In the mid 70’s the hottest matchup in the sprints was that of American Steve Williams vs Jamaican Don Quarrie. Two of my favorite sprinters of all time, they dominated the clock, the rankings, and the competition. They were the dominant sprinters on the planet between 1973 and 1976 in both the 100 and 200. They raced each other often, and had some legendary duals – none more so than their dual setting of the 200 meter record (19.8) at Eugene in 1975 – a true classic.  Williams was tall and lean with a graceful stride at top speed that ate up ground in huge chunks. Quarrie was shorter, with…

Lausanne is always one of the top spots on the European Circuit, and in spite of cool, rainy weather today was no exception. Though the weather put a damper on many events, two things were clear today – it was Jamaica’s day to shine, and the match up that the world is now waiting for is Usain Bolt v Tyson Gay. First Jamaica Day. Several of Jamaica’s top sprinters have taken their share of lumps from American sprinters this year. Today revenge was served on a wet, cool platter. Starting with Olympic champion Shelly Ann Fraser in the women’s 100. Fraser had already tasted defeat to Carmelilta Jeter (US) at…

With the World Championships just a little over a month away, the competitions are beginning to heat up. Many of the sports top athletes have competed sparingly up to this point, but this week we start to get some races and match ups that will bring some focus on the Berlin medal hunt. Lausanne will get that going in a big way tomorrow, as several high profile athletes take to the track AND the field. Some events to keep your eyes on! Men’s 100 – US champion Michael Rodgers will have his third meeting of the year with Jamaican champs runner up Asafa Powell. A critical meeting for both as…

Now that the National Championships are done, and the teams for the World Championships are set, the European season gets under way in earnest today in Oslo. The second stop on the Golden League Oslo has a rich history of fine distance running, and should live up to that today. Potential highlights: Men’s 800 – Abubaker Kaki (SUD) v Yuri Borzakovski (RUS). Borzakovski is a fine kicker but Kaki has been the dominant 800 man the past couple of seasons. Could be an early picture of the final in Berlin. Women’s 5000 – Merseret Defar (ETH) takes to the track once again in search of a World Record. Defar has…

Many individuals have had their investment portfolios hit hard during the recent economic downturn. So much so that it has become common for people to avoid opening their financial statements to so as not to see the latest bad news. Given the performances of some of the sports biggest names in the past couple of seasons, one can only imagine how those that write the checks to some of the sports highest paid stars are feeling these days about their investments in the sport. Consider. Jeremy Wariner – Olympic Champion in ’04 and World Champion in ’05 & ’07 saw his fortunes take a negative turn last year. Beaten several…

The US National Championships concluded yesterday and all the results are in. With the meet serving as the selection process for August’s World Championships, the immediate question is – how will we do? There are six weeks until the start of competition on August 15th – so relatively speaking its just around the corner. But plenty of time for those not yet sharp to get there, but also long enough to be difficult to perhaps hold a peak already reached. As we saw last year in Berlin running extremely well now, doesn’t necessarily translate into superior performances a month and a half later in a global championships. While I have…

Day Two continued with lots of qualifying rounds, but there were several finals including the men’s and women’s 100 and 5000 meters. In the women’s 100 Carmelita Jeter remained unbeaten winning the title in a blazing 10.78w. The victory was not easy however, as last year’s Trials winner, Muna Lee made a rush to the finish in the final 30 meters that brought her to within .001 of victory as she too crossed the line in 10.78w. They will be joined by super vet Lauryn Williams who, once again, brought her “A” Game when it mattered and ran her way onto the team after a somewhat average spring. With Tyson…

While scanning the internet for articles on this week’s National Championships, I came across an article in the Oregonian that really took me by surprise. While host city Eugene prides itself as being “Track Town USA”, the primary paper in the larger City of Portland talked about the National Championships and our top athletes as if this were the opening night of a theater production! The writer, Ken Goe, calls several athletes “arrogant and short sighted” because they are not competing in their primary events, or in some cases only one round, because they have byes to the World Championships as defending champions! He says, sarcastically that “If the people…

The first day of any National Championship is full of qualifying rounds – and this year’s US Nationals was no exception. The goal on Day One is to qualify and make it to Day Two. So typically the first day is very low key – and such was most of yesterday’s competition, low key. A lot of the big news happened off the track as leading decathlete, Brian Clay, middle distance hopeful, Andrew Wheating, and leading hurdler David Oliver, were all forced to withdraw from the meet due to various injuries. Clay and Oliver were potential medal threats in Berlin, so their withdrawals will be especially missed. With that done…

The starting lists are all set and starting at 11:00am PST with the start of the decathlon, the US Nationals opens up its weekend run. With all final declarations being in the books and heat sheets done we finally have some answers regarding who is going to do what. Tyson Gay is entered in both sprints – drawing lane 2 in heat 1 of the 100 and lane 6 in heat 2 of the 200. I don’t expect to see him in the final of either event (he has byes in both to Worlds), but perhaps we’ll see single runs in both. Which could make for the fastest first round…