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Projected U.S. Indoor Champions
We’re getting ready to wind this indoor season down. Several countries will now put together their teams for the World Indoor Championships in Istanbul, Turkey, which will be the culmination of the season. Here in the U.S. that process will be a Trials meet this coming weekend in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This won’t be the “knock down drag out fight” of a meet that we will see come June when the Olympic Trials take place in Eugene – as many athletes forego the indoor season and focus their preparation on outdoors. It will be an outstanding competition, however, as several individuals have performed well enough to lead the world in…
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Hot Marks Indoors AND Outdoors
With the indoor season getting ready to wind down with various championships, some athletes are beginning to test themselves outdoors under the Australian sun. The result this weekend has been a combination of sterling marks both indoors AND outdoors, as the year looks ready to shift into Olympic Preparation Mode. The big indoor meeting of the week was the Aviva Grand Prix in Birmingham England, and it didn’t disappoint as several athletes left with world leading performances. Perhaps the most surprising being Jessica Ennis’ 7.87 60HH victory. Surprising because Ennis is foremost a Heptathlete, but clearly the hurdles are one of her strengths. She’s good enough to edge World silver…
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Video Updates – 2/18
For those of you that enjoy competition videos, the Videos page has been updated with the following recent indoor performances: Birmingham Grand Prix, Men’s 60 Hurdles Birmingham Grand Prix, Men’s 60 Meters Adam Kszczot’s 1:44.57 Kirani James’ 45.19 Genzebe Dibaba’s 4:00.13 Anna Chicherova’s 2.06m / 6’ 9” Jenn Suhr’s 4.88m/16’ Indoor AR WL And by request the Men’s 4×1 final from Daegu Enjoy
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Aviva Grand Prix Preview
With several National Championships on tap next weekend, this weekend looks to be fairly quiet. There will be some major action taking place in Britain however, as the Aviva Grand Prix has some loaded races and outstanding individuals scheduled to compete. Here are a few events and individuals that I’m looking forward to in Britain. Men’s Two Mile Mo Farah (GBR) has been having a great indoor season, setting a new PR in the mile and winning a 1500 over some solid competition. He moves up closer to his normal racing range here in the two mile. The race won’t be easy with Tariku Bekele (ETH) and Eliud Kipchoge…
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Adam Kszczot – A New 800 Challenger
Last week Adam Kszczot (POL) took the indoor world lead in the 800 with a 1:45.44 run in Dusseldorf – fast enough to prompt me to suggest that we get used to spelling his name. Yesterday he dropped his PR, and the world lead, down to 1:44.57 – in the process becoming the 3rd fastest indoor half miler in history! Only Yuriy Borzakovskiy (RUS, 1:44.15) and former outdoor WR holder Wilson Kipketer (DEN, 1:42.67) have run faster indoors. Combine that with his outdoor best of 1:43.30 from last year, and at 22 years old, the question I now ask is: can he provide WR holder David Rudisha with a challenge…
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What Role Will Injury Play in the London Sprints?
I ask that question because with approximately six months until London, we are already talking about injuries and/or potential injuries to top level athletes – most notably Usain Bolt’s visit to a German doctor. Coming on the heels of Bolt ending his 2011 season on an injury note, this could become a significant story line as we get closer to the Games. I say “could” become significant because there is still a lot of time on the calendar before we get into the June “qualifying” period of Olympic Trials across the globe. The injury story, however, almost always plays a role on the medal stand at the Olympics. Beijing lost…
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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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Two Big Meets This Weekend
It’s not often that I can make that statement about U.S. meets, but this is one of those rare occasions as both the Millrose Games AND the USATF Classic are on tap. Ironically both meets are getting “makeovers” this year. The Millrose Games will be taking up shop in the Armory for the first time moving from Madison Square Garden. Meanwhile, the USATF Classic is basically what used to be the Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville Arkansas. The name of the meet may have changed in Arkansas, but the facility in Fayetteville is one of the fastest in the country, if not the world. That bodes well for all events but…
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Memories of the Games – Hart & Robinson
Between now and the start of the Games there will be quiet periods between the action. One of the things I’d like to do during the down times is share some of my memories of the Olympics. In most cases I will look at individuals or individual races, so today I’m going to start with my first major memory of the Games – Eddie Hart & Rey Robinson in Munich (’72). I started out as a sprint fan, in large part because my dad was a sprint fan, and I watched the ’68 Games with him, and there were sizzling sprints! But I remember them mostly as highlights as I…
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Video Review – New Balance Boston Indoor
It’s often interesting to review results online, then later have an opportunity to watch video of a race – or in this case two hours of a meet on television. While times and distances certainly have meaning, sometimes it’s how those results are derived that tell a completely different story. Such is the case with this weekend’s New Balance meet in Boston. Because after watching the meet on television yesterday, I have some observations regarding several individuals that I didn’t have after just reading the results and a few articles online. It’s early in the year, but in an Olympic season everything ends up having meaning at the end of…