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Mt SAC Match Ups
What’s a sign that this is an Olympic year? That the Mt SAC Relays are loaded. Several fields have multiple world class/ranked athletes scheduled to compete, and the overall level of athletes is as high as I’ve seen in a while. Below is my list of names and events that I think deserve more than a causal look – and there are plenty. This could end up being one of those “memorable” meets. So much so that that I expect that we’ll have LOTS to talk about when this meet is over. For example, take a look at the men’s 400 where Jeremy Wariner will be competing against US indoor…
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The Outdoor Season Kicks it Up a Notch
It was only a couple of weeks ago that we were talking about the Indoor World Championships, yet here we are in the month of March and we have our first “sub” of the season! Sub meaning a mark under a typically accepted elite threshold – like a sub-10 100 for men, sub-4:00 1500 for women, or a sub 27:00 10,000 for men. Typically I would run a poll around the end of the month asking which event would see the first “sub”, but I won’t be doing that this year because we already have our first “sub” of the year courtesy of Mr.Wallace Spearmon (USA)! Scanning the results earlier…
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The Transition to Outdoors Begins
The World Championships was a great way to to end the indoor season. There was lots of great competition and performances. Now, if you’re like me, you’re chomping at the bit for more action. Unfortunately this time of year is sort of like dawn – that time of day where yesterday ends and today begins – because the outdoor season is just waking up as we put indoors to bed, and there just isn’t that much real action yet. So over the next couple of weeks or so, as things heat up, I’ll be taking a look at trying to preview the outdoor season. I’ll do that in sections –…
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Will These Athletes Find Success Outdoors?
Finally, it’s time to head outdoors, where the Olympic season will begin to gear up in earnest. But before I say goodbye to the 200 meter ovals, I want to point out a Baker’s Half Dozen (7) athletes that showed serious growth this indoor season. Good enough that I want to keep an eye on them as the year moves forward. Indoor track and outdoor track tend to be two different animals. If you remember earlier I listed the Indoor Champions from ‘08 to see how they faired in Beijing. While all of these athletes did not win gold in Istanbul, all had indoor seasons that if duplicated could at…
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NCAA Indoor Championships Review
I know it’s taken a while to get around to this meet, but reality is that the colleges have really suffered from a lot of youngsters going pro early last year, in addition to the normal graduation attrition. The result is that a lot of star power has left college campuses since this time last year. When you lose athletes the caliber of Kirani James, Christian Taylor, Will Claye, Ryan Whiting, Jessica Beard, Lakaya Brookins, and Phoebe Wright among others, there’s bound to be a huge letdown at your championship meet. The meet itself was exciting as always – there’s something exciting about track and field when we start judging…
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Weekend Action, Jan 21/22
Now it feels like track season, as several performances that were turned in this weekend were truly up to par. As usual for this time of year the best of them were in the field – specifically the pole vault. In Reno, Nevada at the annual pole vault summit, Brad Walker (USA) cleared 5.80m (19’ 0.25”). An excellent mark for January – so good in fact that it would have won last year’s U.S. Outdoor Championships! As a matter of fact, Walker only jumped better (5.84) on one occasion in all of 2011 – so hopefully we are seeing a return of the 2007 vaulter that won the World Championships…