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Can Felix Win the Double?
The big news recently is that the Rio schedule has been altered to allow for a 200/400 double for the women. The 1st rounds of the 200 & 400H were flip flopped – the hurdles moving to the evening, the 200 to the morning. Now, instead of the 200 opening rounds being just over an hour before the 400 final, Allyson Felix (or anyone else) will have all day to recover from the 200 before running that 400 final – making this a very doable double now. Great news for fans of the sport who have too often been denied watching great sprinters perform both events in major championships. That’s…
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World Records and the State of the Sport
British Track and Field has released a manifesto on the status of the sport – changes it feels are necessary to "clean up" the sport of track and field. Among these is the matter of the sports records and what it sees as a full scale revision of track and field’s world records. Lord Coe – a Brit and the current head of the IAAF – has stated that he favors the removal of selected world records. This is not the first time the issue of "record revision" has been brought up. Most recently it was a topic of discussion at the turn of the century. The thought of those…
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What to Watch in 2016
Olympic years are always exciting for sports fans because that global showcase will take place this summer. That means we will see the best that track and field (among other sports) has to offer – the best athletes competing head to head. Sad that I can’t say that in any other year, but unfortunately we don’t get this type of competition in any other year with any regularity. One would have hoped that the World Championships would have become THAT meet by now – having been around since 1983. But alas, though we get some scattered excellence around Worlds, it’s still "The Games" that the world aims for and "EVERYONE"…
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Welcome 2016
2015 was a crazy year. I started it in the hospital at the end of January having had an aneurism and losing my speech – literally unable to talk. I ended it a few days ago in the hospital having my thyroid removed. In between, to the chagrin of many, I’ve taught myself how to speak again; rebooted myself professionally and personally; and watched one of the most interesting track seasons in recent memory. Track, like me, seemed to be getting rid of its illnesses in 2015 – or at least they most certainly came to the surface and begged to be dealt with! Drugs, corruption, misperceptions, finger pointing, name…