the dropping of the ball in Times Square and the start of the New Year. So it must be time to start talking about the Olympics! Olympic talk will dominate the world of track and field in 2012 – it always does in an Olympic year. So what better way to start/instigate discussion, than to put some early predictions out there. Of course we don’t even know who will be competing in London just yet, since everyone will have a selection process of some sort to go through. So instead of saying these are my predicted “winners”,…
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Dear Track Santa – 2011
It’s that time of year to put in my request to good old Track Santa for my track and field gifts for 2012. The 2011 season was pretty good overall, but one can always wish for more! So here’s my letter and list for Track Santa (I hope I get everything)! Dear Track Santa, I’ve been really good this year. I watched every meet that was available on television – indoor, elite, college and high school. I watched a ton of meets online (thanks for increasing the free feeds this year). I supported my local high school team, and I got finish line seats at every meet I went to.…
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Twelve Days of Track Christmas
It’s the holiday season, and exactly twelve days before Christmas. So in the spirit of the season, I thought I would retool the Twelve Days of Christmas to fit my favorite sport. This should be sung to the tune of the original. So a quick departure from the serious before closing out the year, my twelve days of track Christmas. “On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me”: A squad that doesn’t drop the baton Two unexpected stars Three new tracks Four world level meets Five gold medals Six runners running Seven steeplers leaping Eight sprinters training Nine vaulters vaulting Ten jumpers jumping Eleven javelins…
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Exciting and Disappointing Moments in 2011
As I continue to look back on the 2011 season, there were several moments that were both exciting and disappointing. That’s one of the wonderful things about this sport – one moment it can give you chills, the next leave you disappointed. So I decided to sit down and come up with 10 things that did both for me this year. I have to say that as I contemplated the season, I found that the sprints were very disappointing overall. I hope that trend changes in the Olympic year. Cheerfully, however, I found much excittement across the board, which I think bodes well for the upcoming season. So with that,…
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The Best Performers of 2011
December is already a third gone – not much time left in this year. As a matter of fact the indoor season is already getting started! My how time flies when you’re having fun! So before the month gets away, and Baby New Year shows up, I want to give out some kudos to athletes that I feel really got the job done in 2011. I’m going to call them “The Best of 2011”. Some categories are a bit nontraditional – Best Start for example – while others will probably be seen on other lists – like Best Performance. Just a bit of fun as we wind down the year,…
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Swagger – Who has it in Track and Field?
I was watching SportsCenter yesterday and caught Deion Sanders talking about the evolution of defensive backs in the NFL. Of course it being “Neon Deion”, he talked about the “swagger” that he brought to the position, and how others have tried to emulate it. That made me think about track and field, wondering about the amount of “swagger” we have in our sport. I know what swagger is, and I think most people know what swagger is, but I decided to look it up to see what the official definition is before I started looking for it, and I found the following: Swag-ger: verb, 1) to walk or strut with…
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My Heroes of 2011
Wow, it’s December already, and there’s still so much left to talk about regarding the 2011 season. Several events left to review and some outstanding performances to look at. And I’m going to try to get to as much as I can before the clock turns to 2012. One thing that I don’t want to overlook is what I’m going to call my heroes of 2011 – a group of athletes that in my opinion were tremendous competitors in 2011. They were entertaining and competitive all year long – and I’m looking forward to following during 2012. With that, here are my heroes of 2011: Carmelita Jeter (USA) –…
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Exclusive Q&A with LaShawn Merritt
I had the distinct pleasure of sharing a conference call yesterday afternoon with defending Olympic 400 meter champion LaShawn Merritt. This year’s World silver medalist is in base training for the upcoming Olympic Games, preparing hard to defend his title. He took time out after practice to speak with me about his career and the upcoming Olympic season. It was an enjoyable exchange and I found LaShawn quite introspective. He seems very focused on London and I suspect that the battle for the Olympic gold medal will have to take a path through Merritt. With that, here is what LaShawn had to say about the 400, his career, and London.…
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2011 in Review – Men’s Long Jump
In spite of the fact that I tend to talk more about the running events than I do the field events, I’m actually a huge fan of the field events. It just seems that lately some of the excitement is missing in the field. I remember when the long jump featured great battles like the U.S. Championships in 1987 (San Jose) with Carl Lewis (8.65m/28’ 4.5”), Larry Myricks (8.63m/28’ 3.75”) and Mike Conley (8.55w/28’ 0.75”w) all over 28 feet. Then there was the Olympic Trials of 1988 (Indianapolis) with Lewis (8.76m/28’ 9”) and Myricks (8.74m/28’ 8.25”) dueling in the rain. And of course the epic 1991 World Championships final (Tokyo)…
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2011 in Review – Men’s 1500 Meters
Like the women’s version of the metric mile, the men’s 1500 final in Daegu was a far cry from the way the season itself played out. Not to mention the difficulty in sorting things out due to the constant change in leadership on the track. Things got crackin in earnest in Doha as young Nixon Chepseba (KEN) torched the track for a WL 3:31.84 to win over Silas Kiplagat (KEN, 3:32.15), Mekonnen Gebremedhin (ETH, 3:32.28), Caleb Ndiku (KEN, 3:33.05) and Haron Keitany (KEN, 3:33.39)- showcasing Kenya’s depth, and signaling that making the Kenyan team for Daegu would be extremely tough. A little over a week later, Chepseba torched the field…