World Indoor Championships Meet Records Men 60 – 6.42 – Maurice Greene, US – ’99200 – 20.10 – Frankie Fredericks, NAM – ’99400 – Butch Reynolds, US – ’93800 – 1:42.67 – Wilson Kipketer, DEN – ’971500 – 3:33.77 – Haile Gebrselassie, ETH – ’993000 – 7:34.71 – Haile Gebrselassie, ETH – ’9760H – 7.36 – Allen Johnson, US – ’044×4 – 3:02.83 – US (Morris, D. Johnson, Minor, Campbell) – ’99HJ – 2.43 – Javier Sotomayor, CUB – ’89PV – 6.00 – Sergey Bubka, UKR – ’91PV – 6.00 – Jean Galfione, FRA – ’99LJ – 8.62 – Ivan Pedroso, CUB ’99TJ – 17.83 – Chrisitian Olson, SWE –…

NCAA Indoor Championships Meet Records Men 60 – 6.51 – Richard Thompson, LSU – ’0860 – 6.51 – Jacoby Ford, Clemson – ’09200 – 20.10 – Wallace Spearmon, Arkansas – ’05400 – 44.57 – Kerron Clement, Florida – ’05800 – 1:45.33 – Patrick Nduwimana, Arizona – ’011500 – 3:43.48 – Paul Donovan, Arkansas – ’853000 – 7:46.03 – Adam Goucher, Colorado – ’985000 – 13:28.93 – Alistair Craig, Arkansas – ’0360H – 7.51 – Aries Merritt, Tennessee – ’064×4 – 3:03.51 – Florida (Clark, Middleton, Pastor, Clement) – ’05HJ – 7′ 9.25″ – Hollis Conway, La-Lafayette – ’89PV – 19′ 2.25″ – Jacob Davis, Texas – ’99LJ – 27′ 10″…

The roster for the US team for the World Championships in Doha was released today. The team appears to be quite strong with several gold medal possibilities. Among those that I feel have a strong shot at gold: Ivory Williams – Men’s 60Carmelita Jeter – Women’s 60Bershawn Jackson – Men’s 400Debbie Dunn – Women’s 400Bernard Lagat – Men’s 3000Terrence Trammell – Men’s 60HGinnie Powell – Women’s 60HChristian Cantwell – Men’s ShotMen’s 4×4 squadWomen’s 4×4 squad Full information on the US team can be found here.

David Rudisha opens season with a sizzling 1:43.15 run in Melbourne Australia! Coming off of his 45.50 400 PR in Sydney, Rudisha blazed to a 1:43.15 to start his 800 season off in fine style. Rudisha reportedly easily followed the leader through a first lap of 50.0 before demolishing the field over the second lap. Rudisha appears on pace to run under 1:42 and perhaps seriously challenge Kipketer’s twelve year old WR. For more information on the Melbourne meet click here.

Already the new false start rule is causing controversy – and the sport is barely under way this year! During the women’s 60 meters at the US Indoor Championships this past weekend we saw an athlete (Lisa Barber) DQ’d but allowed to run the race under protest. Not completely unheard of, but something that we should expect to see much more of with the new false start rule. The idea of letting athletes run “under protest” is to avoid lengthy arguments over whether or not an athlete was “unfairly” disqualified. Situations such as Linford Christie’s protest of his disqualification from the 100 meters at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, and…

This past weekend was a very busy one, with lots of selection meets for the upcoming World Indoor Championships. But as I was scanning the results there was one result that stood out to me from the others – from an outdoor meet in Sydney Australia. In the men’s 400 in Sydney the results were actually quite outstanding for this time of year. The winner in a world leading time of 44.86 was Australian Ben Offereins, but what I found exciting was the third place finisher, Kenyan half miler David Rudisha in a very nice 45.50! Now 45.50 is a very “good” time for the quarter but not quite in…

The biggest US indoor competition of the year takes place this weekend as the US Indoor Championships run Saturday and Sunday in Albuquerque New Mexico. On the line will be berths to this year’s World Indoor Championships in Doha Qatar next month. So for many we will be seeing the culmination of their indoor preparation. For me I’ll be taking a look at a few athletes in particular, less in anticipation of Doha, but more to see how they look heading into the outdoor season. Below is my “Watch List” for this weekend’s competition. Ivory Williams – Men’s 60 The last couple of seasons Williams has been one of our…

With the championship portion of the indoor season at hand, we will finally get to see the best of the best going head to head. At least the best of those that have decided to participate during this indoor season. This is the point in the season where we look forward to sizzling times. With the spotlight typically falling squarely on two headline events – the short sprint (60) and the mile/1500. Unfortunately, neither has been too stellar this year – though I fully expect both to pick up considerably when we get outdoors. The mile seems to be lacking that someone with “oomph” this year. That Ryun, Keino, Coghlan,…

I read a series of comments from former athletes regarding the 1980 Olympic boycott and their opinions of then President Jimmy Carter and his decision not to send an American team to the Moscow Olympics. While I can respect these individuals for trying to give politically correct answers, it’s clear that they were all unwilling pawns who were asked to give up their life long dreams as sacrifices in a political move that was of no consequence politically! They were effectively lead to slaughter as casualties of a war they never signed up to fight in. So how does anyone think they “really” felt about the situation? Yes, we can…

With US Indoor Nationals looming and World Indoors just a few weeks away, I find myself once again asking if the indoor season is worth the time and money that is put into it? Not that I haven’t enjoyed watching the couple of meets that have been televised – because I am a track junkie at heart. But when I look at the results of the season so far I’m split down the middle on this season. Only a handful of events have given us truly exciting results. Meseret Defar (3000), Blanka Vlasic (HJ), and Christian Cantwell (SP) have given us the typical sterling performances. And we’ve seen nice breakouts…