It’s time to take a look at the female speed demons. Interestingly just as with the men, two dominant women have emerged – one from the US, one from Jamaica. As right now Carmelita Jeter and Veronica Campbell Brown have emerged as the two Alpha Females of the drag racers! The events are also similar in that a youth movement is on the way. The question being will it arrive as rapidly as the men’s youth movement that appears to be on this year’s horizon? It’s hard to tell because the times on the women’s side are not dropping quite as rapidly as they are on the women’s side. Only…

In about one week’s time we start the process of putting together our team for the World Championships. Four days of intense competition that will determine who gets to go to South Korea and who gets to go back to the drawing board. Perhaps the most intense and difficult of the squads to make, is the 100 meter dash team where it is common for .01sec or less to decide who goes and who stays home. A bad day, a bad start, a bad lean can mean the end of the journey. Add to the drama the fact that this year has already seen SEVENTEEN men under the once magical…

In keeping with yesterday’s post on the speed events, here is a corresponding chart on our middle distance runners. This group has been very quiet leading up to this point in the season, and may be even harder to predict than the sprinters. But here is a snap shot of the season to date. Before I start trying to make sense of all the numbers for both the sprinters and middle distance runners as we head into Nationals and determining the team for Daegu. Middle Distance Watch Athlete Season Best Last Mark Comments         Andrew Wheating 3:36.46 3:36.46 Very low key so far this season Cory Primm…

After a week that left me wondering what the heck is going on, it’s time to start to attempt to look at some of the National Trials that are coming up to try and gauge what Daegu is going to look like. And after Des Moines and New York that may not be easy at all! I’ve already talked in depth about what happened in Des Moines – a lot of bad weather and a lot of Texas A&M in the end. The college kids put forth some sterling efforts, but there was a lot of “weirdness” going on – especially for athletes considered favorites. I mean, would you have…

The meet started with the 4×1’s and a pair of upsets. The women started it off with LSU passing as they always seem to do with something on the line. They came to the anchor leg with Kymberlyn Duncan right there with Texas A&M and it was a wrap as she ran away from Ashley Collier for a big 42.64 to 42.93 win! Setting the stage for the rest of the meet. Passing was even more critical on the men’s side as both Florida St and Florida has miscues. Florida St nearly went out of the zone as Makusha tried to get the stick to Maurice Mitchell. The baton even…

Once again the weather reared its ugly head and caused multiple delays to the next to last day at the NCAA Championships. The start of the competition was delayed an hour, and the rain was still falling when things resumed. In spite of the delays and interruptions in their warm up and competition schedules, most of the athletes showed their resolve and competed as if the sun were shining bright. The brightest of these were Florida State’s Ngoni Makusha and Virginia’s Robbie Andrews. Makusha started the day finishing up the long jump that was left over from the day before due to the weather. He was able to pass his…

Thursday was the “lull” day in this weeks track and field action. In a week sandwiched between the awesome Pre Classic and will end with NCAA finals and what is promising to be an exciting meet in New York, yesterday was rather lacking. We did get Usain Bolt’s seasonal 200 debut in Oslo – a race he won in 19.86 to take the world lead. But the time was only slightly better than countryman Nickel Ashmeade’s previous WL (19.95), and the field he competed against was less than stellar with Saidy Ndure (NOR, 20.43), Mario Forsythe (JAM, 20.49) running times that wouldn’t have won NCAA qualifying heats in Des Moines.…

Usually there isn’t much to say after the first day of the NCAA Championships. After all, the bulk of the finals are on Friday and Saturday. But Wednesday may have already started shaping those finals as three big names didn’t move through. The semifinals started blazing hot with the 4×1’s. In the women’s semis first Texas A&M (42.99), then LSU (42.94 SB) laid down marks that set the stage for what should be a fast final. The men followed suit with four teams under 39.00 – Texas A&M (38.38), Florida (38.49), Illinois (38.72) and Florida St (38.75). The track produced more fireworks in the men’s 800 as Charles Jock (UC…

Watching the bid process for the rights to the next four Olympic Games (‘16, ‘18. ‘20, ‘22) I actually started to get a bit excited, because ESPN & Fox were in the mix and presented proposals that said they would provide actual LIVE coverage of the Games. Imagine that! No more slicing and dicing and leaving action on the floor in favor of next day highlight reels after reading bout the action half a day or more in advance! At the end of the day, however, the Comcast/NBC conglomerate offered more money for the package than either ESPN or Fox could muster, and thus the IOC once again gave the…

Ok, after a week’s delay we will get the semi finals and finals of the NCAA Championships. If you find that comment odd, it’s because essentially the Regional meets were the first and second rounds of the Championships. If that still sounds odd, it’s because it is. We had two meets that solved nothing other than to decide who would get to compete in the semis and finals of the actual NCAA Championships. Yes I’m making it sound rather silly, but really it is rather silly. There were no finals in the meet. No Regional champions were crowned – team or individual. They didn’t keep score. They just competed until…