It was a windy holiday weekend across much of the U.S. as report after report on most of this weekend’s meets referenced the wind and weather as a factor – keeping most performances to average at best. I watched the ACC Championships online, and certainly the weather played havoc for much of the meet as rain poured and the wind blew and the results were less than stellar the first couple of days. But on the final day the sprinters caught some favorable winds and the speedy Florida State Seminoles sent notice to Florida, Texas A&M, LSU and others that they would have something to say about who takes home…

The results of the Boston Marathon are in, and tremendous results they were with Geoffrey Mutai (2:03:02, KEN) and Moses Mosop (2:03:06, KEN) running the two fastest times ever! Two others ran under 2:05:00, with Ryan Hall’s 2:04:58 the fastest ever run by an American. Of course the other news coming out of Boston is that the winning mark does not qualify as a world record due to the configuration of the course – point to point course with a primarily downhill slope (in spite of the dreaded “hills”). This is in contrast to more flattened courses that are “loops”. Now, in a race that covers a bit over 26…

There were lots of meets this past weekend. And as I scan through more of them, there were some performances that really need to be pointed out, because I think they are going to have an impact on the season going forward. Most impressive of the marks was a 9.90 (+2.0)/20.17w (+2.2) sprint double by Steve Mullings (JAM) at the Lacoste Invitational in Starkville MS. The 100 meter time is a world leader by a huge margin, as well as a major improvement over his previous PR of 10.01. Mullings was 5th in the 200 in Berlin (19.98) and the leadoff on the gold medal relay, and now has to…

It was a great weekend of track and field around the globe, but it was nice to see some outstanding competition taking place in Southern California. I remember when “So Cal” had as many elite competitions as anywhere in Europe – this past weekend was a reminder for me of those days. And thanks to Runnerspace and FloTrack, I got to watch both the Mt SAC Relays and the UCLA/Oregon dual live. Way to move the sport forward! Speaking of moving the sport forward, I’m hoping that dual meets like the UCLA/Oregon meet are a move “back to the future”. This is why I fell in love with track and…

The level of performance of elite track and field athletes at the top end is better than ever. The all time lists are littered with athletes that are competing right now! Starting with Bolt, Gay, Jeter, Rudisha, Liu, Robles, Bekele, Isinbayeva, Vlasic, Friedrich, Walker, Demus, and so so many others. Yet, as I have lamented on many occasions, including earlier this week, we see them oh so infrequently. Where even as recently as the turn of the century, any given “world class” meet could boast perhaps 20 or more top level athletes in attendance, today we’re lucky to see a handful show up at any given meet. And head to…

The main excitement during this portion of the track season is at the collegiate level, with conference championships on tap in about 4 weeks time and the NCAA Preliminary rounds set for May 26 – 28. Which means that action will be heating up in the collegiate ranks any minute. For Texas A&M apparently that minute was this past weekend, as both the men’s and women’s squads laid down some very quality marks at the Texas Relays. Both squads will head to Iowa in June as defending NCAA champions. The men took a 1 point victory over Florida last year (55 to 54), while the women had a bit easier…

I watched both the Texas Relays and the Arcadia Invitational on my computer this weekend via live streaming. Kudos to both meets on providing this service. It made for a great weekend of track and field. As I watched both meets, however, I was taken by something that has bothered me for quite some time now – attendance. From what I could see of the stands in Austin, there were many gaps and attendance was sparse – unfortunately not uncommon at a large majority of meets here in the states. On the other hand, the stands looked pretty full in Arcadia. Why? After all Texas had the “better” athletes. They…

It’s relay season here in the U.S., and with the Texas Relays up this weekend and talk of some top level athletes getting together on a couple of 4×1’s, and 2011 being a World Championships season, it’s time to once again begin talking about the U.S> 4×1’s. The U.S. should be the medal count leader in Daegu,  as our troops should garner some twenty plus medals during the week of championship competition. Up to the Beijing Olympics, two of those medals were guaranteed to come from the men and women’s 4×1 relay squads – more often than not, gold. But in Beijing there were no medals in the relays as…

I had expected to see a few bombs dropped by this point in the season. But aside from L.J. Van Zyl running first 47.66, then 44.86, the season has been rather somber so far. The Florida Relays had some promising entries early on – Tyson Gay in the 4×4, along with the seasonal debuts of Justin Gatlin, David Oliver and Xavier Carter. All pulled out prior to the start of the meet, however – none yet ready to display their wares. And it’s not just the sprinters and hurdlers. The top middle distance runners have yet to step to the track, as neither have the top distance runners, jumpers or…

I received notification today that the California (Modesto) Relays will not be held this year. This will mark the second time in the last three years that the meet will be absent from the schedule. Following is the copy from the notice that I received – with permission from Mr. Miller:   909 15th Street, Suite 7Modesto, California 95354 Modesto Relays, Inc.Dba: California Invitational Relayscaliforniarelays@aol.comGregg E. MillerExecutive Director(209) 988-0390March 30, 2011Re: California Relays 2011Sacramento, California Dear Athletes, Coaches, Managers, Officials and Loyal Fans,The purpose of this letter is to inform you of our status for the 2011 meet. Due to the revailing economic conditions, many of our longtime sponsors including…