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My Favorite All Time Middle Distance Runners
I’m still working on this years top 10 lists, so going to take another trip down memory lane and look at my favorite middle distance runners. As stated previously,you must be retired to make the list so that precludes the addition of current athletes like David Rudisha. It doesn’t diminish the list however, as some of the best ever have already graced the track. That said, I also want to remind that it’s not a Greatest of All Time list. It’s a list of my personal favorites. With that, lets give it a go. 1. Wilson Kipketer – Before David Rudisha there was Wilson Kipketer. Not as fast as Rudisha,…
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My Favorite All Time Sprinters
It’s that time of year for lists – typically “Top Ten” lists. And I am in the process of doing research to put together my end of the year lists. While I’m doing that however – there is lots of data to go over – I thought I would start by sharing some of my “Favorites” in list form. Favorite hurdlers, middle distance runners, field event athletes, etc. Since the world’s most recognizable athletes right now are sprinters – Usain Bolt, Tyson Gay, Yohan Blake, Justin Gatlin, et al – I thought I would start with sprinters. Let me state up front, that I am not going to list anyone…
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Are the Athletes Truly Ready to Make Change?
One of the big off track stories of the Olympics, was the athlete protest against IOC Rule #40 which prohibits athletes from promoting their sponsors during the Games. No tweets, headphones, headbands, in short nothing that in any way would “advertise” any sponsor that is not an “Official” Olympic sponsor. Which left the athletes a bit bothered. After all they make their bread and butter from the people that sponsor them, and certainly wanted to show a bit of love during the biggest moment of their lives. So, for the first time I can think of since the 60’s when protests were common place and people like Steve Prefontaine voiced…
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My National Relay Plan
I was catching up with a friend a couple days ago and since it had been a while we began to review the Olympics. Bolt’s double, Felix’ exploits, Mo Farah, David Rudisha. I had almost forgotten just how outstanding the London Games were. Being old relay teammates however, we talked a lot about the relays – the 4x1s. After all, how often do you get to see WRs in both races AND get to see barriers broken at the same time? Don’t bother looking, it’s the first time that it’s happened in the same meet with electronic timing. We went through both races with a fine toothed comb. The personnel…
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What are the Sport’s Best Rivalries (pt2)
The last time around I took a look at some rivalries on the men’s side of things that l think would be a good sell to build the sport from a marketing perspective. Today I want to broaden that to include the women (and a hybrid) – who actually tend to compete against reach other on a more regular basis than the men. The first rivalry I want to look at really hasn’t become one yet but I think could be a doozy – Allyson Felix v Shelly Ann Fraser Pryce over 200 meters. Both women have experienced rivalries in other events – Felix v Veronica Campbell Brown over 200,…
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What are the Sport’s Best Rivalries?
Coming off a successful Olympics and 2012 season, it’s time to take a look at how the sport can improve moving forward. One of the glaring problems in the past few seasons in my opinion has been the false start rule which I addressed a couple of days ago. When I listen to what other people are saying, one of the biggest complaints that many people have about the sport of track and field is the lack of head to head competition among the sport’s best athletes. A complaint that I think stems more from their disappointment with the top end male sprinters, who just can’t seem to find each…
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IAAF, Please Revise the False Start Rule
I know the sun has barely set on the 2012 season, but if you’re going to fix something it’s never too early to get started. While I think that several things could use an overhaul in this sport, the most glaring is the false start rule! Fortunately, the Games did not suffer from the disgrace that was Usain Bolt being tossed out of the World Championships final in Daegu. But we did see several high profile athletes wave good bye in other meets on the Circuit. Athletes like Tyson Gay, Kelly Ann Baptiste and Aries Merritt were among many that were casualties of this rule in 2012. If someone has…
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Emerging Faces of 2012
The beginning of every year has those athletes that everyone is waiting on pins and needles to see. We can hardly wait to see what Usain Bolt, Sally Pearson, Allyson Felix and David Rudisha are going to produce. But while I enjoy watching the veterans do their thing, what’s really exciting is watching new talent emerge. After all, once upon a time every star veteran had a breakout season of his or her own. Every year we get to witness athletes coming of age and this year was no different. In recent seasons we’ve got to watch Kirani James and Yohan Blake, among others, blossom into verifiable “stars” internationally. Following…
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The Top Performances of 2012
It’s time to start looking back on what turned out to be a pretty awesome season. I figure the best place to start reviewing is with the top performances, since that will certainly lead into discussion about the top athletes. This year there was no dearth of outstanding performances, even more than usual in an Olympic year. We can start with the fact that there were five WR’s this year – three individual and two relays – as an indication of just how good the performances were in 2012. I separate them out as individual and relay, because the relays sort of skew the conversation a bit since they are…
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Aries Merritt Near Flawless in 12.80!
Perfection. That’s what I thought of when I would watch Renaldo “Skeets” Nehemiah run the hurdles. Solid out of the blocks. Nerves of steel. barely gliding over the tops of the hurdles. Winning comfortably against the best competition the world had to offer. Back in the day that was Greg Foster, and Skeets was good enough that in his final WR run of 12.93 Foster finished 2nd in 13.03 – at the time making Foster the #2 hurdler of all time with the #3 time. Today, perfection has a new name as Aries Merritt ran his EIGHTH consecutive sub13 to set all kinds of records. First of all it wasn’t…