The CHill Zone of T&F

The collegians put a nice close on what has been a rather lackluster indoor season. The University of Oregon showed that it is indeed the nations top team (at least indoors) with a convincing victory in College Station Texas this past weekend – lead by distance star Galen Rupp who had wins in the 3000 (7:48.94), 5000 (13.41.45), and a leg on the winning Distance Medley Relay (9.29.59)! An awesome individual performance. The University of Florida, runner up in this meet, was lead by its own star, frosh Christian Taylor, who scored an American Junior Record in the Triple Jump with his 55′ 8.50″ (16.98m)jump to win the competition. In…

Dwain Chambers (GBR) finished off his fast weekend in Turin with a European Championship over 60 meters with a nice 6.46. Chambers is the only man to run under 6.50 this season, doing so twice in Turin. His run sets him up to potentially run in the 9.8x range for 100 meters outdoors. Making him a potential challenger to the top sprinters including Usain Bolt (JAM), Tyson Gay (US), Asafa Powell (JAM), Richard Thompson(TRI) and Walter Dix (US). Setting up quite a quandary for the sport, as Chambers is the first individual to compete faster after a ban that he was competing before the ban. Britain’s response has been to…

Dwain Chambers clocks the first sub 6.50 60 meters of the season by blazing to a 6.42 in his Semifinal heat of the European Championships. Chambers run was a European Record and made him the #3 Performer All Time, with the =6th All Time performance. Chambers now trails only Maurice Greene (6.39) and Andre Cason (6.41) All Time. Chambers could be in pursuit of Greene in tomorrow’s final. Also in Turin Johan Wissman of Sweden added the years first and only sub 46 400 to date with his 45.89 Euro Champs win. And add Ryan Bailey to the list of impressive freshmen this indoor season as the frosh from Bend…

Snipets of the Dwain Chambers book have been leaking out on the Internet as a result of it being serialized In Sportsmail. .And, of course, as with “Speed Trap” and other books, it appears that he is ready to “tell all” – or at least a bit of what he knows. Already John Regis, his agent, is being investigated because Chambers says that Regis knew he was doping. Once again doping is in the headlines of the sport. In its quest to become a truly professional sport and command world wide attention, support, and dollars, track and field in my opinion has three crucial areas that are stumbling blocks –…

Plans to upgrade the “Golden League” to a new “Diamond League” were announce this past week. Beginning in 2010, it will expand the current race series to include meets outside of Europe with stops in China, the United States and perhaps Doha, Qatar. With locations still to be solidified the Diamond League could have anywhere from 12 to 15 meets. Each meet is scheduled to offer over $400,000 in prize money with the stated goal of tieing the sports biggest stars to multi meet contracts to encourage head to head competition. Nice to see this “Circuit” of meets extend beyond Europe. If the sport is to grow the worlds top…

A championship weekend of sorts, but I have to say it really didn’t feel like one. Several collegiate conferences had their championships, the most notable being the SEC. Competitive as always, I was most taken by the fact that as deep and strong as the SEC is, it is being dominated this year by FRESHMEN! Second (Ryan Fleck, AUB, 7′ .50″), third, fourth AND fifth in the men’s high jump, all freshmen. Winner of the women’s pole vault (Rachel Laurent, LSU, 14′ .50″); runner up in the men’s heptathlon (Gray Horn, Florida, 5586); double winner in the long jump and triple jump (Christian Taylor, Florida, 25′ 3.5″ & 52′ 10.25″);…

I was informed by a friend earlier today that USATF CEO, Doug Logan, has sent out an invitation to athletes attending this weekends Indoor National Championships inviting them to meet with him on Friday to discuss concerns they have about the sport. Follow up calls confirmed that indeed athletes have been receiving invitations. I’m excited to hear that Mr. Logan is reaching out to athletes in this manner. This will be a good first step in addressing the needs of the athletes, who are truly the life blood of the sport. I look forward to hearing the outcome of this meeting. A great start to Indoor Nationals!

The following text is a letter (reprinted with permission and unedited) to USATF from an elite athlete. It provides an insight into the athlete’s view of the sport and why change is needed. +++++++++ Hello Mr Logan, As I sit back and look at all the transitions of power in USATF and read the findings of Project 30, I find myself still questioning the real benefit of being an “elite” athlete. First, let me address the title of “elite.” What exactly is that label? Beginning with the intangibles, “Elite” athletes sacrifice time, effort, pride, sweat, tears, just to name a few. Tangibly, I can list from the weekly massages, agent and coaching fees, medical…

Lead by Yelena Isinbayeva’s(RUS) indoor debut with TWO raisings of her own indoor WR in the Pole Vault, pole vaulters and high jumpers continue to turn in the top performances this indoor season. Isinbayeva made her debut in Donetsk memorable as she cleared 4.97m (16′ 3.5″) for her first record before vaulting over 5.00m (16′ 4.75″) for record number two. With such an auspicious debut it appears this could be quite the season for Yelena. Speaking of quite a season, Steven Hooker (AUS) continues his domination of the indoor pole vault with his fourth win of the season with a clearance of 5.92m (19′ 5.25″) in Donetsk – a rather…

USATF CEO Doug Logan recently released the Task Force Report on the state of Track and Field in the United States. This report was created by a nine member task force that included former athlete Carl Lewis, current athlete Deena Kastor, and longtime coach Mel Rosen, among others, and had some very harsh criticism of the operation of the sport here in the United States. After examining the sixty nine page report I have some mixed feelings regarding its findings. While I am in favor of the overall position of the report – that the sport needs serious reworking here in the US – I think there are some fundamental…