• Lessons Learned From Women’s Day in Rome

    The results are in, and after watching the Rome leg of the Diamond League I think I learned a few things. Prefontaine is only two days away, so things could change a bit over the next 48 hours. Results of the meet can be found here, so without going into each and every race and result, here are my thoughts on what happened in Rome. Men’s 100 meters. After watching Bolt today (9.76, -0.1) Ostrava was a matter of jet lag – or perhaps being out too late the night before. Either way, “sluggish” Bolt gave way to a sprinter that had the race under control by 30 meters –…

  • D.oha A.thletes M.ake N.oise!

    D.A.M.N.! If today’s meet in Doha was the”opening act” of the Olympic year,  I can hardly wait for the denouement in London – it’s going to bring down the house! Today’s events were Olympic in quality across the board and began to fuel plot lines that will only be answered by a gathering of all the world’s best into one stadium. As several athletes were clearly looking to send/answer statements to and from their peers. Take the sprints for example.  Last week Usain Bolt’s 9.82 in Kingston let the world know he was up to the challenge of defending his Olympic title. Mid week Yohan Blake said, not without a…

  • Worlds Day Seven – The Field Stars

    There were a couple of great races on the track but the real action took place on the field today. In the women’s javelin, Maria Abakumova (RUS) heaved a tremendous 71.25m/233’ 9” in the 2nd round to take a stranglehold on the competition. The mark took over the yearly lead, was a national record, and improved her #3 all time position. She passed her next throw and fouled her 4th as seemingly there would be no threat to her for gold. Then in round 5 WR holder Barboa Spotakova (CZE) sailed her spear out to 71.58m/234’ 10” to snatch the lead from Abukamova with the #3 mark of all time!…