The CHill Zone of T&F

The 100 meters gets the headlines, but there are stars aplenty in the long sprints too. Allyson Felix, Sanya Richards, Jeremy Wariner, Wallace Spearmon and a host of new young talent make their homes here in the sprints above 100 meters. So let’s take a look at how these star filled events should play themselves out.   Men’s 200 More than any other sprint, this one will be controlled by the veterans. Tyson Gay has said that he will not run this event here – and possibly not at all this season. That leaves a quartet of vets that have all at one time or other been under 20.00. Two…

This is an event that always drives me NUTS. Track events are pretty simple – the fastest man/woman wins. And in events up through the half mile, that’s pretty much the way the events are run – the gun goes off and everyone takes off in an attempt to reach the finish line first. Except in the mile/1500 meters, which often become “let’s see who can run slowest yet get to the line first” events! I will never understand the “wait and kick” philosophy of milers – especially those that don’t have a kick, yet wait anyway. But for whatever reason that is the game that get’s played time and…

The middle distance events have become very exciting over the last couple of seasons as we’ve had an emergence of talent over both 800 and 1500 meters. This influx of youth has brought us back to being competitive on the world stage on the women’s side and back to respectability on the men’s side. It also makes for exciting races come championships/Trials time. This year’s races should present an interesting mix of young and old. Especially on the men’s side where suddenly the colleges are brimming with 1:44 half milers. So here’s how I see it playing out.   Men’s 800 We need someone to step up and get into…

It’s time to take a look at the female speed demons. Interestingly just as with the men, two dominant women have emerged – one from the US, one from Jamaica. As right now Carmelita Jeter and Veronica Campbell Brown have emerged as the two Alpha Females of the drag racers! The events are also similar in that a youth movement is on the way. The question being will it arrive as rapidly as the men’s youth movement that appears to be on this year’s horizon? It’s hard to tell because the times on the women’s side are not dropping quite as rapidly as they are on the women’s side. Only…

In about one week’s time we start the process of putting together our team for the World Championships. Four days of intense competition that will determine who gets to go to South Korea and who gets to go back to the drawing board. Perhaps the most intense and difficult of the squads to make, is the 100 meter dash team where it is common for .01sec or less to decide who goes and who stays home. A bad day, a bad start, a bad lean can mean the end of the journey. Add to the drama the fact that this year has already seen SEVENTEEN men under the once magical…

In keeping with yesterday’s post on the speed events, here is a corresponding chart on our middle distance runners. This group has been very quiet leading up to this point in the season, and may be even harder to predict than the sprinters. But here is a snap shot of the season to date. Before I start trying to make sense of all the numbers for both the sprinters and middle distance runners as we head into Nationals and determining the team for Daegu. Middle Distance Watch Athlete Season Best Last Mark Comments         Andrew Wheating 3:36.46 3:36.46 Very low key so far this season Cory Primm…

After a week that left me wondering what the heck is going on, it’s time to start to attempt to look at some of the National Trials that are coming up to try and gauge what Daegu is going to look like. And after Des Moines and New York that may not be easy at all! I’ve already talked in depth about what happened in Des Moines – a lot of bad weather and a lot of Texas A&M in the end. The college kids put forth some sterling efforts, but there was a lot of “weirdness” going on – especially for athletes considered favorites. I mean, would you have…

The meet started with the 4×1’s and a pair of upsets. The women started it off with LSU passing as they always seem to do with something on the line. They came to the anchor leg with Kymberlyn Duncan right there with Texas A&M and it was a wrap as she ran away from Ashley Collier for a big 42.64 to 42.93 win! Setting the stage for the rest of the meet. Passing was even more critical on the men’s side as both Florida St and Florida has miscues. Florida St nearly went out of the zone as Makusha tried to get the stick to Maurice Mitchell. The baton even…

Once again the weather reared its ugly head and caused multiple delays to the next to last day at the NCAA Championships. The start of the competition was delayed an hour, and the rain was still falling when things resumed. In spite of the delays and interruptions in their warm up and competition schedules, most of the athletes showed their resolve and competed as if the sun were shining bright. The brightest of these were Florida State’s Ngoni Makusha and Virginia’s Robbie Andrews. Makusha started the day finishing up the long jump that was left over from the day before due to the weather. He was able to pass his…

Thursday was the “lull” day in this weeks track and field action. In a week sandwiched between the awesome Pre Classic and will end with NCAA finals and what is promising to be an exciting meet in New York, yesterday was rather lacking. We did get Usain Bolt’s seasonal 200 debut in Oslo – a race he won in 19.86 to take the world lead. But the time was only slightly better than countryman Nickel Ashmeade’s previous WL (19.95), and the field he competed against was less than stellar with Saidy Ndure (NOR, 20.43), Mario Forsythe (JAM, 20.49) running times that wouldn’t have won NCAA qualifying heats in Des Moines.…