Thanks to reader Yvette Graf I have the start list for the Osaka Grand Prix. If you click on the link at the right under “Major Meet Links” you will be taken to the site. It is partly in English, partly in Japanese, but you will be able to see who will be competing and results will be available during the meet. Top competitors will include Rodney Martin and Marc Burns in the 100 meters (Martin also entered in the 200), Jeremy Wariner, Sean Wroe and John Steffensen in the 400. Jeff Riseley in the 800. David Payne in the 110H. Kerron Clement and Bershawn Jackson in the 400H. Donald…

With the end of the relay carnival portion of the season, excitement turns to what I call the “pre-European” invitationals. That series of meets leading up to National Championships that includes meets like New York, Carson, Eugene, Doha, Osaka, Kingston and others. The meets are always hot, with good to great competition and serve to really get fans hyped leading into the various National Championships. So, being the avid fan that I am, I went in search of information to find out what type of matchups we can expect. Now I understand that lineups may not be completely ironed out for some meets as they are still weeks away. But…

The BIG noise was made at Penn in the USA vs the World races as they sat center stage and had the attention of the world. But there were other top level marks turned in at Penn in some of the collegiate races as well. Texas AM won both men’s and women’s 4×1 AND 4×2 events to serve notice that their relay teams On the men’s side their 38.79 in the 4×1 was the #2 time collegiately this year behind Florida State’s list leading 38.75. Florida State was second at Penn in 38.82. In the 4×2 Texas AM’s 1:20.32 was not only the fastest time in the world this year,…

While most of our top sprinters were running relays at Penn, Tyson Gay got his 2009 campaign going at the low key Sun Devil Invitational in Tempe Arizona. Last month the Adidas Running camp revealed that Tyson Gay’s fall and winter training were delayed due to a knee injury. Judging from yesterday’s result Tyson has gotten back on track as he won the 400 meters in 46.34 to set a new personal best in the event. Tyson’s previous best was a 47.08 run indoors in Fayetteville AR in 2007 – the same season that Gay won both the 100 and 200 at the World Championships in Osaka. It would appear…

It’s April. Teams for this year’s World Championships won’t be chosen until June. The World championships themselves won’t be held until the end of August in Berlin Germany. But this year’s Penn Relays was billed as a series of rematches between the US and Jamaica! There has been much hype about Jamaica taking over as the world’s sprint power since they won the Men’s 100, 200 and 4×1 and the Women’s 100 and 200 in Beijing. So much so that USATF CEO Doug Logan has had talks with Jamaica’s federation about having a dual meet between the US and Jamaica. But if today’s Penn Relays was any indication, talk of…

Relay running takes center stage at Drake and Penn, but distance runners made some noise on Friday at a couple of meets here on the West Coast. In Oregon, Colorado steeplechaser Jenny Barringer opened up her season in the 1500 meters and won in a world leading time of 4:08.38. The 1500 seemed to be a good race to run in Oregon as half miler Andrew Weating moved up in distance and won in 3:40.92. In Berkeley, miler Shannon Rowbury moved up in distance to the 5000 meters and set a stadium record and world leading time of 15:12.95! At twice the distance, Sam Chelanga of little Liberty College set…

As I’ve scanned the news on the sport this week a couple of “economy” related discussions have caught my eye. The first was USATF CEO Doug Logan’s most recent entry to his blog, he stated that he believes that the current economic downturn will benefit the sport of track and field. How? Well apparently he feels that sports have gotten to be too excessive and catering to the “Fat Cats”, and that the fall of these “Fat Cats” opens the door for sports fans to start moving towards track and field – because we are better suited to the “hard hat”, “lunch bucket” crowd. As a matter of fact he…

This weekend saw some pretty good performances, but the best of the bunch had to be at Mt SAC as Carmelita Jeter took the world lead and set a new PR of 10.96 (+0.9) in the women’s 100 meters. Jeter came out of nowhere in ’07 to win the bronze medal in the event in Osaka with a then PR of 11.02. Last year she ran 10.97 at the US Olympic Trials but failed to make the team for Beijing. This year she’s been running better and better every week. Starting with a few 400 meter runs early outdoors before taking the world lead in the 200 last weekend at…

As the season begins to hit it’s stride we now see larger gatherings of elite level athletes than we have in previous meets this spring. Where earlier meets had one or two elites in attendance, Mt SAC will give us that first real “Invitational” feel! Mt SAC will host a plethora of talent, especially in the relays, sprints and hurdles. In the women’s 4×1 we get to see Allyson Felix as she will pair with Ginnie Powell, Michelle Perry and Natasha Hastings. The men’s event will see a team of Shawn Crawford, Kerron Clement, Rodney Martin and Craig Everhart going against a team with Leroy Dixon, and European’s Tyrone Edgar…

The Polls have closed. I would like to thank those of you that participated. Given the level of participation I will continue to run polls on the sport. The results of the first polls were: Should USATF pursue the development of a track and field “league” in the US? Yes – 40 – 76%No – 10 – 19%Undecided – 2 – 3% Which collegiate men’s squad will win this year’s NCAA 4×1 title? Florida – 14 – 40%LSU – 10 – 28%TxAM – 5 – 14%FlSt – 3 – 8%Clemson – 2 -5%Other – 1 – 2%