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London Olympics – US 4×1, 40.82 WR
Busy busy day. Watched the Games online then had to head out to get real life business taken care of. Almost waited until tomorrow to close out the last two days of the Games, because I missed much of the field events, and I need another look at that UGLY women’s 1500 meters. I’ll get to see that later tonight, and will include it with tomorrow’s discussion. But this relay run needed it’s own space, because it was as significant as anything that’s happened so far at the Games. So let me talk about today’s two relay finals, then finish up tomorrow – because both relays were very significant. First…
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Trials Final Weekend
After over a week of action, the Trials wrapped things up in nice style this weekend. There were only 2 finals on the track on Saturday, but 5 on Sunday. With 2 field finals each day. One would almost think they could have had single day “finale” and did it up right for the fans. Still there was some great action over the final two days. There were only four finals on Saturday, but they were something else. In the field we got what we expected in triple jump with Christian Taylor and Will Claye setting the pace. They did it early with Taylor hitting 17.32m/57’10.25” and Claye 17.55m/57’7” in…
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Trials Day 2 – Ashton Eaton, 9039 WR
Excitement and drama. That’s standard when talking about the Olympic Trials. And while there were only three finals, Day Two just might be one of the most exciting and dramatic Trials days ever! Let’s start with the decathlon, since it did start the day off. Ashton Eaton entered the day with a score of 4728 pts, putting him on WR pace as he, Trey Hardee, and Bryan Clay looked to be on their way to sending the greatest trio of decathletes ever to the Games. A 13.70 to open up things in the hurdles kept Eaton on pace. Unfortunately for Bryan Clay however, it all went wrong. First he hit…
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Trials Day 1 – Rupp Rules
Day one of the Trials is in the book, and if today’s results are any indication this is gonna be a humdinger! Because in spite of the rain that came down during most of the competition, the athletes were nothing short of competitive! After all, THIS is the Olympic Trials – go big or go home! Let’s start with the days’ two finals, the men & women’s 10,000 meters – which did and didn’t run to form. Following the script were the men, as Galen Rupp was in control from the gun running easy as you like while helping to pace Dathan Ritzenhein, who needed an "A" qualifier to go…
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Trials Preview – Women’s 200 Meters
While the men’s 100 is potentially the most “story” laden event heading into the Trials, it’s certainly not alone in terms of story lines and depth. One of my favorites in this regard is the women’s 1500, which I discussed in detail earlier. However, also recently entering into the “drama zone” with the aforementioned 100 & 1500 is the women’s 200 as it’s suddenly become the middle ground for several of our best female sprinters. Let’s start with the woman for whom this distance is her specialty – Allyson Felix. Felix won three World titles in a row in this event (’05, ’07, ’09) before taking bronze in Daegu last…
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Liu (12.97) and Dibaba (3:57.77) in Shanghai
The Doha Diamond League event set a standard that may be difficult to match. And it didn’t help that the weather wasn’t very cooperative in Shanghai, as it was rainy throughout, keeping performances down.That made the world leading races by Genzebe Dibaba (ETH) and Liu Xiang (CHN) that much more phenomenal, as sterling marks were hard to come by in China. The women took to the track for the 1500 chasing the world leading time of 4:05.92 set last night by Shannon Rowbury (USA), and in spite of the conditions the pace maker set sail with splits of 62.3 / 2:08 with several women tucked in behind. Then Dibaba took…
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Bolt and Jeter Lead Weekend Highlights
As expected, speed was on display this weekend at the Jamaica Invitational – over and over and over again. The usual suspects – Bolt, Jeter, Blake – did their thing, but there were also a couple of surprises. First the expected, and a touch of surprise as Carmelita Jeter (USA) powered her way to a WL 10.81 (1.0) in the 100 meters – running the event’s first sub 11 of the year. It wasn’t surprising that she took over the world lead in her first 100 of the year, it was surprising that she had to run that fast, as Kelly Ann Baptiste (TRI) got out ahead from the gun…
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The Pieces are Coming Together
The great thing about the Penn Relays is that it’s the first time we get a large gathering of top athletes together at the same meet. The tough part is that they aren’t competing head to head and they’re not competing in individual events – so "evaluating" where they are can be a bit more difficult. And with the Trials less than two months away, and the Games within there months, trying to figure out the pecking order of the top athletes is on everyone’s mind. Well I think several athletes had great early auditions yesterday in Pennsylvania. On the men’s side the US won both "heats" of the 4×1:…
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8 Must See Trials Events
I’m getting antsy, it’s Friday night and no big results can be found – everything major will be happening Saturday. So my mind is wandering in the direction of the Trials. After all, once the smoke clears everything comes down to two meets this year – National Trials and the Olympic Games.In some countries the Trials may be the years most important meet, beside if you don’t get past the Trials you’ll never see the Games – at least not from the stadium in London. So I’m anticipating the Trials almost as much as the Games. With everything on the line and great depth in several events, the US Trials…
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Potential London “Upsets”
Reading through the news I noticed that currently the sports books have Usain Bolt as an overwhelming favorite to win 100 meter gold in London. While Bolt has earned the right to be considered favorite vis a vis his competitive record in the last four years, the Olympics is the place where miracles – or at least upsets – occur with regularity. One need look no further than Bolt himself who emerged from last place finish in the ’05 200 final, and a silver in the ’07 race, to double sprint gold – and double WRs – in Beijing. Or how about the Seoul Games of ’88 where record holders…