This year’s US Championships has been a nice display of both old and new talent, but Sunday’s closing day definitely belonged to the veterans. As time and time again familiar faces stepped up to bat and hit it out of the park. The best of these was David Oliver who sped to a world leading 12.93 in the 110 hurdles. The mark was Oliver’s second sub13 of the season and moved him to =7th all time with none other than Renaldo Nehemiah. The mark is even more remarkable given that he blasted the very first hurdle before settling into his rhythm. Behind him collegiate champ Ronnie Ash was third in…

The first couple of days was eerily quiet with this year’s National Championships suffering from the “off season” blues. With no Olympic or World Championship berths on the line, many of our top stars have deserted this meet like the plague for various reasons. No Tyson Gay, Darvis Patton, Carmelita Jeter, Muna Lee, or Lauryn Williams in the sprints. The distance events lacked  Dathan Ritzenhein, Chris Solinsky, Ryan Hall, and Matt Tegenkamp. So the early competition was lacking – oomph.  More like a development meet than a US Championships. Now, let me start off by saying that even though there are no spots for the Olympics or World Championships on…

Once upon a time (a long time ago) when I took typing in high school, there was a practice phrase that we used that said, “now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country”. That phrase could be well suited to American sprinters as we seem to be a bit short on top of the line sprinters these days. As I sit waiting for the start of the national championships, I can count on one hand the sprinters that I know can make a global final and have the ability to medal once they get there – Tyson Gay (100/200), Wallace Spearmon (200)…

Without a World Championships or Olympic Games berth on the line, this year’s national championships could see a number of individuals choose to focus on things like making money, letting nagging injuries heal, or simply train through nationals while focusing on meets later in the season. If so we could see several top level athletes choose to skip the national championships with the only real gain being the title of “National Champion”. So it’s not surprising that we’ve already heard that Tyson Gay won’t be competing in Des Moines and names such as Kerron Clement, Sanya Richards and Lashinda Demus are missing from the preliminary start lists.  With that being…

The latest volley between the leadership of US Track & Field  and our coaches focused on the “embarrassment” that some coaches have brought upon the sport in this country – at least from the point of view of USATF. The one thing that they got right is that we should be embarrassed here in the United States – but not because of the actions of any particular coaches or athletes. I say that because when an athlete or coach “goes down” the embarrassment is on the individual. These are ADULTS making adult decisions – individuals that are responsible as such for the decisions that they make as well as the…

When discussing “Leadership” from a management perspective, it is often defined as the ability to motivate a group of people towards a common goal. Once again USATF management has shown that it is sorely lacking in this skill set. The latest drama emanating from the head office is the “’Coaches Registry” that has been dropped in the laps of America’s coaches. Now, on the surface, the idea of a Coaches Registry I believe is a good one. As a matter of fact I thought that the lead organization of the sport in this country was already collecting this data on our coaches. I think that would be a tremendous aid…

Texas A&M Double Champs Once Again Congrats to Pat Henry and the Aggies of Texas A&M as once again they pull off the double team championship! In a meet where rivals Florida and Oregon had the big time performers – Eaton, Taylor, Theisen, Demps, Wheating, et al, the Aggies ground it out and their athletes got points when they needed to. They started the meet out on the women’s side without multi point scorer Gaby Mayo, and began the final day of competition on the men’s side by not finishing the 4×1. Yet in spite of the adversity, they came through when they needed to and picked up double hardware…

First the action that got us to the final day – Friday’s finals. I said at the start of the meet that the one lap races would be critical and among the meet’s best events, and Friday they were. All those that were supposed to be involved, were, with one common theme – discipline prevailed! There was no rain on Friday, but with tailwinds on the finishing straight and headwinds on the backstretch, one by one those that went out hard early gave way to those a bit more patient. In the men’s 400H an early charging Jeshua Anderson (WaSt) gave way to the patient Johnny Dutch (S Car) who…

The second day of semi finals went off without a hitch – though the men looked a bit sluggish in their qualifying heats of the 200. Still, Texas A&M moved two men into the final – Curtis Mitchell & Gerald Phiri – and Mitchell and Rondell Sorrillo (Kentucky) appear to be the men to beat at this point. The first sprint event without a Florida Gator in the final. The Aggie women lead the way in their qualifying as Porscha Lucas dropped a sizzling 22.49 in her heat to take over the collegiate lead. Teammate Jeneba Tarmoh lead the other qualifiers into the final. LSU also moved two into the…

Day one went pretty much according to script, with the weather providing the most drama with rain coming and going throughout the first day. On the track most of those expected to qualify moved through to the finals. The huge notable exception was Ahmad Rashad’s false start DQ in heat 2 of the men’s 100. I hate the no false start rule for many reasons, but watching Rashad get tossed for what appeared to be a minor flinch (if that) was just a sad testament to the rules of the sport. His loss could affect the final outcome of the team standings, as he was a returning medalist from last…