The Colorful Daegu meet is already over. I had forgotten how early things are in that part of the world compared to here in the US. Suddenly I remember the Seoul Olympics and the huge difference in time. Watching Worlds this year is going to be a middle of the night (online), time delayed (TV) nightmare!

Today’s meet had some decent fields, but after the slew of marks turned in this past weekend, jet lag must surely have had an effect on many of today’s participants. Combined with temperatures in the mid 60’s, the results were not as outstanding as one would have hoped to see on the track that will be hosting the World Championships. Still some good efforts were turned in.

Chief among them being wins by David Oliver (USA) in the 110 hurdles and Allyson Felix (USA) in the 200 meters. For Oliver, he eclipsed his own world best with a 13.14 (+0.0) victory, easily ahead of second place Aries Merritt (USA, 13.30). Given the still wind a very strong mid May performance for Oliver. Ditto for Allyson Felix who had pretty much a solo run in the 200 as her 22.38 (+0.4) was well ahead of second place Consuela Moore’s 23.16! The time puts Felix at the top of both the 200 & 400 lists for the season and confirms that she is ready to compete over both distances.

While not nearly a world leader, the men’s 400 hurdles had an interesting result as Johnny Dutch (USA), last year’s breakthrough athlete in the event, won in 49.03 over vets Bershawn Jackson (USA, 49.14) and Angelo Taylor (USA, 49.67). This is Jackson’s second loss in a row coming off a loss to South African’s Van Zyl and Fredericks in Doha. After last year’s juggernaut season where he was undefeated for most of the season and lead the world at 47.32, Jackson has been much less sharp this season. Perhaps it is just a matter of working to peak for Worlds. Time will tell.

One who has been sharp in all of her races this year is Carmelita Jeter (USA). Jeter won yet again in Daegu sprinting 11.09 (+0.0) to win handily over LaShauntea Moore’s 11.27. After debuting last month at 10.99 it was Jeter’s first mark over the 11 second barrier this year – which gives an indication of the conditions for this meet. In the men’s race, Walter Dix (USA) took a tight race over Michael Rodgers (USA) 10.00 to 10.03 (+0.3). Dix moved to #4 on the season and only list leader Steve Mullings 9.90 (+2.0) is substantially faster so far on the season.

The women’s 1500 saw Ukrainian Anna Mischenko nearly repeat her world leading effort from Doha (4:03.00) with a 4:03.52 to once again best Irene Jelegat (KEN, 4:04.32). This time Meskerem Assefa (ETH) separated them at 4:03.63 to become #2 on the yearly list.

These were the best marks coming out of Daegu this morning/evening. Full results can be found here. The weekend should now be dominated by the collegiate conferences as they start their drive towards the NCAA Championships. Keep a close eye on the Big 12 (Texas A&M), Pac-10 (Oregon), and SEC (Florida, LSU, Arkansas) as that is where the balance of power lies.

This was a very big weekend for track and field at this early stage of the season. The Diamond League opened in Doha on Friday. Saturday we had a sprint fest in Kingston. Late Saturday saw more big names taking to the track in Guadaloupe. And Sunday we got another surprise in the sprints. In what was reportedly rainy weather in Guadaloupe, Lashinda Demus (USA) took her first run over the 400 hurdles this year and finished in a world leading 54 Read More...

The hottest sprinting of the weekend was not in the Doha Diamond league event on Friday, but at the Jamaican Invitational in Kingston on Saturday. Given the results in Kingston and the talk earlier in the week about the meets being scheduled too close together, you can bet that somebody will have a different place on the schedule next year Read More...

Once again we’ve started the Diamond League without a matchup of any of the true stars of the sport. Doha produced many of the world’s top marks – but that is to be expected when you begin to get the world’s truly elite athletes on the track. We will see wholesale revisions of the yearly performance lists on a weekly basis now that the “best” are performing Read More...

Yes, you read the headline correctly. The head of the IAAF, the global governing body for track and field provided the following quote during an interview which can be read here. The quote made while discussing head to head meetings:“"It will be more difficult this year," Diack said, adding that it would not be realistic, for instance, to foresee to see three or four meetings between Gay and Bolt Read More...

The pro season will get started in earnest Friday in Doha, Qatar. Judging from the lineup for the meet, and the large number of top level athletes on tap, the pros will be using the Diamond League to get paid while they prepare for Worlds. We may not see them all at the same time, or get the head to head “showdowns” that we want, but it looks like the Road to Daegu will run down the middle of the Diamond League Read More...

For most of the early season I’ve talked about the speed events and the collegians, because they’ve been the one’s making most of the noise. I’ve been waiting for the distance runners to join the fray – if for no other reason than I feel like we really have a chance to compete against the rest of the world Read More...

A packed stadium. Raucous crowd. Yelling, screaming, clapping, chanting, This is track & field at its best. This is what we get annually at Penn! As other meets have either died or struggle to attract fans, Penn fills the seats every year – for FOUR DAYS! They say a meet shouldn’t last more than a couple of hours – you can’t prove it by Penn! They say you need to have a featured race run down the middle of Main Street to attract fans – you can’t prove it by Penn! They say you need World Record attempts to get the public to show up – you can’t prove it by Penn! Penn presents track & field the good old fashioned way – great athletes, great competition, rivalries and relays – and it WORKS year after year! They get the best east coast high schoolers for the “local” fans and import Jamaican and west coast high school relay teams Read More...

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It was a windy holiday weekend across much of the U.S. as report after report on most of this weekend’s meets referenced the wind and weather as a factor – keeping most performances to average at best. I watched the ACC Championships online, and certainly the weather played havoc for much of the meet as rain poured and the wind blew and the results were less than stellar the first couple of days Read More...