The CHill Zone of T&F

The weather wasn’t always cooperative this weekend, but that didn’t stop an onslaught of athletes turning up the heat on the season this weekend. The meet I was most looking forward to was the Texas Twilight. Put together at the last minute it still put together some solid fields and had Tyson Gay once again taking on the 400 meters as he prepares to defend his sprint titles in Berlin – and neither Texas nor Tyson disappointed! A lot of races benefitted from the favorable breezes one usually finds in Texas and there were some great times albeit windy. The best being barely windy times by Alonzo Edward in the…

Usain Bolt was in a car accident in Jamaica this week. No broken bones, but word from his manager yesterday is that he will be out the month of May, which means he will not be competing in Kingston this weekend. While Bolt said he was fine this is a smart move on the part of his people. Auto accidents can often result in spinal and back injuries even when no such injuries are apparent. I am taken back to the early part of this decade when Ato Boldon was in an auto accident that basically lead to the end of his career, as his performances were never quite the…

The buzz today is that three track and field athletes have been identified as having tested positive for the blood boosting drug CERA as a result of the IOC’s retest of samples submitted by athletes in Beijing. On the one hand this is good news. WADA was so excited that it gave the following statement,  “WADA commends the IOC, once again, for its approach.” “Retesting of samples as science advances is a powerful weapon in the fight against doping in sport, as shown in a number of cases at the 2008 Tour de France.”    “We suggest that athletes who may be tempted to cheat keep this reality in mind,” said…

Speaking with a friend earlier today, I was informed that current world sprint leader Carmelita Jeter, will be running a sprint double in Guadaloupe this weekend. Jeter currently leads the world in both short sprints with marks of 10.96 and 22.59. While not a “major” competition, Guadaloupe has often been a site for sprinters to go and get a good start to their seasons. Just last year, Lashawn Merritt ran 44.34 there on his way to a #1 ranking in the 400 meters. Jeter has looked very good so far this season, including her electrifying anchor this past weekend at the Penn Relays. I expect something fast from her this…

Thanks to reader Yvette Graf I have the start list for the Osaka Grand Prix. If you click on the link at the right under “Major Meet Links” you will be taken to the site. It is partly in English, partly in Japanese, but you will be able to see who will be competing and results will be available during the meet. Top competitors will include Rodney Martin and Marc Burns in the 100 meters (Martin also entered in the 200), Jeremy Wariner, Sean Wroe and John Steffensen in the 400. Jeff Riseley in the 800. David Payne in the 110H. Kerron Clement and Bershawn Jackson in the 400H. Donald…

With the end of the relay carnival portion of the season, excitement turns to what I call the “pre-European” invitationals. That series of meets leading up to National Championships that includes meets like New York, Carson, Eugene, Doha, Osaka, Kingston and others. The meets are always hot, with good to great competition and serve to really get fans hyped leading into the various National Championships. So, being the avid fan that I am, I went in search of information to find out what type of matchups we can expect. Now I understand that lineups may not be completely ironed out for some meets as they are still weeks away. But…

The BIG noise was made at Penn in the USA vs the World races as they sat center stage and had the attention of the world. But there were other top level marks turned in at Penn in some of the collegiate races as well. Texas AM won both men’s and women’s 4×1 AND 4×2 events to serve notice that their relay teams On the men’s side their 38.79 in the 4×1 was the #2 time collegiately this year behind Florida State’s list leading 38.75. Florida State was second at Penn in 38.82. In the 4×2 Texas AM’s 1:20.32 was not only the fastest time in the world this year,…

While most of our top sprinters were running relays at Penn, Tyson Gay got his 2009 campaign going at the low key Sun Devil Invitational in Tempe Arizona. Last month the Adidas Running camp revealed that Tyson Gay’s fall and winter training were delayed due to a knee injury. Judging from yesterday’s result Tyson has gotten back on track as he won the 400 meters in 46.34 to set a new personal best in the event. Tyson’s previous best was a 47.08 run indoors in Fayetteville AR in 2007 – the same season that Gay won both the 100 and 200 at the World Championships in Osaka. It would appear…

It’s April. Teams for this year’s World Championships won’t be chosen until June. The World championships themselves won’t be held until the end of August in Berlin Germany. But this year’s Penn Relays was billed as a series of rematches between the US and Jamaica! There has been much hype about Jamaica taking over as the world’s sprint power since they won the Men’s 100, 200 and 4×1 and the Women’s 100 and 200 in Beijing. So much so that USATF CEO Doug Logan has had talks with Jamaica’s federation about having a dual meet between the US and Jamaica. But if today’s Penn Relays was any indication, talk of…

Relay running takes center stage at Drake and Penn, but distance runners made some noise on Friday at a couple of meets here on the West Coast. In Oregon, Colorado steeplechaser Jenny Barringer opened up her season in the 1500 meters and won in a world leading time of 4:08.38. The 1500 seemed to be a good race to run in Oregon as half miler Andrew Weating moved up in distance and won in 3:40.92. In Berkeley, miler Shannon Rowbury moved up in distance to the 5000 meters and set a stadium record and world leading time of 15:12.95! At twice the distance, Sam Chelanga of little Liberty College set…