At the end of ‘09, I viewed the men’s 400 as the sprint event with the most upside potential and room for an athlete or two to step in and make a name for himself. Now that it looks like we are going to lose Lashawn Merritt for a while, the event is more wide open than ever. We’re into the first part of May and we have yet to see Jeremy Wariner on the track – which could mean that injury rumors are true Read More...

With Penn in the rear view mirror it’s now time for things to start truly heating up. The Diamond League will debut in just about 2 weeks time in Doha, Qatar on May 14th. But the sprints will get a head start as several top sprinters will take to the track this weekend in Kingston Jamaica. While many were on the track at Penn stretching out in various relay events, this time the action will take place in individual events, as the season now begins in earnest Read More...

Once again we have had a doping issue arise in the sport of track and field. And I agree with those who say that doping is a major PR problem for the sport. I disagree, however, as to why doping is such a PR nightmare. While most would contend that it is the announcements of the positive tests that is the problem, I believe that the real problem is that positive tests are the ONLY thing we hear about when it comes to doping! The story that ISN’T told is that, to my knowledge, we test our athletes more than any other sport in the world! We have in competition testing, out of competition testing, random testing, and we’ve even begun a pilot blood testing program here in the US (Project Believe) Read More...

As excited as I was that Penn was finally here, I feel somewhat let down now that it’s over. Yes, there was a Bolt sighting. And yes there were huge crowds. But there were several things that I found disappointing. There were highlights. The Tennessee Lady Vols picked up where they left off last year winning three titles this year taking the 4 x 800, 4 x 1500 and distance medley relays Read More...

Once again we get the report of another positive drug test. This time it’s Lashawn Merritt who according to his press release inadvertently used a product that contained DHEA. While it depresses me that, yet again, we have an individual testing positive in this sport it’s more depressing that this is a situation that clearly could have been avoided with a little knowledge Read More...

The Penn Relays are on tap this weekend, and while the focus is on the return of Usain Bolt to Penn and the USA v World events the collegiate competition could be the most exciting with high powered programs from Florida, Oregon, LSU, Florida Sate and Texas A&M on hand. The whole concept of “USA v World” is great in theory but has not lived up to that billing Read More...

USATF CEO Doug Logan has set a goal of 30 medals at the London Olympic Games. A mark we have yet to achieve in any Games or World Championships to date. Most recently we won 23 medals in track and field at the Beijing Games and 22 medals at last year’s World Championships in Berlin. So in the past two global championships we have been at about three quarters of goal Read More...

Calvin Smith started things with his 44.81 WL in Florida, but several athletes put up world leaders and outstanding marks yesterday as the season began to hit it’s traditional stride heading into Penn Relays weekend! As I thought it might, the Kansas Relays produced a world leader in the 100 and the year’s first sub10 Read More...

Tyson Gay started this season the same way he started last season, with a 400 PR at the Tom Jones Memorial Classic at the University of Florida. Running in his “training” event Gay went toe to toe with US Olympic relay team member Calvin Smith and World 400 finalist Renny Quow with stellar results as he and Smith set new PR’s Read More...

I confirmed with Florida Head Coach Mike Holloway this morning that Tyson Gay will be opening his season tomorrow in Florida running the 400 meters at the Tom Jones Memorial Classic in Gainesville. Tyson opened similarly last year when he ran a 400 in Arizona (46.34) then ran another in Texas scooting 45 Read More...