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Ten Things to Watch in Track & Field in 2013
Happy New Year to everyone! And welcome to the World Championship year of 2013. The start of a new year is always exciting, especially when it comes to track and field. The Olympic year of 2012 is now officially closed and a part of history – which means that everyone gets to start with a clean slate. That raises the question of who will be the dominant athletes of the new year? That journey starts now, and gives us fans much to look forward to and speculate about. Without question, the big story that will be followed all year is: who will win the medals at this year’s World Championships…
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2012 400 Meter Rankings – Men/Women
While the short sprints have been on fire since 2008, the 400 has struggled a bit. The previous two men’s Olympic champions – and sub 44 performers – have suffered injuries at the wrong times. While several emerging stars have been up and down, and injury prone. on the women’s side, we seem to have difficulty getting out of the 49 second zone – a barrier broken back in 1976! There was good news on the men’s side in 2012 however, as we saw the first non American run under 44.00. We also had several youngsters emerge from the Caribbean running in the 44.50 range. Now we just need to…
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2012 200 Meter Rankings–men/women
The 200 meters belongs to the United States and Jamaica. That’s the conclusion one must come to when looking at this year’s results on both the men’s and women’s sides. Yes, others are on the track, and even occasionally make an appearance in the 3rd or 4th position, but reality is that in spite of the lack of focus on the event outside of major championships, this event is undergoing major change and only two nations are keeping pace. On the men’s side, gone are the days when 20.0/20.1 made you a major contender. Sub 20 is required to even think about finishing in the upper half of a major…
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2012 100m Rankings for 2012 – Men/Women
I’m going to try something different this year, in that I’m going to go five deep for events as I rank them and present both the men & women simultaneously. Five Deep because in general that’s really where the top athletes are in any given event. After that things usually get rather fuzzy. And since the lists will only be five deep, it should make for more interesting reading to include both genders at the same time – essentially presenting a top ten athletes for each event. The first event, the 100 meters, actually was fairly easy to rank, as the Olympic Games proved to be the best indicator of…
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My #1’s for the 2012 Season
Now that I’ve thrown some parameters out there regarding ranking athletes, let’s get on with it. After all, December has snuck up on us rather suddenly. I’ve already detailed my Athletes of the Year and Performances of the Year, now it’s time to list my #1’s by event. I will follow that up with some individual event rankings – I’m thinking five deep. Picking the number ones was not as difficult as I thought it might be. In most cases there was a clear number one. Not too uncommon in an Olympic year. Racing/competing being a little more selective during an Olympic campaign than in other seasons. The women were…
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How Should We Judge Performances?
Regarding the rubric I presented for assessing how I personally rank athletes, one reader brought up a very good point / issue. That being, how do we determine outstanding performance for athletes where the “bar” was previously set by an enhanced, or thought to have been enhanced athlete? A question that in some ways goes to the very heart of the sport, because the issue of drug use permeated the news for much of the 2000’s. After watching this sport for some four decades however, I’m beginning to think that the question regarding drugs is really a two pronged question. One being the question of how much assistance is really…
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How Do We Rank Track & Field’s Athletes?
As I said previously it’s that time of year – awards / ranking season. And as tends to happen, the first set of awards on the table have already stoked the fires of debate – and that’s a good thing. Can never have enough conversation about track and field! So while we’re talking, I thought it might be a good time to define what we’re talking about. Rating performance(s) is sort of like having a conversation in a barbershop – everyone has an opinion. Opinions aside, however, there must be some general parameters that we can all come to agreement on. For example, I think we can agree that great…
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TrackCHill End of the Year Awards
I will continue to work on the series of best ever races (next will be the women’s 800) but we are closing in on the end of the year and soon the start of the 2013 indoor season. And that means end of the year lists and rankings, as well as some early indoor activity. So as things begin to heat up it’s back to the excitement of the sport, but I will continue to use the best ever series tho fill in the gaps, as I must admit I am enjoying the research as consuming as it is. That said following are my thoughts and selections for Athletes of…
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The Top 800 Meter Races of All Time – Men
Now we get into some interesting events with the middle distances, and for me one of the most exciting race on the track – the 800 meters. This event has seen some HUGE talent over the decades, and most are represented here. The largest noticeable absence being Sebastian Coe – the man who brought this event into both the 1:42, and 1:41 eras. His absence is not due to a lack of appreciation for what he gave the sport, but rather due to the fact that his best races were all runaways! The other man that is missing is Alberto Juantorena – “El Caballo”. Again, not due to lack of…
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Top Ten 400 Meter Races of All Time – Women
This one was a bit harder than the others. In large part because the all time list is heavily populated by Eastern Bloc athletes. At the end of the day however, the results sorted themselves out because many of the too times occurred in races that were outside of major championships with results that were very top heavy with really poor results at the bottom. So at the end of the day, and after much review of results and videos, this list ends up with no races from Marita Koch – including her spectacular 47.60. In the majority of Koch’s races she was the star, but the supporting casts were…