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D.oha A.thletes M.ake N.oise!
D.A.M.N.! If today’s meet in Doha was the”opening act” of the Olympic year, I can hardly wait for the denouement in London – it’s going to bring down the house! Today’s events were Olympic in quality across the board and began to fuel plot lines that will only be answered by a gathering of all the world’s best into one stadium. As several athletes were clearly looking to send/answer statements to and from their peers. Take the sprints for example. Last week Usain Bolt’s 9.82 in Kingston let the world know he was up to the challenge of defending his Olympic title. Mid week Yohan Blake said, not without a…
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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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The Players Begin to Emerge
WOW! Talk about a series of outstanding meets/marks. This weekend has been HOT! New York, Fayetteville, Dusseldorf, Albuquerque, Donetsk – great results have been pouring in from all over the globe. Initially I thought that the World Indoor Championships would be “down” with this year with most athletes preparing for the Games in August. But judging from the last couple of weeks, it’s looking like it will be the first of several peaks this year. There are plenty of articles all over the ‘net, and the results of the top events can be found here. Let’s take a look at a few meets, because I think we are already starting…
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Will 2012 be the Year of the Double?
I was reviewing the Marathon Trials finish last night and wondering how well Shalane Flanagan will do doubling in the 10,000/Marathon, when it hit me: we may have more legitimate “doublers” heading into London than ever before! In Beijing we had 5000/10000 double victories turned in by Kenenisa Bekele and Tirunesh Dibaba; and a sprint double (100/200) by Usain Bolt. We also had double silver by Elvan Abeylegesse (5000/10000) and Tatyana Lebedeva (LJ/TJ); a double bronze performance by Walter Dix (100/200); and a silver & bronze performance by Kerron Stewart (100/200). Heading into this Olympic season of the ’08 doublers, Bekele, Bolt and Dix seemed best positioned to double again…
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2011 in Review – Women’s 400 Meters
This was a very intriguing event, and one of the top stories in 2011, as it featured one half of the double sprint attempt of Allyson Felix (USA). Nothing of note happened here in the spring, but once May hit everyone got busy. Felix started the month off blazing, opening up in Doha at 50.33 (May 6) before scorching 49.81 in Rome (May 26) to end the month. Both times she set world leads, beating Amantle Montsho (BOT) in Doha, then Monstsho, Richards Ross (USA) and Mc Corory (USA) in Rome – her Rome victory demonstrating her strength in the stretch. Prefontaine would start the month of June, and would…
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2011 in Review – Women’s 200 Meters
As with the men’s event, the women’s deuce suffers from a lack of real competition among it’s best competitors – possibly even more so. Ninety three times women have broken the 22 second barrier with legal wind – none did so in 2011. As a matter of fact, there have only been nine such marks in the New Millennium! None at all in ’01, ’02, ’03, ’04, ’05, ’06 and this year. Compare that to the twenty eight marks under 11 seconds that were churned out in 2011, and we have an event that is sorely underdeveloped – crying out for someone to just take it over! This year didn’t…
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American Women Leading the Way to London
As we close to door on the 2011season all was not bleak for the U.S. on the track. While our men had their difficulties and many lament that the rest of the world has “caught up” to us; the distaff side of things did remarkably well. From the 100 through the 1500, including the relay and hurdle events – U.S. women were on or very near the podium. In some cases “catching up” to the rest of the world! Following the Beijing Games, many were ready to concede sprint supremacy and dominance to Jamaica. After a Jamaican sweep of the 100, another 200 win by Valerie Campbell Brown over Felix,…
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Zurich Preview
Zurich is once again in the position of following a global major, which means that it could serve as a “redemption meet” for several athletes – especially since there are only a handful of meets left before the close of the 2011 season. Most top athletes tend to shut things down once the championship meet is over. At best they compete in one or two meets to make a bit more money. So seeing top level head to heads is now going to become a premium. Making Zurich a meet to watch as this will be one of the few meets still loaded with top level competitors. Following are six…
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Daegu 2011 – The Felix Double
One of the big news items heading into this year’s World Championships was the attempt by Allyson Felix to become the first woman to win a 200/400 sprint double at Worlds. The feat had been accomplished twice previously in the Olympics – by Valerie Brisco in 1984 and by Marie Jose Perec in 1996. But, as I outlined in a previous post, the others may have had a slightly easier time than Felix, as this year’s 200 field was potentially stronger than either Brisco or Perec had to face. It also didn’t help that the 400 field became infinitely stronger as Daegu drew near. Still I feel that Felix is…