Once again the weather reared its ugly head and caused multiple delays to the next to last day at the NCAA Championships. The start of the competition was delayed an hour, and the rain was still falling when things resumed. In spite of the delays and interruptions in their warm up and competition schedules, most of the athletes showed their resolve and competed as if the sun were shining bright. The brightest of these were Florida State’s Ngoni Makusha and Virginia’s Robbie Andrews. Makusha started the day finishing up the long jump that was left over from the day before due to the weather. He was able to pass his…

Thursday was the “lull” day in this weeks track and field action. In a week sandwiched between the awesome Pre Classic and will end with NCAA finals and what is promising to be an exciting meet in New York, yesterday was rather lacking. We did get Usain Bolt’s seasonal 200 debut in Oslo – a race he won in 19.86 to take the world lead. But the time was only slightly better than countryman Nickel Ashmeade’s previous WL (19.95), and the field he competed against was less than stellar with Saidy Ndure (NOR, 20.43), Mario Forsythe (JAM, 20.49) running times that wouldn’t have won NCAA qualifying heats in Des Moines.…

Usually there isn’t much to say after the first day of the NCAA Championships. After all, the bulk of the finals are on Friday and Saturday. But Wednesday may have already started shaping those finals as three big names didn’t move through. The semifinals started blazing hot with the 4×1’s. In the women’s semis first Texas A&M (42.99), then LSU (42.94 SB) laid down marks that set the stage for what should be a fast final. The men followed suit with four teams under 39.00 – Texas A&M (38.38), Florida (38.49), Illinois (38.72) and Florida St (38.75). The track produced more fireworks in the men’s 800 as Charles Jock (UC…

Watching the bid process for the rights to the next four Olympic Games (‘16, ‘18. ‘20, ‘22) I actually started to get a bit excited, because ESPN & Fox were in the mix and presented proposals that said they would provide actual LIVE coverage of the Games. Imagine that! No more slicing and dicing and leaving action on the floor in favor of next day highlight reels after reading bout the action half a day or more in advance! At the end of the day, however, the Comcast/NBC conglomerate offered more money for the package than either ESPN or Fox could muster, and thus the IOC once again gave the…

Ok, after a week’s delay we will get the semi finals and finals of the NCAA Championships. If you find that comment odd, it’s because essentially the Regional meets were the first and second rounds of the Championships. If that still sounds odd, it’s because it is. We had two meets that solved nothing other than to decide who would get to compete in the semis and finals of the actual NCAA Championships. Yes I’m making it sound rather silly, but really it is rather silly. There were no finals in the meet. No Regional champions were crowned – team or individual. They didn’t keep score. They just competed until…

The Prefontaine Classic was everything a world class track meet is supposed to be. The Last Night’s Distance Carnival the prelude to today’s meet, produced some exciting and historic distance running. First Moses Kiprop (KEN) circled the track for 75 laps better than anyone else in world history as he set new WR’s for 25K (1:12:25.4) and 30K (1:26:47.4)! The night finished with an exciting and deep 10000 meters. With Galen Rupp not starting the race due to allergy issues, and Chris Solinsky stepping off the track half way through to nurse a sore hamstring, it was left to Britain’s Mo Farah to duke it out with the African contingent…

Identifying America’s top sprinters used to be pretty easy. In spite of our depth, there were always two or three men and women that stepped up to stand above the rest. Jim Hines, Charlie Greene, Wilma Rudolph, Steve Williams, Harvey Glance, Evelyn Ashford, Gail Devers, Carl Lewis, Calvin Smith, Chandra Cheeseborough, Mo Greene, Jon Drummond, Valerie Brisco,. I could go on and on, but suffice it to say that while there are always surprises at the National Championships/Olympic Trials the major players were clearly identified well before the meet started. This year however, only three names immediately come to mind:Tyson Gay, Allyson Felix, and Carmelita Jeter – and are we…

The NCAA Championships begin in one week – one of the hottest meets of the year. But before I take a look back at the Regionals and a look ahead to the action in Des Moines, I have to take a look at this year’s Prefontaine Classic. This year’s meet has been moved back to the beginning of June – after serving time just prior to the 4th of July last year – and if there are few defections from the start lists it should be one of the hottest meets of the year and a true classic. There will be three Diamond League meets prior to most country’s national…