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Who Wins the London 100?
Personally I think the men’s 400 presents the matchup of the meet. For the millions watching this year’s World Championships however, most will be tuned in on Saturday to see if Usain Bolt can win one final 100 title before exiting, stage left. Entering the stadium, this is a very interesting race. For starters, Usain Bolt and Justin Gatlin – who between them have won every Olympic title in the new millennium except ’00 – have both been sub par this season. And interestingly enough, both men enter London with identical season’s bests of 9.95. What are the odds of that, especially since their last Worlds’ final finding them only…
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Can the US Return After a Decade?
Ten years. A decade. A lot can happen in 10 years. Ten years ago, the iPhone made its debut – now no one can remember how we lived WITHOUT smartphones. Blackberry and Nokia ruled the cell phone world, and if you were really cool you owned a Razr! Young people today can’t remember either of those names with a market dominated by iPhones and Galaxy’s. A decade ago was the last time the US men won a Major 4×1. Winning in Osaka against a Bolt/Powell lead squad 37.78 to 37.89 – Jamaica’s first sub 38! Believe it or not, that race was run with a substitute on anchor for the…
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It’s July Where Are We?
This has been a very interesting year so far. Lots of transition going on throughout the sport. Rising athletes. Injured athletes. Athletes returning from injury. More transition than usual in the year following the Games it seems. Then of course there are the usual off the track issues such as drugs, which never seem to go away. So many things that I don’t know where to begin, so rather than say a lot about one thing, today I’m going to take a stab at saying a little about a lot of things – starting with the Diamond League which gives us a Fourth of July meet in Lausanne in two…
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2012 200 Meter Rankings–men/women
The 200 meters belongs to the United States and Jamaica. That’s the conclusion one must come to when looking at this year’s results on both the men’s and women’s sides. Yes, others are on the track, and even occasionally make an appearance in the 3rd or 4th position, but reality is that in spite of the lack of focus on the event outside of major championships, this event is undergoing major change and only two nations are keeping pace. On the men’s side, gone are the days when 20.0/20.1 made you a major contender. Sub 20 is required to even think about finishing in the upper half of a major…
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2012 100m Rankings for 2012 – Men/Women
I’m going to try something different this year, in that I’m going to go five deep for events as I rank them and present both the men & women simultaneously. Five Deep because in general that’s really where the top athletes are in any given event. After that things usually get rather fuzzy. And since the lists will only be five deep, it should make for more interesting reading to include both genders at the same time – essentially presenting a top ten athletes for each event. The first event, the 100 meters, actually was fairly easy to rank, as the Olympic Games proved to be the best indicator of…
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Aries Merritt Near Flawless in 12.80!
Perfection. That’s what I thought of when I would watch Renaldo “Skeets” Nehemiah run the hurdles. Solid out of the blocks. Nerves of steel. barely gliding over the tops of the hurdles. Winning comfortably against the best competition the world had to offer. Back in the day that was Greg Foster, and Skeets was good enough that in his final WR run of 12.93 Foster finished 2nd in 13.03 – at the time making Foster the #2 hurdler of all time with the #3 time. Today, perfection has a new name as Aries Merritt ran his EIGHTH consecutive sub13 to set all kinds of records. First of all it wasn’t…
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Drizzle Fizzle and Sizzle in Zurich
Zurich has traditionally been one of my favorite meets over the years. Mostly because, even before there was a Diamond League (or Golden League) Zurich has always attracted the world’s top sprinters – and this year was no exception. Don’t get me wrong, Zurich is annually one of the world’s best meets overall with high level fields in all of their events, but the sprints have always been special in Zurich. Today however, after watching this meet I’m left with a bag of mixed feelings labeled drizzle, fizzle and sizzle. The drizzle is from the rain that feel during the meet. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a year…
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Blake Jumps Starts the Weekend in Lausanne
Well, I said the Lausanne start list had an Olympic feel to it and several athletes showed that they were still in Olympic form. In a meet with several Olympic caliber performances the best was turned in by Yohan Blake (JAM) who nailed the start and never looked back in the 100 meters, stopping the clock at 9.69 – making him the =#2 performer all time with the =#3 performance. The man he tied with for #2 performer, Tyson Gay (USA), was second in this race at 9.83 – maintaining his streak of 9.8’s on the season but not yet dipping below that 9.80 level. Blake meanwhile joined Usain Bolt…
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London Olympics – Jamaica 4×1, 36.84 WR
Saturday was the final day of action on the track, and the meet closed out in style with a surprise or two; outstanding performances; and another world record. The field events led the way in the surprise department. First in the women’s high jump several big names made early exits, including Emma Greene Tregaro (SWE), Chaunte Lowe (USA); and defending champion Tia Hellebaut (BEL). In the end it was World champion Anna Chicherova (RUS), veteran Svetlana Shkolina (RUS) and collegiate champion Brigetta Barrett (USA) jumping at 2.03m/6’8" to decide the medals – first attempt clearance for Chicherova taking gold, second clearance for Barrett earning silver, and third attempt gaining bronze…
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London Olympics – Rudisha 1:40.91!
Today may have been the most exciting and memorable day in Olympic history. Once again we only had four finals on the day – but oh what finals they were! So let’s get right to it. Yes there was qualifying – women’s 800 semis, women’s 4×1 semis, and men’s 4×4 semis – with everyone expected to move through moving through. The big news being 1.) The US women screamed 41.63 in the relay which was the only mark under 42.00; 2.) The US men were led off by Manteo Mitchell who broke his fibula during the race yet completed his leg as the US moved on with the equal fastest…